May 2009 Archives

Just before we flew to the UK, we had a look at the new Samuel Beckett bridge in Dublin, which just arrived from Holland (!). I would never have imagined whole bridges being pre-fabricated and transported.

You can read about it leaving  Rotterdam here and about it arriving in Dublin here. As you can see, it’s not just a little whimp of a bridge either.

The project reminded me  of a conversation with Willem a couple of weeks ago when he showed us some of the Delta Plan construction and he mentioned spin-off projects around the world for Dutch engineering. This looks like another spin-off from those engineering works. Perhaps I might be excused of having some remaining Dutch pride.

We’ve just about come to the end of our visit to Ireland. I’ve just uploaded some photos to a new (third) album. After being mollycoddled by Globus, it was a change of pace and the deterioration of the weather made taking pretty photos a bit harder. Mind you, we have enjoyed our stay. We thought we’d seen all possible shades of green, but Ireland has a few more. We rented a car and drove down to Waterford (Joy bought some Irish Made Waterford Crystal at the plant which was recently closed). On our way back we passed through Ballykissangel, but father Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald were nowhere to be seen.

Joy and I are now in Dublin, on the final leg of our European holiday. We finished our first organised bus tour and I must say we thoroughly enjoyed it. Across Germany, the Check Republic, Hungary and Austria, we saw some stunningly beautiful building and got a taste of Central Europe. We were pleased with the way the tour was run (Globus) and the compatibility with the others on tour. It’s something we’ll remember for a long time. The photos are in the album.

I'm gradually getting the hang of how to best take night photographs. I'll never be a great photographer, but it's disappointing coming home with blurry photos which you know could have been done better.

We’re in the middle of a Globus Bus Tour, taking us from Berlin to Vienna via Prague and Budapest. In just a few days, we seen enough interesting and beautiful sites to last us a life time.

The hotels are excellent, the tour’s leadership professional and the group is very harmonious. It’s a long way from anything else we’ve ever done, so it is refreshing and is giving us many picturesque moments. We’re soaking it in. More pictures in the album.

Today, we’re moving on to Berlin to start the next part of our holiday. I’s been really enjoyable to spend some time in Holland. Our choice of an apartment in Delft as our base was a very good one. It was fun to stay in such a compact city with a great history as well as modern conveniences. We enjoyed riding our  bikes around the town and soaking up some of its history.

It was terrific see some of our relatives again, particularly Blog-Pal Willem. We appreciated your hospitality.

I must say that it felt strange to be back in Holland, different from the previous times. 42 years is a long time and I felt more like a tourist than a returning citizen. But it was very enjoyable indeed.

Saturday's highlight was our climb of the tower of the "Nieuwe Kerk" at 108 meters, an imposing structure even in the 21st century. So we went up its 356 steps, passing the clock mechanism and the carillion to step out on a narrow parapet to see Delft laid out below us on a glorious, sunny May morning. A real treat. Mind you, for us, from the skyscraper generation, there was an uncanny, dizzy feeling about the height and the narrow staircase to get to the top. Imagine how those in he middle ages would have felt.

More photos in the album.

Today it’s Koninginnedag (Queen’s Birthday) in Holland. Lots of orange everywhere and people having a good time.

Most towns have a committee who organise the celebrations. We stayed in Delft and it was very impressive to see how many people were taking part. Lots of people set up stalls to sell second hand goods.

To help preserve our feet, we rented a couple of bikes and toured a local park (“het Delftse Hout”). That was lots of fun – pictures in the album.

We’re looking forward to meeting up with Willem tomorrow.