Post Christmas mayhem

After Christmas we had a few beautiful sunny days in the Netherlands and it was just lovely to be able to go out walking in the sunshine for a change. 

We had a wonderful stroll through the Delfgauw woods one day and then escaped out of the cold for a delicious hot chocolate at the cosy cafe Knus afterwards. 

The days between Christmas and New Year drifted by in a cloud of baby cuddles, relaxation and enjoyment of the post Christmas peace and quiet before the craziness of a Dutch New Year’s Eve. 

It is a really curious phenomenon that the normally very law abiding, socially minded and conservative people of the Netherlands go absolutely giddy, crazy and wild at New Years Eve, particularly in the fireworks department. 

Normally sensible parents come out of the store absolutely loaded with enough fireworks to put on a display as large as the one I would have gone to at the local tennis club as a kid. 

No sparklers, static golden rains or bangers for them! Along with every other household in the local area each family has enough fireworks to mount a massive public display!

As a result, from midnight onwards, (and for quite a few hours before) there are fireworks everywhere – it is total mayhem until almost dawn!

We watched the 2024/2025 spectacle from Hannah and Pieter’s big picture window in their bedroom – it was extremely loud and visually spectacular!

What a thrill to be seeing the New Year in with our granddaughter! Strange to think that when she sees the New Year in at the age we are now it’ll be  2097!!

The good weather continued into the New Year and it was so sunny and warm one day that after our regular morning walk we decided to light a fire and have a cuppa outside in the sunshine. Not bad for a January day!  

Not bad that is, until just half an hour later when it started to hail!  A couple of days later it snowed!  Talk about changeable weather!

We decided to take one more trip to England before we leave Europe for Australia at the end of February. 

Once again we took the ferry from the Hook of Holland which is very close to where our daughter Hannah and son-in law Pieter live. The ferry trip is more than six hours long but being retired yachties we enjoy any time spent on the water. 

We arrived in Harwich late in the evening so slept the night on the seafront before heading to see Jonathan’s brother Simon and his partner Ruth and their beautiful Labrador, Nero, in Suffolk. 

It was really icy there and Simon was recovering from a chest infection so we stayed indoors most of the time but had a great time nonetheless. 

Our next visit was to my sister Sarah and husband Martin but we had a little time up our sleeve so we made a quick diversion to  Ely which is 23 kilometres Northeast of Cambridge. 

Neither of us had ever visited Ely, one of the smallest cities in England before so we were both keen to have a look, albeit a very quick one. 

We earmarked several things we’d like to come back and visit one day – Oliver Cromwell’s house and the Stained Glass museum (the only one in the UK) to name but two. 

Construction of the cathedral was begun by William the Conquerer in 1083, with it finally opening in 1189 after 116 years of building works.

The cathedral is an amazing structure with an octagonal tower in the centre which was added in 1342. The makes it look exceedingly grand and is considered the jewel in the Cathedral crown. 

We didn’t have much time round the interior of the Cathedral and as it cost £14 (Aus$27.50) to enter we decided to save it for another day. 

After our quick diversion to Ely we went on to Cambridge and had a wonderful evening there.

The world was sparking with frost when we woke up next morning and there were warnings of black ice and freezing fog so we took our time leaving Cambridge in the hopes the pale sunshine might melt the ice and dissipate the fog a little.  

Despite the weather we had a good trip to Beckenham to my other sister Julia’s.  As always, she was extremely hospitable and we had a great time. 

On the second evening we went out for an Indian meal with our brother Pat and his two adult children.

Our next stop was Berwick St John in Wiltshire to see our sailing friends Meryon and Tim and Pim who we first met on the Indonesian Rally in 2015. 

We had a delicious Sunday lunch in the Talbot Inn, a quintessential English pub that just happens to be bang next door to Meryon’s home! It was great to catch up with our cruising sailor friends again.