Gulden Belofte - Golden Promise, Monnickendam, The Netherlands.

After a few days in France we returned to Alan and Helen Smith's place in Balcombe, Sussex and said our goodbyes. We look forward to them visiting us in NZ and returning the favours they have done for us.



To finish off our time in UK we spent a few days with Lil's sister Annabelle and her partner Mark Thompson. They were busy during the daytime so we were able to help with the household chores and cook some evening meals. We picked up John's new New Zealand passport and so we shouldn't have any more problems at border crossings.



Behind the New Zealand Consulate is a shop that sells all sorts of new Zealand foods, clothes and souvenirs. We bought a few items that we could easily carry and will give them to friends that we are going to visit in Europe. We have realised that we didn't get any photos of the Thompson clan. Sorry about that.

We managed to catch up with Xie whom we first met on the Thailand- Laos border. We saw her again in Shanghai and now she is studying in London so we were able to catch up once more. We wish her well in her business studies.

We both left the UK with sore throats and runny noses to go to our first winter in 20 months!

We caught a train from Liverpool station to the ferry at Harwich. The train was late so we were taken by taxi to the ferry. It was a calm crossing and we were able to get our train to Amsterdam easily. Friday evening in rush hour was not the best time to take a train with full backpacks!



We met our friend Frankie at Amsterdam South Station where he lives across the street from the station. We first met him in the Philippines where he had been diving and we stayed in the same resort together. Frankie has an interesting Dutch/Australian accent when he speaks English as he lived and worked in Australia for some time.



Frankie now works for the Happy Home Company which is a company that organizes holiday homes in several countries. He is also a scuba diving instructor and a qualified panel beater and likes to restore cars.



We were invited out to go on an old (1911) cargo carrying ship that has been restored. The ship used to carry sand and goods along the canals and now takes passengers sailing in the Ijsselmeer. The sea is an area inside a dyke system that helps protect Holland from flooding.

It was a cold miserable day so we put on all the warm clothes that we have and managed to stay warm and dry. The skipper gave us some herbal alcoholic drink to help warm us up. Frankie's flatmate Anne-Laure from France and her friend also joined us.
Frankie, Auraly, Anne-laurer, Lil

We had to help set up the sails and then sailed through the sweet water bay. The water was originally salty but the dyke fills with fresh water from the land. From the ship we could see only the rooves of the houses visible above the dykes.

We were served traditional Dutch food: bean soup with smoked sausage, cheeses, and speculaas (ginger biscuits).

Monnickendam is an interesting place. It has narrow streets and houses that look like they will fall down any day soon as they are built on such boggy land.

On a beautiful day with all its sails, the Golden promise ( Gulden Beloft) would look like this!

Le Mesnil Gilbert, Normandy, France

With Alan Smith we went on a road trip to France to visit his sister and her husband, Ann and Barry Burrell near the small village of Le Mesnil Gilbert in the Normandy region. This involved a short drive from Alan's house to the port of Newhaven, a four hour ferry crossing to Dieppe and then a three hour drive to Ann and Barry's.

Ann and Barry are retired and have done a wonderful job of restoring an old barn which is now their house. They lived in a small cottage on the same property while they worked on the barn. The barn was derelict when they purchased the property, having been badly burned by the retreating German army in 1944.

We spent a lot of time sitting around eating and drinking but found time for a couple of walks around the neighbourhood. There were not many leaves left on the trees but found lots of mistletoe growing up in the branches of some trees - the seeds having been put there by birds.

Some of the local farm houses had round extensions on the ends of them - these contained cooking ovens.

On the way to Le Mesnil Gilbert we stopped at the village of Yerville to sample some of the local foods and stock up on cheese and specialist meat products. There were quite a few traditional board and plaster farm houses in this region.

Crossing the Normandy Bridge.

Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland

Kilkenny was our final stop in Ireland so we could catch up with Rita and Sean that we had met in Chengdu, China.

Rita was glad to be out of the real estate industry with the current recession. Her mum had a jewelery shop and Rita has taken it over and is also working as a insurance assessor.

Sean is an archaeologist and is working in Limerick. He drove through to spend the evening with us so it was great to catch up. He had to leave early to drive one and a half hours back for work. He has move to where the digs are so living away from home is a hazard of the job.

Kilkenny Castle in the middle of the town sits beside the River Nore. We did a tour of the castle but quite a lot of it was closed for renovation and restoration. The first structure here was built of wood in 1172 and was burnt down. The stone castle was built in 1192. There is not much original furniture in the castle but a few pieces that were sold at auction have been lent by the present owners for displaying.

The city now owns the castle and they have reproduced some of the original yellow shiny silk 'wallpaper'. It was used in the dark drawing room and the shiny bright colour helped reflect the light from the lamps. They have also managed to get original designs from the Axminster carpet factory to reproduce the carpets that were in use by the Butler family when they owned the castle.

Rita had some time off so we went for a drive to nearby villages of Graignamanagh, Inistioge and Thomastown. All very scenic and a target for movie makers. Nice coffee shops as well.









Inistioge.

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

While in China we met Deirdre and Derek, affectionately know by us as D and D. We later found we were on the same Trans Siberian train trip. We swapped addresses and they invited us to visit them in Dublin.

We had a great reunion and did some sightseeing together. The most important stop in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse where the stout is made. It was a great place to visit as there was a storm raging outside.

We awoke to find Sunday a sunny morning so headed for Glendalough, a monastic settlement about an hour's drive from Dublin. The weather held up long enough for us to walk around the forest and visit the monastery.

In AD 498 a young monk called Kevin arrived here to meditate. He set up house in a Bronze Age tomb site and for 7 years slept on stones, wore animal skins, maintained a near starvation diet and made friends with the birds and animals. People then flocked to the place. The Viking raiders sacked the monastery at least four times between 775 and 1071. The English forces in 1389 almost completely destroyed it. The monastery finally died in the late 17th century.


Today the park is a popular place to walk and take the family dogs. It was quite busy for a cold day and is teeming in summer with visitors.

While D and D worked we cooked meals and even had a meal of NZ green-lipped mussels. In the day we caught up with laundry, emails and the blog. We headed into Dublin city and found the places we wanted to visit closed on a Monday but managed to get to Trinity College where hordes of graduands were waiting for their families.

We strolled around Dublin Castle and walked down Sniper Way (O'Connell Street).

Ring of Kerry, Republic of Ireland

The Ring of Kerry is a coastal route circling the Inveragh Peninsula. The roads are pretty narrow and it would be a nightmare fighting with tourist buses on some of the bends. Being off season we and the locals had the roads to ourselves. It was not as interesting for us as some of the other coastal routes we have visited but in sunny weather it would have looked much better.



At times the coast was very rough and and other times the sun peeped out and the winds calmed down.


Many of the coastal villages like to paint their houses different colours.


This is the building belonging to the Royal Irish Constabulary. Legend has it that, when it was rebuilt after a fire, the plans got mixed up with those intended for barracks in India.


After the Ring of Kerry we continued along the coast from Skibbereen to Clonakilty. Here we took a side trip to the Drombeg Stone Circle site. It has 17 upright standing stones and a cremated teenager's remains were discovered during excavations in 1960. The circle dates from about 5th century AD being an Iron Age update of an earlier Bronze Age monument. Beside the circle are remains of a hut with this Iron Age cooking pit. A stream ran through the cooking pit and a fire was built beside it. Rocks were placed on the fire and when they were hot they were lifted into the water-filled pit and the hot water was used to cook hunks of meat. Some experiments found that the water boiled and kept hot for nearly three hours.



A street scene in Kinsale.


We had a long break at Yougal (pronounced Yawl) where we saw the Clock Gate which was built in 1777 and served as a clock tower and jail: some prisoners taken in the 1798 Rising were hung from the windows.



There were several interesting things on the town's historic walk including St Mary's Collegiate Church from 1220 and Sir Walter Raleigh's former home.

We found the National 1798 Rebellion Centre in Enniscourthy open. We took the opportunity to try to understand more of Ireland's history. There were no other visitors at the centre and the attendant had to turn on the exhibits especially for us, but unfortunately that didn't mean the heating!

We were able to learn more about the influence of the French and American revolutions and how they sparked the uprising against British rule in Wexford and the battle at Vinegar Hill.

Adare, Republic of Ireland

We drove through the central part of the Republic heading south through Limerick. Adare is a popular stop along the way with lots of medieval buildings and rows of thatched cottages. A river runs through the centre of the village and it was used by the women to wash their clothes. They used to soak the clothes and then bash them on the rocks with a wooden mallet called a beetle.

The Church of the Holy Trinity from the 13th century has been restored and today is a Catholic church.

Beside the church was a restored dove- cote. It was made of stone and had a hole in the top where the pigeons flew in and out. Inside the beehive shaped structure were ledges where the birds nested. Pigeons and their eggs were a common food at that time.

Several villages in this part of the country had flags flying in the local colours. They were showing support for their provincial Gaelic football and hurling teams. These sports are the most popular sports in Ireland. they are fast games with extremely aggressive contact between the players. Two teams of 15 players try to get the ball through a goal that looks like a rugby gaol with a netted soccer gaol under the crossbar. Goals above the bar and between the posts are worth one point while those under are worth three points. We haven't managed to see a hurling game yet but have seen lots of school children walking to and from practices with their wooden bats that look like large flattened hockey sticks known as hurley. A leather ball is used and it must be hit or carried on the hurley while hand passing is not allowed.



Gaelic football looks a lot like Australian Rules football.

Athlone, Republic of Ireland

We headed inland to Athlone. Simon Rolleston plays rugby for the Buccaneer's Rugby club in Athlone. He used to be an apprentice with John in NZ so we decided to catch up with him. We watched him play a game against a Belfast team and they won so will get paid a bonus for the win.

Simon's grandmother was born in Donegal so he was able to get an Irish passport and has been playing semi-professional rugby here for 3 years now. As it was Halloween weekend the rugby club had a dress up party. It seems it is a festival that started in Ireland so they decorate the houses and the children go from door-to-door to get sweets from their neighbours.


Athlone is on a lake with weirs and locks.


Simon, and Hope dressed as Amy Whitehouse.

There are several players from NZ in Athlone and they all live in the same street as Simon with some from Samoa as well.