DAY 65 TUESDAY MAY 29 TAILWIND

We stayed on the barge this morning till after 12 noon while it took us along wide canals to Willemstad.  There was plenty to see along the way, but the temperature was down to 12C so we were more wrapped up than other days.  The sun came out after lunch and we had more pleasant cycling along dikes to get to Tholen at 6.30pm. We rode 48km today, but we had gentle tail winds and no hills.  Overall we have chalked up quite a respectable distance on the bikes in four days.  After dinner we strolled around the town looking at churches and houses built in the 14th and 15th centuries.

SOME OF THE INTERIOR MECHANISM OF THE LOCK GATE

THIS DOORWAY IS THE EXIT FOR UNWELCOME GUESTS - LOOK CLOSELY.

DAY 64 MONDAY MAY 28 RIDING ON THE DIJKS

We were given the option of riding today's trip without travelling on the barge at all.  No one objected, so we set off just after nine o'clock and clocked up 59 kilometers for the day.  We found cafes for our morning tea and lunch stops, even though it was another public holiday for Whitsunday.  At morning tea time we marvelled at an old church which had a very high steeple that was leaning to the right while the church itself was leaning to the left.  It was all made of bricks, but no cracks could be seen.  Most of the ground here is sitting on peat bogs so that buildings often sink as the peat dries out. About half of our journey was spent riding on the top of the dijks which were about 5 meters above the surrounding farms, so we had excellent views and the weather was once again sunny and warm (26C), so that we even ended up with a sandal pattern on our feet when we went to bed last night.  Everyone in the group was able to cycle the full distance and we arrived at the barge before 5pm.  Most people even took a ride into town and came back enthused about the cathedral and the atmosphere in the town. We have trouble locating ourselves on maps but we know that we spent the night at S' Hertogenbosch.

IT WAS SOME TIME BEFORE WE FOUND A THATCHED COTTAGE

DAY63 SUNDAY MAY 27 CANALS AND WINDMILLS

Breakfast was at 8am and we cast off and sailed through the main wide canal, passing many river cruisers and freight barges.  Another 28C day was predicted and the scenery was very pleasant.  At 10.30am the barge unloaded us and our bikes and sailed off to our destination for the day while we followed a variety of different types of bike paths, about half of which were free of cars.  Today is Whitsunday and a national public holiday, so everyone seemed to be out cycling in the warm weather.  It was amazing to see all the country roads with many more cycles than cars.  We saw castles, forts, farms, forests, very old houses and even heard a cuckoo calling for the first time.  Jan, our guide, stopped at a roadside B&B and convinced the owner that we should be able to eat our prepared lunches in his little garden cafe if we bought some drinks. When we arrived at our barge a lot of people were swimming in the river and we were very close to a traditional windmill which was renovated to show how grain was turned into flour using wind power.  We wandered through the old town inside the brick town wall.  Today we rode about 35 kilometers.

WOODEN COGS DRIVEN BY THE WINDMILL

DAY 62 SATURDAY MAY 26 FIRST BIKE RIDE

THE AMSTERDAM

We had a full breakfast on the Allure and then packed our bags and moved them across the pier to the Holland, where Miranda looked after them until check-in time at 12.30.  We spent the morning at the railway station trying to reserve seats and beds for our trip to Salzburg on June 26.  Very frustrating.  We queued up four times and finally after an hour and a half succeeded in getting seats on the Eurostar to Paris, but they refused to book our train from Paris to Munich.  We were told we would have to do that in Paris.  When we said we would not be in Paris before the date and it was necessary to book sleeper beds in advance we were told we should try to do it on the internet.  There was a special ticket queue marked "Reservations" with the name Eurail above it, but we were told four times that that was the wrong counter to go to, but they could not explain why it was wrong.  We settled into our nice cabin which would be our home for a week, then walked over to the Maritime Museum, which was full of model ships, paintings, globes, maps, figureheads, historical documents, etc. and we spent all afternoon there. The highlight was a full-scale replica of the Amsterdam, an East India Co. ship which had remarkably authentic detail inside. After a delicious three course dinner the leader took us on an 18km ride along the bike tracks of Amsterdam, leaving the ship at 8.30pm and returning at 10.30pm.

SMALL PORTION OF PARKED BIKES AT AMSTERDAM STATION

STEIGER 5 HAD OUR HOTEL ALLURE NEXT TO OUR TOUR BARGE HOLLAND

DAY 61 FRIDAY MAY 25 AMSTERDAM

We caught the 8.55am train to London and had a nice two hour trip in First Class complete with free newspaper and breakfast.  Changed over from Kings Cross to Saint Pancras and onto the Eurostar without any problems.  The Eurostar ticket office told us they could not validate our Eurail Pass and could not book us on any European trains. All that had to be done on European soil even though we had already used our Eurail Pass to book our seats on the Eurostar and the Rail Europe agent in London told us we would be able to validate the pass at St Pancras.  So when we arrived in Brussels, we needed to get our pass validated before we could board any other train.  It was a huge, crowded station and it took us a while to find the ticket office.  After a short time on the queue there we were told that validation could only be done at the international ticket office.  We found that and waited 15 minutes in a queue ther to get a date stamp on the pass.  We were too late by then to catch the Thalys fast train to Amsterdam so we got on the slow train after having a snack in the cafe.  That train was supposed to get to Amsterdam at 8.10pm.  However, when we got to Amsterdam Airport Station most people got off.  We were in First Class, but people were standing all the way, so we guessed that the class system was largely ignored. An official then came along and informed us that this train had terminated (for undisclosed reasons) and we needed to go to platform 3.  We followed the mob and waited on a very crowded platform with continuous echoing incomprehensible announcements.  Shades of M. Hulot's Holiday we said, just as the mob responded to another announcement and headed up the escalator to Platform 2.  As we came down the escalator I glanced at the indicator board which did not seem to say Amsterdam Centraal so I asked the driver as we hurried past and he nodded.  All the doors were packed with people so we ran to the back of the train to the First Class carriage and could see empty seats through the windows. But we had to push our way onto the train because everyone just crowded in the entry and did not move inside. The doors started closing as we climbed on and a man behind us got caught and gad to be pushed in by a guard.  We then travelled with our backpacks on squashed against the door for 20 minutes.  They told us European trains were better than UK but our first day on them was really bad, in comparison.  BUT we did get to Amsterdam although half an hour late.  We tried to use 3 different maps to find our Boathotel, but had little success, so we asked a policeman, then a young man in a bar, then a taxidriver and none of them knew the hotel but pointed us in the direction of Oosterdok.  We did get to Oosterdok but saw no sign of a hotel in the water, so we decided to walk up to the main road and hail a taxi.  We walked about 10 meters along the waterfront thinking there must be over a thousand boats in central Amsterdam when Lyn pointed out Steiger 4 and we were after Steiger 5.  A few more steps and we saw the name Allure on a list at Steiger 5.  So we arrived at 9.30pm, only an hour late.  We told the manager that we needed to find the ship "Holland" for our tour, and he said "That's it." and pointed to the one moored on the other side only three metres away.  Relief at the end of a confusing day.

OUR BIKE TOUR BOAT TAKEN FROM OUR HOTEL BOAT DECK

HOLLAND ON LEFT ALLURE ON RIGHT

DAY 60 THURSDAY MAY 24 PACKING

AIDAN MIGHT APPRECIATE THIS

Started the day early at 5.45am with a bike ride along the river.  Managed to do 16 km and avoided the traffic and heat (27C again).  Spent the day shopping, cleaning, washing, packing and posting stuff to Oz. Very grateful to Cathy and John for the use of their flat so handy to everything we wanted to do in York. That completes stage 2 of our trip and we are ready for stage 3 tomorrow - 3 trains to Amsterdam and bike tour on Saturday till Friday.  Pam and Dave called in and we bade them farewell.  We will meet Pam in Paris, and we hope to see Dave when he tours around Australia next year.

DAY 59 WEDNESDAY MAY 23 MORE MUSEUM

Rode the bikes from 6.15am to 7.15 then went to the York Castle Museum which had huge amounts of old and very old and very ancient materials displayed.  They have nearly finished a whole street from the 19th century inside the building.  I was fascinated by this old bicycle with its brake on the other side of the  chainwheel.

After that we went to the station to reserve our seats on the trip to Dublin on June 6.  The temperature was even warmer today at 27C so sunbaking on the lawns was a favourite activity of locals.

We met Pam, Ken, Dave and Stan for dinner at the Bengal Brasserie and had another great time with them.

DAY 58 TUESDAY MAY 22 MUSEUMS

After 12 days in England during which we hardly saw the sun, the cold wind blew most days and the temperature never went above 14 C we listened to the 6am news today which predicted a sunny day and 25 C!  And that is what we got. Straight from winter to summer overnight.  Everyone was dressed in their Bondi summer clothes. We made a list of sights we needed to see before our time here runs out on Friday.

Started with some time watching the stonemasons at work in their open air shed next to the Minster.  Then  we noticed a huge cherrypicker was lifting three experts up to the top of the South Entrance to inspect the condition of the stones.

  Went inside the Minster again and listened to a magnificent performance on the organ.  It sounded extremely loud but because of the size of the interior it was not at all hard on the ears. Thought of our Marsden Road organists and wished they were here to share this with us. Sauntered through the York Art Gallery, had morning tea in the University Refectory next door then followed the history of the city via a great display in the Yorkshire Museum that was mounted to celebrate 800 years since the foundation as a city in 1212.  Came home and cooked up  a British Steak and Kidney Pudding for lunch.  Then went back to the National Rail Museum to look at their workshop where we witnessed a major incident below us as three engineers used  Vernier calipers  to determine that two small bars they were working on had different widths.  Then we went into the warehouse to look at the thousands of articles stored their, dating back to the earliest days of steam engines.

A CANDLESTICK GIVEN TO STEPHENSON BY HIS ADMIRING FRIENDS

 Finally we attended a 30 minute talk on how a steam locomotive works using a cutaway full scale loco as a visual aid.  The "explainer" claimed to be an Arts student but he did a really good job with the technicalities.

 Most days we had walked past a shop called the Milkshack advertising 180 flavours of milkshake and we kept putting it off for a sunny day.  So this was it.  Lyn had a Snickers flavour and Malcolm had a Chocolate and Peanut Butter. If we lived here Malcolm would work his way through  the entire list.

DAY 57 MONDAY MAY 21 SPLIT LOYALTIES

We are firm believers in SERENDIPITY.  The more unexpected and coincidental an event is the more special it becomes.  Our plan today was to catch a train to Scarborough and then a bus to Robin Hood Bay at the end of the Wainwright's trail.  We arrived at 1pm and explored the town before setting off up the trail to try and meet Pam, Dave and Stan.  After a kilometer we stopped at a seat overlooking the town and ate our lunch while the sun was out for ten minutes. After another kilometer we were getting our nice shoes muddy getting through a sloshy patch when we saw a man and woman coming down the hill.  They were obviously not the ones we were searching so ignored them until the lady started waving.  Then we realised they were Chris and John Moran!  We knew they were in the region but they were certainly not expecting to see us.  Hugs all round and 10 minutes of hurried exchange of news (the wind was very cold) we arranged to meet them at their hotel when we returned.  No sooner had they disappeared than Pam et al.  appeared over the next hilltop.  More hugs and this time we encouraged them in their last two kilometers of a 320 km trek.  Pam was in pain from her knees so was very relieved to get to the finish and dunk her toes into the North Sea as per tradition.  We congratulated them all then went up the hill to see the Morans at 4pm.  They very kindly offered to drive us back to Scarborough and insisted on buying us fish and chips by the beach before leaving us at the station for a 50 minute train ride back to York.  Home at 8pm after a great day with friends.

LYN WALKING ALONG THE CONCRETE SEA WALL THAT STOPS THE TOWN FALLING INTO THE SEA

ROBIN HOOD BAY IN THE COLD  MIST

RECENTLY BUILT DRY WALL NEXT TO THE TRACK

LYN, CHRIS AND JOHN

LYN AND PAM

OUR THREE HEROES WITH THEIR GOAL IN SIGHT

HIGH TIDE

SCARBOROUGH HOTEL ON TH BEACH

DAY 56 SUNDAY MAY 20 WHITBY AND GROSMONT

We decided we needed to do some preparation for our bike tour next week, so we hauled out John and Cathy's bikes and set off at 6am to ride around inside the city wall for an hour.  Cold but enjoyable as it is the only time when there are no people or traffic to distract us.  Rode nearly every street we could find and came home for breakfast.  Caught an 8.30am train to Middlesbrough and changed to another train through the Yorkshire Moors to Whitby.  First stop was the James Cook Museum.  Cook turns up around here as often as John Wesley.  He learned his sailing skills as an apprentice in this town and is number one hero here.  Next stop was Whitby Abbey which did not look as huge as it really is because it costs 12 pounds for two people to get up close to it.  As we could see it all day from anywhere for nothing we did not buy tickets.  Next stop the shops in the narrow streets which were just as crowded as York but not quite as numerous. After that the harbour entrance where we watched the 40% replica of the Endeavour negotiating the narrow entrance in rough seas.  Over on the other side of the harbour we went past the awful "fun parlours" up to the Statue of Cook overseeing the harbour.  While climbing we heard a brass band and thought "Whaddayaknow, the Grimsby Colliery lot are entertaining the tourists up the top" (not far to Grimsby from here). When we came over the brow we saw that it was in fact an excellent Salvation Army band standing in their traditional circle but just finishing their last item and packing up. Darn,  should have arrived earlier.  Then the leader said: "Come with us to the Crystal Spa Auditorium and join us for a concert. And it is free.  So they marched along (not as good as the Royal Guards of course) to the beat of the big drum, and we followed.  We remembered that this was the weekend when Whitby was hosting the Gospel Music Convention.  We sat up the back and joined in the hymn singing for half an hour, finishing with And Can It Be and How Great Thou Art.  Serendipity at work again.
It was time to catch our train back to Grosmont to try to find Pam, Dave and Stan on their Coast to Coast Trek.  Got to Grosmont just as the big steam train was about to leave for Pickering for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway Excursion.  We also looked at the world's oldest tunnel.  There was a hotel next to the Station so we inquired, and... yes, our friends were upstairs.  We gave them a surprise when they opened the door to see us and we had a great time for an hour and a half swapping stories about our travels.  Caught the 6.17pm train back to York and found the Cornish Pasty shop on the York platform was still open, so that took care of our dinner.  Home at 9.20 after a wonderful day.

THE FIRST PART WAS CORRECT BUT THE LAST BIT DID NOT ALLOW FOR THE THIRD DIMENSION

THE KIND OF MAP THAT COOK USED IN 1768

CUT DOWN IN HIS PRIME

SIMILAR PLAQUES WERE PROVIDED BY NEW ZEALAND AND CANADA

WHITBY ABBEY AS SEEN FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE FENCE

WE BROWSED IN THIS CRAFT SHOP AND ONLY LATER REALISED ITS FORMER LIFE

BARK ENDEAVOUR

TROMBONES LED THE MARCH

PLAYING IN THE CRYSTAL SPA

NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS STEAM TRAIN SHUNTING AT GROSMONT

DAY 55 SATURDAY MAY 19 BOLIVIANS IN YORK

We posted 3.3 kg of excess luggage home and spent most of the day planning the next month's activities.  We only have 15 days of travel to use on our Britrail pass, so we need to ration them out carefully. We went shopping in the afternoon and found once again that Saturday is "crowds" day in Central York. When we got to Marks and Spensers there were two buskers dressed in traditional Indian costumes singing and dancing and playing instruments.  We took photos and asked their CD salesman where they came from.  Bolivia!  So we told them about our relatives in York who have been to Bolivia.

DAY 54 FRIDAY MAY18 ST PAUL'S

We filled up with our last big breakfast at Rachel's B&B and recommend it highly.  She had people from Avoca Beach there when we arrived and another couple from Macmasters Beach when we left.  Did we tell you that we met two ladies from Copacabana Beach on the Big Bus?  That just about covers the lower Central Coast beaches.  We caught a bus from the corner of the street all the way to St Paul's Cathedral. Like most of the London sights, they look twice as big when you stand next to them and we could not fit it in our camera. We had a sneak peek inside and it looked very impressive but York Minster was even more so.  We decided to save the 14 pound entry fee and head down to the crypt to see all the tombstones.  Winston churchill was featured on the floor.  Bought some presents at the shop and had morning tea then decided we had seen St Paul's.  Nearly forgot the statue of John Wesley hidden away in the garden. Can someone please explain how he managed to be given that privilege?  Nearby we read the story of Temple Bar, the only remaining original gate into old London.  For such a mighty heavy object it has been moved around a lot over its history.  We set off for Moorgate Station and in spite of consulting 3 street maps and two train plans we soon found ourselves on a junction of 6 streets none of which were to be found on any of our maps.  Should have bought a Tom Tom.  So, consulted compass on wrist, headed north and in 3 minutes were on Moorgate St walking towards a huge STATION sign.  Went down many steps to a deserted platform and waited 16 minutes for our train which is a very long time by London standards but not for us Woy Woy travellers.  Arrived at Essex Road Station and decided to avoid the lift which the only other passenger took.  The stairs turned out to be circular around the very small lift well and we climbed an estimated 120 continuous steps to emerge into the fresh air.  Should have taken the lift. Went to REAL RUSSIA our Trans-Siberian agent, and checked that our plans to secure Mongolian Visas in Vienna were OK.  Good service as usual there, so no problem. Got to King's Cross Station with hours to spare so explored St Pancras and Eurostar ticket office. All very crowded but we now know where to go on May 25 on our way to Amsterdam.  Cashed in our Oyster cards and waited in the First Class lounge with all the suits.  Checked out Facebook on the free wifi. Writing this on the 16.30pm train to Edinburgh while consuming free food and drinks in comfortable armchairs.  Should be "home" by 7pm.  Booked tickets return to London at York Station on the way home.  Now ready to travel to and from the bike tour.

WE APPEAR TO BE FOLLOWING IN JOHN WESLEY'S FOOTSTEPS

TEMPLE BAR

AS MUCH AS WOULD FIT IN THE FRAME OF ST PAUL'S

NOT REALLY OUR HERO

THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP?

THIS IS HOW YOU SAY FAREWELL AT ST PANCRAS

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