A week in photos and videos

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on 21^st June 2024. The blog this week is a collage of photos and videos from the past few days, a summary of our last week heading north. We have reached the very tip of the Netherlands, after this we head south.

We saw these statues long before we reached them. They stand on the sea wall at Holwerd, facing the Wadden Sea, right at the top of the Netherlands, and the most northerly part of our journey. It wasn’t exactly clear who they are but they have a hard life, continually battered by wind and rain. We had some idea of how they felt as we were on our bikes and the headwinds were so strong at times it felt as if we were going backwards. On the plus side, when the wind was behind us, how we flew along!

There was a small plaque between these two giants that explained what message the artist was hoping to convey. Apparently this couple, although I am not sure if that was what they were, represent the search for balance and exchange. Confused? Join the club.

Whilst some parts of the coast in the Netherlands are made up of beautiful sandy beaches this section is mud flats. The high tide comes right up to the dyke which is made up of tarmac on the coast side and grass on the land side.

There are miles and miles of grassy dykes around the country and rather than employ an army of men, and women, to cut them they use sheep, farmed out to do nothing but eat grass.

It is a typically pragmatic Dutch solution and works well for everyone concerned, not least the sheep. However I have never seen such fat sheep, so stuffed with grass that they can hardly be bothered to move, even if you cycle within an inch of their noses.

We spent a couple of days grounded in Dokkum with winds gusting over 60 kph, a steady succession of squalling showers and a thunderstorm thrown in for good measure. And then miraculously, the sun came out and the winds lessened enough for us to move on.

As you can see from the following video we had company on this particular evening. This is the first batch of cygnets we’ve seen this year. Adorable.

I got up the next morning and put on my winter leggings and fleece as usual. It might have turned sunnier but it was still cold and the wind was bitter. Within two minutes I was back down and changing into shorts. The water at our mooring was like a mill-pond and even out on the Lauwersmeer it was calm and incredibly beautiful. Finally, summer had arrived!

And by the afternoon summer had gone. The sky was mostly grey and the winds were on the rise, but at least it was a little warmer.

There are a lot of cows in Friesland but they are usually the black and white variety. We didn’t expect to see what looked like a small herd of Highland cows, but they seemed at home. Paddling in the shallow waters seemed a favourite past-time.

The afternoon saw us back out on the bikes, our destination this time the tea museum at Houwerzijl. The real interest lay in the adjoining tea room and shop, where they sold over 300 blends of tea and  served English cream teas in a stunning garden setting.

From here we begin the journey back south again, taking a different route from the one that we came up on. We leave Friesland behind and cross over into the province of Groningen, on the eastern side of the country. We are close to the German border here and are already noticing more boats flying the German flag and some of the signs in the more touristy places are written in German as well as Dutch. We have seen no more than a couple of English boats since we arrived two months ago, and then only in passing. In the unlikely event that we moor up close to an English-speaking boater there is every chance they may find me knocking on their door, whether they want me or not! The Dutch are a very welcoming nation, friendly and happy to engage with strangers, but every now and then it is nice to sit down with someone from your own country and swap a few stories.

And that sees us through another week. Hope all goes well with you and that your summer arrives and stays a bit longer than ours did – although things are looking better for next week. I’ll leave you with a rather beautiful evening sky.

Best wishes.

MJ