Water lilies: Better in colour?
The tour guide really impressed the boys with his knowledge of the construction of the panels (each panel mounted on casters so that Claude could move them around in his purpose-built studio while painting, from a combination of smaller-scale sketches and his memory). If you look closely you can spot the seams.
Soon there was a whole procession penguin shuffling around the gallery, everyone looking closely for the joints. Or perhaps everyone was just going that way anyway.
Street Art
Finding your way home is easy when the end of the street is decorated with something subtle like this.
Paris surprise
Fay found a lovely apartment in Paris, complete with a great big picture of Amsterdam on the wall. I probably didn't think long enough about the "it's a bit big for two of us but it was the only place in Paris that was available" line...
Well played family, well played.
(Planning all that must have made the unexpected Brussels diversion even more stressy! ❤️)
Paris
A day of being tourists and eating great food. Au Trappist was perfect for Moules et Frites with Belgium and Irish beer (!), while L'Alsacien République at the end of the street was a fantastic and relaxed spot for the evening. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
The water lilies ranged from beautiful through interesting to errrr; depending on which of us you were. Obviously, they are better in monochrome.
Get on your bike
The best way to see Amsterdam. We whizzed around. If being overtaken by a chain smoking, mobile chatting, lady on a cargo bike with 3 kids in the front can still be called whizz. My excuse was that we were admiring the views.
Here's an example:
Unexpected Brussels
Our train from Amsterdam to Paris was cancelled... Technically it was disrupted. Due to industrial action it would now start from Brussels; but with all trains that day similarly disrupted, starting from Brussels wasn't so helpful when you are sat in Amsterdam.
So we grabbed the last seats on a late train the night before, and had a lightning quick Brussels experience thanks, again, to some tips from the man in Seat61.
Food in Amsterdam
Lunch at Gartine. Lovely. Must book.
Art in Amsterdam
BREXIT and Black Lives Matter at the Stedelijk Museum.
Our Lord in the Attic
Oh yes. A church hidden inside a house. It was fine, so long as you weren't overt about it.
Watching the traffic float by
Conflicted whether boat or bike is the best way to get around this city.
Anne
Anne Frank and her family hid in the house at the end of the canal. Look closely and you can see it.
Day 1 in Amsterdam
Fay found an awesome house boat to stay in while in Amsterdam.
This is a footpath
"What I don't understand is why don't bikes pull over to get out of the way of my car when I'm clearly capable of going faster"
Padstow sunset. Maybe.
A computer generated painting of Padstow Harbour Sunset, generated by Midjourney AI.
Wally might be impressed.
Pint and a read
It chucked it down just before midday, and it sounded like everyone made a beeline for the nearest eatery. By about 8pm the Harbour Inn was just calm enough for a quiet pint.
Screwfix on a fixie
I had a delivery to collect from Screwfix, simple, except I was on a single-speed (not quite a fixie) and Screwfix is at the top of the hill.
Getting there was puffing, but let's just say home down West Hill to the trail was fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!
Challenge - Padstow by train and bike
Challenge accepted, can I get to Padstow on public transport and a bike? Should be easy, what with our new Great British Railways (with both the words Great and British together it must be awesome).
Let's use the GWR app to book the ticket and a cycle reservation. Sorted. ish. It can't give me a digital ticket, instead I must collect the ticket from the station. OK, I'm leaving from a station so let's do that!
After 12 years of conservative government leadership the railways lack a guiding focus on customers, coherent leadership and strategic direction. They are too fragmented, too complicated, and too expensive to run. Innovation is difficult. Incentives are often perverse. Some working practices have not changed in decades. There must be single-minded efforts to get passengers back. In short, we need somebody in charge.
Eloquent words you say? Sorry, but those aren't my words. They're copied verbatim from the government's own Williams-Shapps plan for Great British Railways. You can read all about it here. And before you complain about my blatent copying, the 'Shapps' in Williams-Shapps is the beloved member for Welwyn Hatfield; also the previous chair of the conservative (and unionist!) party; the same Shapps named when "Google blacklisted 19 of the Shapps' business websites for violating rules on copyright infringement"; and, hysterically, also the same Shapps that used multiple made-up names in some pyramid scheme. You couldn't make this up.
Expectant
"It must be almost dinner time" said Yogi.
"In fact, it always must almost be dinner time" he thought.
Sailing!
Treated myself to an awesome couple of hours sailing on the Camel with H from Camel Sailing. It's been a while. The last time was also here, but back in 2005.
I could get used to the view from a Wayfarer, but maybe not following the views experienced by Frank Dye.
After work boarding
The benefits of work from anywhere and a "finishing early 🏄" appointment in my calendar. Some nice waves @ Harlyn with F and then dinner from Big Pans. Yummy.
Sandsnipe
Sandsnipe. Sniping sand.
If only I could be consistent on how the boat's name is spelled. In my defense, that was seventeen years ago.