We have been away from our floating home for 5 weeks, having a ball in Europe! On the way we stopped in Auckland for a couple of nights where Heather's family officially welcomed Karl into the family - even decorating the spare bedroom up into the Honeymoon Suite! On arrival in Holland, Karl's family went the extra mile to welcome Heather into the family. We had many family gatherings with brothers and sisters and in laws and nieces and nephews - with so many laughs and so much warmth. We loved life in the camper van, for 2 weeks touring through Holland, Belgium, France and Luxembourg. Heathers friends in France put on a special wedding lunch for the newlyweds! We discovered that France is an esay place to travel in a camper with loads of free parking spots and camper friendly places along the way. Karl introduced Heather to many of his old friends in Holland and we had a fabulous time - Karl caught up on all the news from the last 35 years and Heather got to meet so many wonderful p eople that had been part of Karl's life when he lived in Holland. For the second half of our stay in Europe we shared a house with Karl's sister and brother-in-law who had travelled from Canada to join the family gatherings. It was very special to spend time with the family and to see all of the family together again after so many years. Karl had been a bit worried that he had forgotten how to speak Dutch after such a long time away, but it didn't take long before he was back into the swing of things. Heather has been learning Dutch for the last two years and was finally able to put this to good use, following along with conversations and even managing to speak some Dutch! Heather experienced the true meaning of the Dutch word 'gezellig' which translates to English as 'cosy' but really means so much more. The fun, the laughter, the warmth, the closeness of the family as we chatted around the table - that was gezellig! As Heather was clearly a tourist in Holland, various friends and family members became tour guides on different days, each showing us interesting places and explaining some history and fascinating facts along the way. It was truly a wonderful time, with so many experiences that will last forever in our memories and too many stories to tell here! The one highlight we will share here however is our visit to Amsterdam during "Sail Amsterdam". Every 5 years the old tall ships visit Amsterdam, along with replicas of ancient vessels. We were lucky enough to be there at the right time and our tour on a canal boat through the city ended up in the harbour amongst all the grand old tall ships as they were circling the harbour getting ready to depart! On shore the waterfront was packed with people and here we were on a boat in the harbour with the whole fleet around us! Awesome!! On the way to and from Europe we spent a few days in Tokyo and enjoyed experiencing the vastly different culture, the ultra modern city, intermingled with ancient shrines and temples - and the delicacies of Japanese cuisine. Surprising to see so many rice fields and vegetable crops and mountains and lakes just 45 minutes out of the city centre. We were also very lucky with the weather. In our 5 weeks away we had beautiful weather almost every day - only two rainy days in 5 weeks!! Temperatures ranged from 35 degrees one day in Tokyo down to about 20 degrees one day in Europe, but most of the time we enjoyed very pleasant mid to late twenties which was just about perfect.
On return to our floating home on Saturday, all was well with our yacht, apart from a missing outboard motor. Our new 8hp Yamaha had been padlocked on the the back of the yacht but someone must have been determined to have it. So it appears we have made another donation to the people of Vanuatu, albeit unintended. Last year we lost our 80hp main engine and now this year we have lost our 8hp outboard - so it feels like an improvement on last year's effort!