Week 17 Going with the flow
Week 17
Lazy this week - relying almost solely on my photos...
We put the cover on the "tunnel" and finished dressing up the foundations...
and splitting the rhubarb...
...only to find that we had an intruder! - a mole!
The outside "dressing" obviously not deep enough, so we found some leftover off-cuts from the roof insulation...and lined the inside with that...
...to a depth of about 40cm. My mind did return to the idea of the the French Solution - explosives!...but we shall see how this goes...
We had arranged to go to Amsterdam for the weekend, to see Ben for his 26th birthday...
So, for my sins of going boating and doing almost anything to avoid my bookkeeping...I had to work for 5 hours on the computer on Friday - to be able to go away without having it hanging on my neck!
Ben had celebrated during the week on Wednesday - he shares his birthday with the King - so a public holiday and a return to the usual numbers in the streets of Amsterdam...
...street party outside his front door...
We had a bit of a shock at the increased numbers when we arrived on Saturday - it really is "going with the flow" when walking along...We used the very cheap Park and Ride (only €2,00 for two days if you use the public transport - which we did).
The street markets were up and running again...
Now that everything has opened up again, it was almost impossible to get a booking at a restaurant - most of them are now demanding a (refundable) booking fee because too many people just don't show up.
So, we went early (1700hrs) to a restaurant where we could just walk in and order drinks before the food kitchen started. We were told we would have to leave before 2030hours, which was no problem.
We ordered the 5 course meal and were more than a bit surprised at just how good the food was...
It was fairly plain from the outside (complete with a flag in support of the Ukraine)...
...but the food was good enough for Ben to take photos!
On Sunday we took the ferry over to "North". Ben always refers to North South East or West when talking about various features of Amsterdam. He would love to be able to buy a place somewhere but the prices have gone crazy in the last 2 years. A schoolfriend of his who lived in a nearby (to us) village, was able to buy something 2 years ago, just in time.
Over on "North" there are so many new buildings - the whole area was previously industry, including ship-building - but it is the new place to be, if you can afford it.
We went to a once-a-month flea market where a huge shipbuilding company once was...
(it was so much more trash than treasure - I wonder what people are thinking, sometimes...)
This was the old shipbuilding works...huge inside - it looks like they are still trying to figure out what to do with it - as residential towers spring up all around....
This crane used to go on rails back to the large building...and is now used as a hotel!
Lunch on Sunday...
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