As I write this blog, I am sitting in the hotel in Dubai, where it is very hot and dry outside. The greenness of the Netherlands seems like a world away.
But back to a life that was so real a few days ago.
On one of the trips into Utrecht we watched this young lady walking on a rope across a canal. Two musicians helped her along by accompanying her by playing some music. They stood safely on the edge of the canal. We left before she fell into the water. Perhaps she was so good she did not fall. We were not going to wait around to find out.
Lunch at a delightful little cafe in this lane.
We had a lovely time with Mia, Raphy and Abi.
Raphy was fascinated by the swing, which was meant to be able to charge a telephone. Only the swing mechanism did not work. Well the idea was a great one, anyway.
Abi, Raphy and Mia and I went on a picnic, which was a lot of fun. Except that we chose a spot where there had been a teenage party the evening before. Lots of plastic and broken bottles around.
Raphy was impressed with the skate park.
A climbing competition on the statues.
Raphy riding his scooter very fast down this hill. He loves to do tricks on his scooter, and is very agile I might add.
Our favourite cafe, Barista, on the edge of the Rond. They gave us a wifi password, so we returned the favour by having coffee there most mornings. Delicious coffee.
Abi goes to ice skating lessons every Friday evening, which she loves. She is a very graceful skater, I must say, and glides around very easily. I managed to watch about half of her lesson, before heading outside into the sunshine.
We were fascinated by the preparation of the land opposite the campsite. There must have been about six tractors, plus trailers with what appeared to be rolls of turf, plus trailers full of soil or manure. They spent days preparing the soil for the crop. We found out later they were putting in sedum matting, which when the plants grow, will be lifted and placed on roofs of houses. This form of roof insulation is becoming very popular in the Netherlands and hopefully, in the future, it will be supported by local governments.
Special tables, which hold paper containers filled with frites. It saves getting mayonnaise and ketchup on one's clothes.
This hot air balloon was so low over the house we could see the people in the basket. Naturally we waved to them, and they waved back. A beautiful clear and warm evening.
Walter and I visited the bike shop in order to buy new bells for our Australian bicycles. I bought a Miffy design bell and Walter bought a huge green one with Amsterdam crosses on it.
Yesterday we cleaned up our old caravan and handed the keys back to Camping de Vliert. We also said a very sad goodbye to Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy. It has been a lovely four weeks staying in our old caravan, and riding our bikes to and from the camping ground. We have caught up with most people we know in Houten too, and that was great. And it has been fantastic being part of our Dutch family again, which is one of the downfalls of living so far away. It used to be so easy to pop over to see them before. Now it will be another year. Thank goodness for Skype, Facebook and WhatsApp.
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