Voting

As London residents with either UK, EU or Commonwealth nationality, we are entitled to vote in local elections here (Lyn, having a Commonwealth nationality as well as EU can even vote in Parliamentary elections and so can Sean).
At the end of April we registered and today we voted in the elections for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

What has surprised me, is that during the registration and voting 'process' we have not once had to prove that we actually live here, what nationality we are or have had to identify ourselves. For the registration we just downloaded a form from the Internet in which we stated our address and our nationality. And at the polling station this morning, they just asked for our name and address and noted on their list that we had now voted.

Imagine doing that in South Africa or many other countries. It would be a total mess, with twice as many votes cast as there are people living in the entire country!

I find it quite encouraging that society can still operate like that here!

Location:The Ave,Richmond,United Kingdom

Passport application

Thuis morning, we went to the consular section of the Dutch embassy here in London to apply for Lyn's Dutch passport, the final step in 'the process'.
It took all of 15 minutes to check the paperwork, almost an anticlimax after some 15 months of jumping through all the hoops, starting with the citizenship test back in February 2011. We should have the so eagerly anticipated document in 2 weeks.

Afterwards, we went to 'Chappell of Bond street', which is not in Bond street at all, but in Wardour street, in Soho. It is the best place in London to buy sheet music, so of particular interest to Lyn. We bought a few items, for use on the digital piano on Onbekommerd.

Finally a visit to Oxford street, where the decorations for this summer's events (the Queen's diamond jubilee and of course the Olympics) are being installed.

Dutch ceremony

Today, back in London, we attended the naturalisation ceremony which made Lyn a Dutch citizen!
As the embassy is being renovated, the ceremony took place at the residence of the ambassador, which is right next to the Royal Albert Hall, in Exhibition Road. Handy when the ambassador wants to go to a concert I guess and also within walking distance of the embassy where he obviously works (I dont know if ambassadors walk to work or if they are too important for that!).
First the ambassador gave a speech about what it means to have Dutch citizenship, beyond just having the passport. Then each of the 8 new citizens had to promise that they would obey the Dutch constitution and perform the duties required by the constitution and laws of the country. They got their certificate and a book about Dutch history.

Here is Lyn, being congratulated by the ambassador:

As we keft, the ambassador's wife gave us a bunch of flowers (orange tulips), which we think were left over from a function last night (possible the celebration of the queen's official birthday which is on Monday).

Outside the residence after the ceremony.

On Tuesday we will go to apply for Lyn's new passport. That should take about 2 weeks to arrive. We will then return to Onbekommerd as soon as possible, she is waiting patiently for us in Monnickendam.

In the meantime, there will only be blogposts when there is someting significant to report.



Monnickendam

After we had tied up last night, we got some interesting pictures which we would like to share. One is one of Lyn's famous sunsets, the other one of a very patient (and tame!) fisherman:









This morning again, the weather was up to no good, with rain and wind and also cold enough to switch on the heater.





We walked into Hoorn to do shopping for the last few meals before we go back to London on Wednesday. We also treated ourselves to 'koffie en appelgebak', which is a typical - and decadent - Dutch way of spoiling yourself:





Fortunately, it cleared a bit and we left Hoorn.





And set sail to Monnickendam, where the boat will stay during our approximately 3 weeks in London to go to the naturalisation ceremony and obtain Lyn's Dutch passport. The trip to Monnickendam was fine, the weather cleared nicely when we approached so we could fill up the tank with 268 l (!) of diesel, that's what we used these 3 weeks, just under 4 l / hour of motoring.

Tomorrow, I will take the bus to Amsterdam to get some more charts for our summer trip. We have not got the lakes North of Berlin yet. On Wednesday, we return to London.

Across the IJsselmeer to Hoorn

This morning, the weather was pretty miserable, with rain showers accompanied with a lot of wind. But the forecast was that this would abate, so we just stayed put and read a bit. Around 2 pm, it cleared and the wind dropped a bit so we set off. It remained quite windy for the whole trip, about 5bft, but at least it was sunny and not too uncomfortable. We passed through the lock at Enkhuizen (a lock built as an aqueduct over the freeway, called 'Naviduct') and continued to Hoorn where we tied up around 6.15. Sorry, no pictures today, just the story!

Location:'t Oude Sluisje,Hoorn,The Netherlands

Urk

A relatively short trip today, a few more miles of IJssel, then the Ketelmeer and into the IJsselmeer. The weather was not very friendly, cloudy, rain and hail showers quite windy and cold. But we had no problems with any of that and just after 12 we were safely in our berth in Urk. Urk used to be an island with fishing as its (almost) sole source of income. These days, since 1939, it is part of the newly reclaimed land and next to fishing (the Urk fishing fleet operates on the North Sea now, but the fish is still trucked to the market in Urk which is one of the biggest in Europe), tourism is also important to the economy.
When the rain stopped and the sun came out, we went for a walk:





This is not really showing anything typically Urk, but it's a nice shot, we think.





Later in the afternoon, it cleared completely and we are having our 'borrel' (pre-dinner drinks) in bright sunshine. Unfortunately, the weather forecast offers little hope that this will stay :-(

Location:Dormakade,Urk,The Netherlands

Further down the IJssel: to Kampen

We continued our trip down the river today. Although with 37 (nautical) miles it was the furthest day of our trip this year, with the current behind us it did not take us that long: by 2 pm we were tied up in Kampen, which is close to where the IJssel ends in the IJsselmeer.
It's a nice and quite rural stretch of river, between Zutphen and Kampen. You pass one town, Deventer and a few villages. Here are some impressions:

Location:Kampen