The journey begins

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on May 1^st 2025.

Early morning and the mist drifted over the River Linge. The sun cast a cold, eerie light, and as the mist slowly cleared the trees were perfectly reflected in the still waters.

It was the weekend, and we were enjoying one of those rare and precious moments when the human race, making the most of a lazy start to the day, was pleasantly conspicuous in its absence. Birds, however, live by different rules and being lazy isn’t one of them. All around us they were busy doing what birds do; a crane circled high in the sky, surveying its patch and sending the geese into a shrieking frenzy whenever its shadow came too close. A cormorant had staked its claim to a piece of driftwood across the way and spread its wings wide to catch the first rays of sunshine, whilst a pair of pigeons were cooing with amorous intent in the branches above us, or at least the male was giving it his best shot even thought the female wasn’t so keen – as so often seems the way!

More screeching, this time directly over my head as a pair of terns squabbled over ownership of a fish. So many birds that normally would easily have distracted us, but not on this particular morning. Olivia Rose was moored amongst the wild flowers, as pleasant a spot as you could ever hope for, but despite all these temptations to linger, our minds were set upon leaving. Our journey through the Netherlands, into Belgium and back into France began in earnest today.

The destination for our first night was ‘S-Hertogenbosch,and that is indeed how you spell it, although mastering the correct pronunciation, as is the case with so many Dutch words, was beyond us.

The focal point of the the town is the cathedral, apparently the most elaborate gothic church in the Netherlands.

By chance our stay here coincided with King’s Day, a national holiday that celebrates the Dutch monarch. Under Queen Beatrice’s rule it was called Queen’s Day but when she abdicated the throne in 2013 her son became king and the name of the holiday changed accordingly. Regardless of what it is called this day remains an opportunity to come together as a nation and cram as much music, beer and conviviality into the day as possible. The other thing of note is that almost everybody wears something orange, the Dutch colour. It might be a hat, scarf or tie, or garlands and tiaras for those of a more flamboyant nature. Others had bright orange t-shirts, sweatshirts, or shorts and a few had gone for a full outfit, definitely a good way to stand out in any crowd. One man had dyed his hair orange and many of the young girls had painted the colours of the national flag on their cheeks, from a distance looking as if they had blue, red and white whiskers. The streets and the waterways were jam-packed, everyone had a drink in their hand, there was street music around every corner and the atmosphere was joyous. The Dutch people love to party.

This week’s blog began with the birds and it will end with them. The star of the show in this next video is our constant companion along these waterways. This pair of coots had chosen a nest site right alongside a lock, which gave us a perfect opportunity to watch them building their new home. There is something so endearing about the way the male spends hours searching out twigs and bits of reed and passes them up to the female as she sits on the nest.

That’s it for this week. See you again soon.

MJ