Vlieland

We had a few glorious days on Texel, cycled two 40 KM each routes on Sunday and Monday. The weather cooperated by being sunny and with little wind. Still quite cold, no more than about 13 C but when cycling that's OK and on Monday we even had to take our jackets off! We did both the Southern and Northern 'Thijsse routes', with some adaptations to take us past points w especially wanted to see (and avoid other ones). The diversity of birdlife and nature is quite surprising, no wonder that it was (and still is, I guess) a biologist's dream. Being spring, the meadows were full of lambs (Texel is not called the 'sheep island' for nothing) and there are wild Daffodils everywhere along the roads. I will work out how to post pictures on the blog when we are back in London and share some.
We were planning to go to Vlieland on Tuesday but as it was blowing quite hard (5-6 Bft), we decided to take a rest day. Today it was 4-5 Bft and we had a comfortable 5 hour trip over the Western Waddenzee to Vlieland, the last bit over the shallows of the 'Franse Gaatje' which was interesting as we could not easily find the 'prikken', the little trees that mark the channel.
We are now safely tied up in the marina on Vlieland. As in Texel and Den Helder, it is very quiet; the season has not really started yet, I suspect that comes at Easter in 10 days' time. But we do share the marina here with about 30 or so 50+ foot motor boats which are on some cruise together. Poor little "Onbekommerd" looks very small in between them, but we are very happy that we can just step out on the jetty without a stepladder and that we can easily swing the boat around!
The plan is to stay here two nights (until Friday) and then move to Terschelling for the weekend. The weather forcast continue to be reasonable good!

Texel

The 'kermis' was not that bad, it was definitely not well attended so at around 9.30 the guy who was desperately shouting 'shake your body' over the intercom every 10 seconds had gone quiet and by 10pm silence reigned!
This morning the slight mist had lifted by the time we got up and after loading water we were off though the lock, then through the naval harbour and into the Waddenzee. The salt water 'sounds' very different when you motor through it, there is a 'foamy' sound to it and I love it! The crossing to Oudeschild, the harbour of Texel only takes an hour and by 10.45 we were tied up in a very quiet marina. The season has not really started yet, many boats are still on the hard in their winter storage so in spite of the good weather (force 3 Bft, sunny but cool, 12 degrees max today!), and the fact that it is weekend, there are only about 20 boats in this 200 berth marina at the moment.
We walked to the village to do some provisioning and after lunch got out the folding bikes and cycled to some of the villages. Tomorrow we plan to do the 'Thijsse route'. My great grandfather was a teacher here between 1890 and 1893 and they named two cycle routes (of 40 Km each) after him. The signs are being removed and replaced by different signs without the 'Thijsse' name on it, but at the tourist information they still gave us a route map (after I explained the family connection).
We will stay here until Tuesday morning, weather allowing we will then go to the next island, Vlieland. Texel is quite big, about 25 by 15 KM and it does not really 'feel' like an island but it is very nice nonetheless.

Alkmaar - Den Helder

After a good first night's sleep on the boat, we visited the Alkmaar Cheese market, which is purely held for tourists each Friday between March and September (but it is still quite festive and nice). Then we motored North to Den Helder, which is at the very tip of North Holland province. Tomorrow we will make the short crossing to Texel, the first of the 'Wadden Islands'. The weather is very nice and sunny, but quite cool. There is a fete (Kermis) here next to the Marina so it wont be an early night....
For the Dutch amongst you: Lyn had her first 'oliebol' (bought on the Kermis).

From London back to Onbekommerd

We got a lot done during our three days in London: sorted out the bank account, got Lyn a UK cell phone number and lots of MegaBytes for her iPhone. Also completed the paperwork for the residence card and sent it off. And made an appointment (for early May) with the Dutch embassy to submit the naturalisation request.
Yesterday's weather  was very nice and we went for a long walk along the Thames. To a place called Teddington lock (boaties have to go and see any lock within walking distance) and back all the way to Kew, it must have been around 20 Km in all. Glorious sunshine.
This morning we got up at 5.30 to get to Heathrow in time for an 8.30 flight. Arrived in Alkmaar just before 1 pm and by 2 pm Onbekommerd was back in her element! Rinsed the water tank and tied up in the town 'gracht' (canal) in Alkmaar, ready for the cheese market tomorrow.
We are really happy to be back on our 'second home' everyting is fine and it feels familiar and 'homely'. We'll have an early night.

London

We are in London. Well not true, we are actually in Richmond which is a London suburb (to the South West). The famous Kew Gardens are in Richmond, only 5 minutes or so from the house we are staying.
The trip via Dubai was long, especially because the 'plane we were supposed to fly on from Dubai to London had a technical problem (the back-up braking system) and they had to replace it as they could not fix it in time. Fortunately Emirates have 15 of these giant Airbus 380's (the biggest passenger plane in the world), so they had a spare one. That one also had a problem, but they managed to fix it. All in all that caused a 4 hour delay. Then we had a 1 hour wait in the immigration queue. The very kind immigration officer told us that with Lyn's EU spouse visa we can in future use the UK/EU passport queue so that will make a big difference next time we arrive here. The wait was long, but even so, the luggage had not yet arrived when we got to the carrousel! Fortunately all our 62 Kgs arrived a bit later (the 62 Kgs was the reason of flying via Dubai in the first place as Emirates have an allowance of 30 Kg each in economy).
Today we did a few of the things one needs to do when arriving in a new country: opening a bank account and getting a pay as you go local SIM card.
Not much else to do the next few days, we'll send out the paperwork for Lyn's residence card tomorrow and make an appointment for the first week of May with the Dutch embassy for the naturalisation.
On Thursday morning we fly to Amsterdam and collect 'Onbekommerd' from the winter storage in Alkmaar.

All set

With just a few days to go, we have virtually everything in place to go.
We got the last paperwork from the South African Department of Home Affairs last Friday and yesterday (Monday), we visited the High Court in Cape Town to have the South African documents authenticated with something called 'apostilles', which means that foreign authorities will recognise them as 'real' and not 'fake'.

Lyn is doing the last two days of work and on Thursday and Friday we can pack for the Saturday departure.
Also good news is that Sean got a 1 month contract job (he started on Monday) doing some financial research. Although its nothing fixed, it is experience and a possibility to 'network' and get more leads for permanent employment. If that does not work, he'll most likely join us in London some time during May. Greg is very busy in the 'bee business'. His partners and he are buying and moving hives so that they'll have their first honey 'harvest' in September. That won't make it a paying propostion at that stage, but it should be close...
So, lots is happening. Next blog entry should be from London, all going well.

Jumped through another hoop

Lyn passed her naturalisation test! That is one step closer to the Dutch passport she needs to enable us to spend 6 months per year on Onbekommerd. Also the Dutch visa and Hans' second passport have been applied for. Everything required is now 'in the pipeline' and we need a bit of patience in the meantime!