November was a busy month for us with the birth of our beautiful granddaughter, the first snow of winter, a visit to sailing friends we had met in Indonesia, and then my birthday! Finally, on the very last day of the month we took our camper van on the ferry over to England.
Our darling little granddaughter settled in to life earthside very happily, sleeping for four or five hours stretches at night – allowing her parents to get a decent amount of shut eye themselves!
The snow took us a bit by surprise as it didn’t seem to be cold enough but it was wonderful to see the world wrapped up in a beautiful white blanket – a first for baby girl!
It was also lovely to see the countryside glisten and shine on our way to visit Anne-Mieke and Gerrit (from S/V Fruits de Mer) in their home town of Dronten, about one and a half hours drive from Hannah and Pieter’s home.
We had a great time with Gerrit and Anne-Mieke and literally did not stop talking for a full 12 hours on the first day of our visit.
We stayed in the camper van in the guest car park of the very pleasant rural development in which they live.
The following day after breakfast they took us to a fascinating and scenic park in Kraggenburg called the Waterloopbos, a former site for hydraulic research into large scale water barriers and dams.
Scale models of important installations were built here to test how winds and tides would affect the finished construction. There was even a large wave simulation tank built here.
It was fascinating to see some of the 35 model waterworks built in the woods including one that was built to research the effect of closing sea inlets around the famous Delta Works and one which influenced the construction of the “new” harbour entrance in IJmuiden.
There was also a scale model of Rotterdam’s Noordereikand built to investigate the effects of constructing the Willemsspoortunnel and another built to research the construction of an oil port in Libya.
The beech woods in which these models were built were stunning so it was altogether a very pleasant and interesting walk.
I had a fantastic birthday and was very spoilt by my family. We arrived at Hannah and Pieter’s to find the living room decorated with party streamers, a pile of gifts and cards and a beautiful cake waiting to be cut. Ben and Sarah video called in from Australia and everyone sang happy birthday!
We went out for a lovely lunch at a super cosy cafe in a rural setting and in the evening had a wonderful takeaway meal from the local Italian restaurant
Before we left for England Hannah and Pieter took us to Intratuin, their local garden centre. Actually, “garden centre” is a poor descriptor as the store covers literally acres and has so much more on display and for sale than all things gardens. It also has a great cafe and a more formal eatery.
Every year we are in the Netherlands we go to see the Christmas displays at Intratuin and each time they are more impressive than the previous year.
The photos don’t really do justice to the amazing models, dressed trees and other displays but maybe they convey a little of the very Christmasy atmosphere!
With the sun rising around 9am and setting around 4 pm and the days being typically grey and cold, it is understandable how important the lead up to Christmas becomes in countries like the Netherlands and how displays like the ones at Intratuin cheer everyone up!
For a change we decided to board the ferry from the Hook of Holland which is less than half an hour’s drive from Hannah and Pieter’s but of course, involves a much longer ferry ride.
As we love being aboard any kind of boat we were fine about the six and half hour crossing and as Jonathan’s brother and one of my sisters live a short drive from the ferry’s arrival port in Harwich it worked out very well.
As it was quite late when we arrived, we spent the first night in Harwich, parked near the beach and just in front of a boating pool where the next morning we witnessed a yacht race with a difference!
We had very enjoyable pre-Christmas celebration with Jonathan‘s brother Simon and his partner Ruth after which we drove to Cambridge to visit my sister Sarah and husband Martin.
While in Cambridge we were treated to an excellent dinner cooked by my great niece who is only 14 years old. It involved quite a number of fairly complicated dishes and we were very impressed-definitely a talented chef in the making!
Loaded with Christmas gifts for various family members we headed south – first stop was East Grinstead to visit my best friend from school, Chris and her husband Stuart.
We had organised to meet in a lovely country pub and although we had allowed an extra hour to ensure we arrived in time, due to a road closure and a long detour we still managed to arrive 20 minutes late!
It was great to see them though and we ended up going back to their place for the afternoon and evening so we had a fabulously long catch up!
The following day we travelled to Brighton to visit our friend Sue from Catabella, our buddy boat for three seasons. She was visiting her son while her other half, John, was in Australia buying their land yacht.
Again, we had a great time together and ended up having a hilarious evening over quite a few wines with Sue and her son who is based in England when off duty from his work as Chief Engineer on a super yacht.
Our next stop was at my sister Julia’s and as always we had a 5-star stay with her – she even cooked a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings!
The day before we left to return to the Netherlands my three siblings, almost all of their adult children (sadly not mine as Ben is in Australia and Hannah had just given birth!), their partners and their children all got together in a cute “village” hall in Bermondsey near Tower Bridge.
Bermondsey is now a very hip area with lots of bijou stores and cool cafes but it was a very different place when my parents lived there during World War 2.
We had a great day of celebrating together with loads of delicious food and lots of great catching up with family young and old!
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 
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