Boating on the canal

The power of who you know!  Sieska's friend and former colleague Lucy and her husband Henk, live at a lovely house on a canal nearby.  We went there for afternoon tea and Henk took us for a boat trip around their area of the canal.  It was a delightful way to bring to a close this trip to The Netherlands.

Here we are setting off. .

This is Henk and Luncy's house.  It has a most beautiful and peaceful outlook.  The lily pads on the water's surface provide a wonderful background to this wonderfully situated home.

A view of a less inhabited part of the canal.

Samples of some of the houses along the canal.

A rest on the terrace at the end of our boat trip.







We have enjoyed wonderful hospitality at every moment of the trip.  Everyone has welcomed us and been generous and kind.  It was great to catch up with almost all of Andrew's cousins.  Their closeness is especially poignant, considering the history of the parents' separation earlier in life.  If there is a heaven, I am sure the parents look down happily at their offspring.

We will end our trip to The Netherlands with two photos of food.

This is a national Dutch dish of boerkool (kale) and mashed potato with a rookworst.  On this particular occasion, it was a takeaway dish from the supermarket.  I have commented previously that there is a far larger selection of tasty looking prepared food in The Netherlands than we have in Australia,

This is a photo of the long awaited but disappointing, tuna lasagne.  It too came prepared at the local fish shop.  I will however make it myself and I will have a lot more tuna in it than the fish shop provided.  The concept is worth imitating but this dish was not up to expectations.  By far the nicest dish on this trip so far was the Finnish salmon soup which was served by FinAir and which I then googled and cooked.  When I googled it the name given was Lohikeitto.  Delicious and highly recommended.  And easy to prepare.