9th of July. Early rise the plane left Townsville 7AM for Cairns. We have never flown in a near empty plane. But the flight to Cairns only had a dozen passengers. Three hour wait for the flight to Singapore. This was also a fairly small plane from Silk Air. Only two rows and we were lucky enough to get the seat behind the Business class. This means no seat in front of you and more leg room. We had a six hour wait in Singapore. I had Googled already the possibilities to do a tour and found a free one. When we got there we were the last one on the list. We visited the harbour and botanical garden. After the tour we still had eight hours to wait. The flight to Amsterdam was thirteen hours. Susan tried to book a similar spot as we had on the flight to Singapore but the travel agent said it would cost a lot of money to do so. But somehow we ended up behind the business class again. This made a lot of difference. You could rest your legs elevated against the wall. We slept a lot better than previous times and when we arrived in Amsterdam we were reasonable fresh.  Ket was waiting at the airport which made going to her place in Zalk a lot easier. Public transport is good but nothing beats getting there by car.

                                Singapore harbour                                                                     First day in Holland Susan and Ket.

The first day we could sit in the garden because the weather was good. Things have changed considerably. When we went to Harlingen to meet the exchange family we had pouring rain on the way but when we got there it was perfect and we could sit outside. The family is still young with two teenage children. We were greeted very enthusiastically. The house is in a canal estate. They have a canoe which will be used when we are there. So far this week not much chance to look around at least Ket is keeping me busy with odd jobs around the house.
 

On the left our house in Harlingen.        On the right the statue of the little boy who averted a flood disaster by sticking his finger in the dyke and is famous all over the world . Mary Mapes Dodge (1831 - 1905), an American author of children's books, wrote the story around 1865. She did not visit Holland till after she wrote the story.

20 July. This time we followed the coast south to Lemmer. Here is the Wouda gemaal. This is the biggest still working steam generated water pump in the world. It can pump 250 000 M³ an hour. On the way and wherever you go in Friesland you will see wind generators. I don't think that there is a spot in Friesland where you can not see one. Even so wind generated power is only 4.5 % of total usage in the Netherlands. Every day another trip. Some take a bit longer than others. The longers to Terschelling. We took the fast boat otherwise we would have spend 2Hrs. each trip instead of 45 Min. I had not been there since 1965 and Susan had never been there. We hired two bikes. Bike hire is big business on the island because it is the best way to travel here. The school holidays are on and the camping's are chockers with school-leavers. After lunch and four hours of pedalling we handed the bikes in well before the boat left. Next day and off to Zuidhorn and Eric and Anneke. Truus Wieringa the Ex of Onno my youngest brother turned 60 and invited her friends for drinks and a meal. The weather turned out excellent so everyone sat outside up to 9PM when it got a bit chilly. It gets dark by 9.30 PM. All in all a successful day. We spend the night in Zuidhorn and left lunchtime for Home. Dinner guests on Sunday night.  We had the daughter and family of one of Susan's old colleagues over for the day. Next couple of days we toured around the country side. Franeker, planetarium. Franeker was a really interesting old city. We were not that impressed with Friesland's capital Leeuwarden. Also visited Allingawier (historic tourist village) and Sloten. This is the smallest city in the Netherlands. It looked very interesting when we drove through it but the rain prevented us from exploring it some more. In Woudsend  they had a working grain windmill. When I came out I was covered in flower. Everything was original and very interesting.

     Franeker city hall 

Woudsend, working flower mill. There are two types of mill. Water or flower.

The ocean on the right, farmland
on the left and sheep on the dijk.

28 July. The weather forecast was not too crash hot but we decided to explore the north of Friesland up to Lauwersoog. We followed the dyke which separates the Waddenzee from the low lands. We saw a lot of windmills which are used to regulate the water level. Especially Drachten was very interesting. A real tourist town. For the religious ones Bonifatius was murdered here.  He was a missionary who followed the Christian faith He was murdered in horrible circumstances in 754 AD by Friesian heathen.

   Dokkum. We had to spend a lot of time waiting for bridges.

 Lieke Koenraadt, Cees van Bossum, Susan, Ab, Corrie van Erk, Conny van Zanten

 Loek.  Susan. Bep                 

4 August. More visitors and this time Loek Lid and Bep Schuring. These are old friends from when Susan worked as a district nurse in the 60s. It was great to see them again. They visited us in France last year. Unfortunately Bep fell when they just arrived. The closest hospital is in Leeuwarden and we went there the next day. After a long wait they could not make up their mind. Lunch in Leeuwasden and we happened to walk past a restaurant in a beautifully ols restored post office. The special was Mule Frite or Mussels and chips. We used to eat this a few times last year but is not as popular here. It was delicious. After another walk through the city and a game of cards at home it was time for the guests to go home again.

Already a few days in Zuidhorn with my brother Eric and Anneke. The weather is clearing up and Eric is always keen to show us the Northern part of Groningen province. One day an open air museum which shows the way people lived in the late 1800s. A large market, zoo and castle.  Another day Eric and myself went "wadlopen" near Pieterburen. This is walking over the part outside the dike and the islands. When the tide goes out there are several KM you can walk towards the sea. If you are really keen you can even walk to some islands. You have to be prepared to get dirty as the mud can be 50CM deep. It was great fun to do this and we got a lot of info on how to gain more usable land from the sea. The walk took three hours. The time in the Netherlands is nearing it's end. Party time ??? Not because it is ending but Truus invited us for a BBQ. This was a great success despite the fact that we nearly ended up like the smoked Paling (eel) you can by everywhere. Thank you Henk. Anneke's birthday and visitors were in and out all day.
20 August early to rise to catch the train to Schiphol. The whole trip went as planned and we arrived in Staines 4 PM.