norfolk on my mind

Of the 24 boats on our marina, there are around half who, like us, live on their boats permanently and the other half who come and go, either using their boat as a weekenders or for when they come to London to work. This weekend Woz, Nate and I went to stay with one of our neighbours, Dom, who works in London and lives in Norfolk with his partner Chris.

Dom and Chris live in a small village, in an old cottage with a lovely garden which backs onto a field of barley which had been freshly harvested. At the end of their garden is a veggie patch where we spent some of Saturday afternoon picking the produce, mostly long beans and potatoes.

Almost everything we ate all weekend had been home grown and then made from scratch. From the bread we ate, jam and marmalade, veggies and apple pie. It all tasted so good!

Late Saturday afternoon we drove to a nearby beach and walked along the sand, only daring to dip our toes in the sea before heading up to the shore to have a hot chocolate to warm up.

Sunday was also spent at the beach, but this time a private one, belonging to the Earl of Leicester as part of the Holkham Estate which has been passed down the generations for about 300 years. We drove around the Estate and marvelled at it's size, which would dwarf Buckingham Palace. It's sprawling land whose fields were inhabited by deer seemed to be infinite and as we drove past gatehouses, countless cottages and buildings for servants you were really able to imagine how it might have been hundreds of years ago when we would have been in a horse and cart and the journey from the gate to Holkham Hall would have taken close to an hour (that is, if we had have been invited - I think not!)

As we walked along the beach, black stormy clouds hovered overhead so we were so thankful when we got back to the car just as the heavens opened, and then it was home for Bangers & Mash before heading back to the station to go home on the train feeling thoroughly spoilt and refreshed.

sand castles

private beach

dom, chris, woz and nate

nate took a little convincing at first

spectators

Nate's first dip didn't prove to be very successful as he got upset almost immediately so Woz retreated to the shore so he could watch other people going in and get used to the idea.

oh i do like to be beside the seaside ...

The days have been beautifully warm now for a few weeks and today was no exception. I'm not sure exactly how warm it ended up but with a forecast of 26 degrees Woz and I decided to take the train down to Brighton beach.

We had a fantastic day and Nate absolutely loved it. We spent the morning on the pebbled beach chilling out and dipping in the waves then after lunch Nate fell asleep in his buggy so Woz and I were able to wander through the narrow lanes that lead to all sorts of nooks and crannies in the town centre. There was no end of knick knacky shops which I loved browsing through and always do but never actually buy anything as doing so would be slightly incongruent to our minimalistic home. We did however visit a Lego store complete with incredibly detailed displays whereby I squealed with delight on a number of occasions (there was even a model of the Louvre with a painting of the Mona Lisa who had yellow Lego face, enigmatic smile and crossed Lego hands). I later remarked it was a good thing that every time we'd visited Denmark in the past, Legoland was closed as my excitement could possibly have been a little too much for Woz to bear and would almost certainly have resulted me being kicked out.

The beach was absolutely packed with sun revellers and few swimmers, and so walking along the incredibly busy boulevard with a buggy and not hitting people was no easy feat. On one occasion a lady who jumped out of our way, then in turn tripped over her own child. Her husband, seeing his daughter fall shouted at his wife, 'Oh carm on Simone!' That's an Aussie accent we thought. A familiar one too. We looked up and saw it was Shane Warne shouting to his wife/ex-wife. Well, we're not really sure of their current relationship but they may be on shaky ground after that little incident. (Now I really hope someone doesn't accidentally Google search this entry and turn what was intended as a funny little anecdote for family and friends into full scale ammunition for reporters everywhere to announce their imminent re-separation).

Anyway, all in all, a great day was had, although our soft Aussie feet are a little worse for wear having trodden on pebbles all day. That might sound a bit weak, but it was incredibly painful! Sand anyone?

Videos to follow, tried to upload them tonight but 'computer says no ...'

carousel

nate and woz

the english way

dodging the waves

By mid afternoon it was time to head home, on the motorbike along the coast. We stopped off at a bustling Belgian seaside town which owing to it's highrise beachside apartments Woz described as 'Surfers Paradise crawling with Europeans'. We had just enough time to peel off our leathers, go for a walk along the beach, dip our toes in the ocean and then jump back on the bike towards Calais to catch the train home.

the church graveyard

tour of brugge via the canal

The Tour Guide on the boat translated his tour into three different languages, English, French and then Flemish.

tour de sale

When we are in Australia, Woz and I have foolishly signed up for the Slog to Sale which is a 160km charity bike ride. Of course we're a shoe-in to be the first two to complete the ride, given that we haven't ridden a bike for almost three years and are naturally lazy when it comes to exercise for exercise sake.

We thought we'd get some training in while we were in Belgium ... 5 km's oughta do it right?

damme

On Sunday morning we rode our bikes out of Brugge to a small town called Damme. It was a 5km ride bordering
the surrounding farmland and absolutely picture perfect. The town itself wasn't that special. A beautiful quaint little farming villiage but it paled in comparison to the grandeour of it's neighbour, Brugge. It did however have a church tower with a spiraling stone staircase leading up to an incredible view.

Maggie had told us about the ride and also given us directions to ride the extra 13 km to the border where we could cross over into the Netherlands. It was tempting, and had we done it we would have entered four countries in one day, but we decided to enjoy Belgium and ride back to Brugge for a boat ride along the canal.

self portrait

posing

still life

bed and breakfast

We found a B & B in town which was run by a lovely wee Scottish lady named Maggie. She was so helpful and considerate and we felt right at home there - she even offered for Woz to bring his motorbike into her foyer area for the two days we were there rather than leave it on the street!

The room was very cheap and had so much character, ours on the top floor with stained glass windows overlooking a garden on the other side of the street.

on the bike

riding the push bikes through town

when in brugge ...

By late afternoon having walked all over the city we decided to do as the locals do (and the thousands of tourists) and ride a bicycle. For just 10 euros each we were able to hire two bikes for 24 hours which opened up so much more of the city to us. We could have taken our motorbike, but it was so hot we couldn't face putting on our leathers and the option of jumping on and off the bicycles on a whim sounded too good to resist.

grote markt

woz's 'blue steel' look

antique market

brugge

On Saturday afternoon around lunchtime we arrived in Brugge and fell in love with it from the moment we reached the outskirts of the city. It's Gothic beauty is unparallelled by any of the European cities we've visited in the past. Brugge has been virtually untouched since the middle ages and is by far the most well preserved city we've seen, with not a single Starbucks or Mc Donald's to be found. The canal carves its way through the city through stone houses, churches and shops. Everywhere we looked was another breathtakingly beautiful building, so many that we forgot to capture them on film.

There are so many languages spoken in Brugge it was almost a little disconcerting. Usually when we travel my brain works overtime reading signs, listening to conversations, scanning for words that are familiar to me, and it is always comforting when I feel that I'm able to understand a little of my environment. Here, French, Flemish, Dutch and English seemed to be spoken so we avoided meltdown and took the easy option, English.

a first for us

Thanks to our very gracious friends Duncan and Rejieli, this weekend Woz and I had our first weekend away baby-free. We dropped Nate off on Friday night and put him to sleep in their flat, then walked home to what felt like a very quiet and empty boat and set our alarm for 5am the next morning so that we could ride our motorbike to Folkstone, catch the train across to France and then ride through to Belgium. We made the most of every minute and it seemed like we packed a week into two days. We came home exhausted but re-energised at the same time ... (and missing our little boy).