To the Netherlands

I’m sorry that I have not managed to put more pictures of our trip  on the website but, at present, I have no way to transfer photos from my main camera to the iPad or phone I’m using to write these posts. And it’s mostly been too windy and cold to do much sketching outside.

Friday May 29

I’ve missed three days now so here is a brief catchup.

After a breakfast which included haggis we headed back into Pitlochry for a wander. It’s a lovely scots town with plenty of out-doors shops and, this time Paulette bought herself a soft shell jacket. From there we went north to Killiecrankie for an hours walk down a lovely gorge which had been the scene of a famous battle between the Redcoats and the Jacobites. The environment felt much like tramping in New Zealand except the trees were deciduous and the track was better.

On our way back to Rosemary’s we stopped in Perth, another pleasant town for lunch, a wander and a visit to the museum/gallery.

Saturday 18 May

Today was our day to fly to the Netherlands which took up most of the day but we were very pleased to be met at the airport by our friends Jenny and Hein. Saturday is their local towns market day so we stopped there where we had some Dutch liquorice some of which is definitely an acquired taste as it is pretty salty.

After tea we had a short drive to a local lake where we sat and watched wake boarders being towed around by an overhead wire system. Quinten, Jenny’s grandson, came with us and I went for a walk with him to a small lift bridge where he showed us his skateboard tricks.

Sunday 31 May

A very late start this morning followed by a pretty social day. About lunchtime we drove to Delft which is obviously a nice town but as we arrived the rain bucketed down and we got wet for the first time on our trip. We found a cafe in the Markt (town square) to get out of the rain and I managed the sketch above before we went to the museum which was showing a fascinating exhibition about the work of artist Johannes Vermeer who was born, lived and died in Delft. Because his work is so valuable now and he only painted about 37 works there are no originals in Delft but the exhibition was a great insight into his techniques in capturing light and his pallet and how he made his paint.

Tonight we went out to dinner with a lot of our hosts family, including the couple who visited us at Christmas.

Yet another great day!!!