Germany, Sunday

We awoke to cloudy but fine morning and enjoyed our first 'frustuck' in Germany. (Very similar to the Dutch 'ontbijt' - in both cases,some kind person had paid an early visit to the 'baecker' for delicious fresh bread rolls.)

Annette & Georg took us out on a trip to nearby provinces to visit local towns. each with old buildings from the 1300s.





First was Eberbach, a beautiful old town built on the River Neckar,in the province of Baden. The autumn colours are at their most brilliant. We were impressed by the high water marks recorded one of the old buildings along the river. The highest mark was dated 1759.



Annette and Georg hurried us along as they said that the next town, in the province of Hessen, was even more interesting and picturesque.

The next town that we drove to was Michelstadt. On one building you could see how these black and white buildings are made, with a wooden frame and mixture of mortar and straw in the gaps.



The final town we visited was Miltenberg, in Bavaria. Here a harvest market was in progress, with a touch of halloween. It was very busy. We queued up to enter a car park. One car could go in as long as one car came out.

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The town has a old castle, and a wall that gave good views over the city and the Maen River.



Doug found this cafe of interest, where he could eat the goose that bit him in Holland.



Finally we headed home to Limbach after this nice meal of bratwurst and sauerkraut at an organic restaurant near Miltenberg.

To Germany, Saturday

We had four trains to catch today, so started early and planned to catch the 8:30 am train to Amsterdam from Bovenkarspel. We had to be in Amsterdam to be on the 10:34 international train to Germany. We were early as usual, and walked onto the platform at Bovenkarspel at 8am to catch the earlier train just as they closed the doors and moved off. They then announced the 8:30 train was cancelled. Stress! The 9am train was running a few minutes late but was an Intercity and had us in Amsterdam at just after 10am.

The international train was nearly full, and the only place for our 20kg bags was in the overhead luggage rack. We sat opposite some German people who spoke no English. A Chinese man opposite was using a large Toshiba laptop that one lady used as a support as she walked along the aisle, to the surprise of its owner.



We left behind the flat wetlands and cows, for rolling hills and trees.



We could see we had reached Germany as the colours of the trains changed to red. 4 hours later we changed trains in Frankfurt airport, than again at Mannheim to reach Heidelburg about 3:45 pm. It was nice to be off the trains, even though they run at 170 km/h. It would be a better trip without the luggage.

Medemblik and Urk, Friday

This was our last full day in Holland. We had picked up a rental car Thursday evening, so set off this morning to see if we could find the old house at Onderdyke that we lived in for a few months, in 1970. We also hoped to find the gas compressor station that Doug worked on at the time. We then planned to follow our noses for the rest of the day.



To begin with driving on the wrong side was hard enough. We found it difficult to navigate as Gertie the GPS kept talking rubbish until we turned her silly voice off and used her as just a map display. We eventually found Onderdyke (about 1 km from Medemblik) and after a couple of passes on the dyke, spotted our house. This house is mainly remembered for its spiders and antique sewage system - straight into the canal.



After a coffee stop, we spent a pleasant time in Medemblik's main street, it seemed much bigger than we remembered.

Next we drove out looking for the Wieringermeer Compressor Station, but after asking directions that would have dropped us into a canal, gave up. We drove to the town of Schagen, having not been there before, but it didn't appeal photographically. The old church was an 'Out of Africa' shop and the other shops had the usual household stuff.

We decided to visit the island of Urk during the afternoon, so set out to drive across the Markermeer Dyke highway between Enkhuizen and Lelystad, then further on, North to Urk.





This highway is a fine piece of engineering. It is 57 km long and includes water level gates, a lifting bridge, and the naviduct in the picture, where the ships sail over the traffic. There are lot of wind generators close to the road, and in the distance.





Here are some photos around Urk, which once was an island but later had a causeway built out to it.



This cat was hopefully watching some boys fishing.

Hoorn & Enkhuizen Thursday

We had a very nice dinner with Gordon & Geertje at 'Hotel Het Roode Hert' last night. The hotel only has 12 rooms and mainly relies on being a very good restaurant. The presentation was up to the UK 'Masterchef' standard.







In the morning we headed out into the rain and decided that a museum would be a good idea until midday when it was meant to clear. We went to the Westfries Museum, in Hoorn, pictured above. It was most interesting, as Hoorn was a major seaport in the 1400-1700s catering to the sailing ships trading with the East Indies. The museum had a lot of fine paintings from that period, as well as interesting exhibits.



After lunch, we went for a drive around Hoorn to try and find some of the old familiar places that we had enjoyed 39 years ago. We particularly wanted to show G & G the 'Hoofdtoren' and the beautiful old houses around the harbour. We couldn't remember where it was. When it seemed that we were going to have to give up, we happened upon a police car, so Doug asked directions.

'The what?', he was asked.
' The 'Hoofdtoren'.
' Oh, you mean the 'Hoofdtoren! Follow Us'.

I've always imagined being in a situation like this. No sirens or flashing lights, but pretty neat all the same! Through the streets we went and soon the Hoofdtoren was before us, as beautiful as ever!





The 'Hoofdtoren' is a big tower in the entrance to the harbour. There were a lot of traditional sailing vessels in the harbour, known as 'botters' and notable for the centreboards on either side of the hull that are rotated to give the boat less sideways slip in the shallow waters.



The bronze figures of the three boys commemorate the trip of three boys from Bontekoe that travelled in sailing ships to the East indies in 1518-1520.





After that we then went to Enkhuizen and had a look around their harbour and tower. Enkhuizen has been a city since 1355. It is another town that peaked in the mid 17th Century.



About 4pm we picked up our rental car. It is a Peugeot diesel' the same as we had in Devon except the handlebars on the wrong side. We followed G & G back to the hotel for coffee and to say, 'Goodbye.' Gordon & Geertje then set off south, back home to Vianen.

Tomorrow the excitement begins. We'll see how Doug copes with driving on the 'wrong' side after all these years.