Week 17 Visitor from Melbourne

Week 17 

Ellen used to be the Office Manager at the Fire Protection Department in the 1980's. We always got on OK and kept in touch over the years as she got her MBA and moved on to bigger and more varied things - most recently retired and teaching music to disadvantaged kids in Melbourne.

Janny, Ben and I stayed in her beachhouse at Queenscliff one year - about 1999, I think.

We then lost touch but somehow Ellen retained the address of our house in Birdaard. This year, she sent a letter to that address and it found it's way to here - she was coming to Amsterdam for the Mahler Concerts at the Royal Concertgebouw - and could we catch up?


So it all fell into place and we picked her up from Heerenveen last Sunday...

On Monday we went to Leeuwarden and Janny and I both realised that we hadn't done that much touristy stuff there - so it was good for us as well.






On the way home, we stopped at the Prinsenhof in Earnewoude - it turns out that Ellen has done a lot of sailing with family and friends so it seemed like a good chance to do some boatie stuff...


On Tuesday we had to go to Heerenveen for one of the clients - Janny had a meeting to attend so Ellen and I waited on the boat and then we all went walking through Heerenveen - it's not much as a tourist destination, we decided.

Janny had to work on Wednesday, so Ellen and I went to Groningen - well and truly "walked out" by the end of the day! We visited the main museum which has a van Gogh influence...
















On Thursday we went to Dokkum - always on the list for visitors...





On Friday we decided to take the boat out for a day trip - just to Boornzwaag - a 2 1/2 hour trip.











I managed to swap the batteries for the bowthruster...





We had about 2 hours of rain at Boornzwaag - the only rain for the week...




By Saturday we had Kids' Weekend again, so I had to do some work! Janny and Ellen disappeared on the (electric) Duofiets and rode along the canal (Turfroute) and visited Greethilda and Alberts new house...






So, a busy week...might be a bit of rest today as Ellen prepares to move on. I had hoped that Ben would be able to catch up with her in Amsterdam - but he is "heading off to Mexico" - a friend has given him his house to look after for 3 weeks...we just shake our heads....

The house in Mexico...








Comments

  1. Joy Thomas3 May 2025 at 22:17

    The boat is looking good! Always nice to catch up with people with whom you think you've lost contact.

    ReplyDelete

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