Amsterdam

 On Sunday we caught the train into Amsterdam.

The first thing we did was to jump on one of the many canal cruises.

Notice short sleeves...such a novelty.

As it was such a lovely day every man and his dog were on the canals !! made it so interesting.

Such a memorable day in Amsterdam. Still so much more to see.

Such a beautiful city it's hard to know when to stop taking photos.

I particulary love all the bikes everywhere.

 So many boats of the canals.

Watching the world go by.

Jo and I shared a Pizza

More bikes

Before heading off to dinner we sat and rested our poor feet in the park.

Volendam and Marken

As it was such a beautiful afternoon we decided to stop off at the towns of Volendam and Marken on the way home, sorry Ineke just couldn't resist ....

We had fish and chips in Volendam sitting by the water and then drove on to Marken.

We arrived in Marken just as it was getting dark but it was still interesting to look around.

On the way to Volendam we stopped to look at a Dike. You can see the diference in height of the land and water in this photo. 

The water was amazingly calm, not sure how unusual this is.

When we arrived in Volendam is was bustling with people enjoying the lovely weather

Lots of souvenir shops.

Such a beautiful place to be.

Dinner was fish and chips sitting by the boats in Volendam.

Marken

Marken

Finished the day watching the sun going down.

Driving North

On Saturday we drove north of Amsterdam to a town called Enkhuizen where there is an open air museum, Binnenmuseum, ..... showing life as it was in the old Zuiderzee fishing ports. This was very interesting and of course very scenic, many photos !

After the museum we visited the town and had our traditional coffee stop...yes enjoying drinking coffee and not decaf !

Such a lovely sunny day so many photos to choose from.... part 2 of this day in the next post !!

Cheese shop !!

I should think this will be the start of more windmill pictures .

For Jason.

Proof of coffee drinking for Melanie.

Next stop the town of Edam..

First couple of days in Holland

For the first couple of days in Holland we explored the local area. Lots of lovely canals, grand houses, local markets, little old towns, boats, windmills, just as a brief summary.

Most of the bike ride was along the water like this.

First of many windmill photos.

There were beautiful houses on the edge of the canals.

We enjoyed watching the working bridges and locks.

Morning tea !! lucky we were doing lots of exercise.

The bikes we hired were so comfortable and easy to ride.

All the towns we visited had markets...my favourite were the cheese and flowers stalls.

This type of boat is very popular ..... and I think very pretty.

Beautiful Dutch countryside.

Jo arrived in the evening bringing the very important camera cable.

Arrived in Holland !

We have arrived in Holland !!

As I can't add any photos , due to camera cable staying in London, I thought a map might be a good way to start our stay in Holland... you can then refer to it when we travel around ...

We are staying just south east of Amsterdam ,very near Hilversum and just north of Utrecht.

Beautiful sunny day here so off bike riding today.

Hopefully back to normal posting tomorrow.

Visiting the McCloskeys

We travelled to Edlesborough, Buckingham to visit Hilary, Chris, Frank, Hannah , Sophie and of course most importantly Sasha their beautiful Goldie.

We had a lovely time.

Hilary, Chris, Frank, Sophie & Chris

Frank, Hilary, Hannah & Sophie

Hilary, Hannah & Sophie

Frank Blake & Hilary (daughter)

Sasha