Hotel Restaurant De Boekanier Vrouwenpolder

... market today. We were given a tour of their facility as well as seeing a new 177' yacht under construction. They want my dad to buy this yacht, but after waiting three years for me to get out of high school, he wasn't willing to wait another year for a yacht to be completed.

After our tour, we climbed aboard the heli again for a short flight to Brugge.

Finally the weather is favorable! We got stuck almost a week, waiting for the wind to come from the right direction! Every morning, all th crew members were standing in the line, to read the last meteo messages. Dissapointment, anger, irritation... it is really frustrating to be stuck in your own country! But today, we leave!! We let the ropes go, engine in reverse to het out of the berth, a little forward, ok, a little backward...backward!!! "klingklang kling ...

... were jealous about my romantic cruise!!! If they knew!! Frank compares the speed regarding to the ground (GPS) and to the water, and realizes that although we seem to go quite fast, because of the reverse current, we only do some 3 knots! "We'll never get before dark if we go on like that... we take the sails down, and go on engine: this will allow us to go straight to the destination instead of having to zigzag to it" Ok, engine on...and we look both at each other...yess, we ...

... only team mate... that makes me a little nervous! "We'll arrive around 21 hr", says Frank, and after a while he passes me the binoculars. "Look at Starboard, I mean, to the right". I see a sand bank with dots on it, hee, seals! Here, in Belgium (well, no, now we are in The Netherlands...) Waw... I quickly go downstairs, take the camera, aim and take a picture. Something good at least, our slow speed :-)

So, it's the 5th of June and
we are in Belgium. The ferry was long and there was very little to
do, so we decided to sleep for 15 of the 18 hours we were at sea. We
had avoided getting diesel in the UK in order to make the most of
cheaper European prices, so refuelling was our first priority. Once
fully loaded up with fuel and crisps, we powered on through north
east France, planning to cut across Switzerland and enter Italy just
above Milan.

... of the country of the Netherlands is actually under sea level: They have more hydro engineers than anywhere in the world. Today was Queens day in the Netherlands. it's their national holiday. Everyone wears orange and sell their things in the streets. We found some time today to eat some traditional food from the Netherlands

... weren't being displayed, so we didn't stay long. Today is our last day in Bruges. It has been lovely here...quiet, calm, and mostly sunny! Tomorrow we catch a train to Brussels, the final destination of the Ellen/Becky tour. Then on Wednesday Mom heads home, and I head to London for the final leg of my trip. Jenny--glad you're having fun in Sarasota! Hope the weather's nice. Can't wait to see you soon. Bye for now!

... then we headed out of amsterdam to drive down the coast of the netherlands on the way to brugge, belgium. the scenery of the dutch countryside reminded me of iowa.. weird... we stopped in a small village to have lunch before crossing into belgium in a town called OOstkapelle.

A two and a half hour journey by car saw Walter, Matt, Marnie and Adrian venture to Zeeland and the Delta Works. On 31st January 1953, a massive storm in the North Sea caused major flooding throughout Holland, Belgium, England, Denmark and France. Over 1800 people were killed in the Netherlands, mostly in the southern province of Zeeland, where dikes were broken and large parts of the country were ...

... towards the town square we noticed many chocolate shops!!! So we stopped in and made a little selection. Then walked to the Church of our Lady and saw the only statue of Michaelangelo that left Italy during his lifetime. Saw a waffle shop and had to stop. Waffle, strawberries and ice-cream- yum, yum, yum. Brugges seemed to be filled with tourists today, will be interesting to see whether it will be tomorrow. Local cuisine in Belgium is great.