URK – HOORN - 54 miles

Fri 13^th – Mon 16^th

Only a short trip today, the last main one of the journey, next time it will be back to the port and the ferry. However, it was not one of the easiest, firstly got detoured by roadworks, got it wrong and ended up in a building site trying to find our way out again. Then just as we were coming in to Hoorn we came to a bridge that was closed for painting would you believe. So once more did an about turn, Silly Emily had another one of her re-calculating moments telling us to go the way we couldn’t. Then we fell over a Lidl so parked up and went in to get 2 boxes of wine to take home (9.99 euros here £14.99 at home!!) We reverted to google maps on my phone and did a complete circuit around the town and arrived at the Jachthaven from a totally different direction. What a performance! After lunch and a snooze we went for a walk around part of the marina and had a look in a museum of old boats, a lot of which were in the process of being restored. Then back for a cuppa, a read, and watch the new arrivals.

Sat….

It was another lovely nice day so we opted to take the hop-on hop-off city tour. It was a sort of super-sized golf buggy, all electric with a lovely lady who spoke marvellous English. We had it all to ourselves for 1 hr 20mins whilst she pointed out all the sights and told us the history of Hoorn, as well as little nuggets of information. We had assumed all the older houses that were leaning over were basically falling down, but no, they were built like that because people had to pay taxes on the ground size so it was better to lean outwards and have more space upstairs. Later we had a mooch around the main square and had a pancake lunch, then we walked the length of an extremely long market, stalls selling everything you could think of. Back to Juliette in time for a cuppa and then sit in the sun until dinner time.

Sadly this is now more or less the end of our journey.  Tomorrow Lorna and Mike should arrive and we will have plenty to chat about. Then it is off to the Hook of Holland and the ferry on Tuesday.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our travels, about 1200 miles in total. Bye until the next trip.

Photos