27th - 30th June Lauwersoog

This was to be a short blog just for colour but the wind and seas dropped making it possible to move on in leaps and bounds - but first the intended short colour bit.

The high wind continues to keep us in Lauwersoog's comfortable and entertaining marina - with good wifi too. As trailed in the last episode we caught the 163 bus to Groningen with our two Dutch chums Crus and Corry who have seen all the old BBC TV comedy series so plenty of opportunities to relive those magic moments. It was a good day to go, flying at breakneck speed for the best part of an hour along quiet, flat roads passing farmsteads with low over generous roofs which seem to want to reach to the ground, wide fields of cereals and root crops planted with geometric precision thriving in totally stoneless sandy soil. Eat your heart out Oxfordshire gardeners.

Groningen is an attractive city, well known for its high student population who outnumber their elders by an order of magnitude and make the city bustle with life and colour. It was one of the first cities to effectively ban motor traffic from the centre by doing away with a six lane highway which went through the middle, then replacing it with cycle paths and pedestrian walk ways - in spite of the protests at the time it is now very popular and according to those who tell, saves the city a fortune by preventing the decay of historic buildings and making the heart of the town alive.

We found the town marina we had stayed at 14 years before and surprisingly there still on the corner was the very bike shop where we had tried several folding bikes up and down the pavement and by trial and error bought the model we were able to actually ride in a straight line.

With the high wind ( gusted 30knots in the marina ) running into the weekend a Dutch National meet of Optomists had its base close to Talisman giving a good position to admire the children who fearlessly helmed their dinghies in testing conditions albeit not until it had calmed down in the afternoon. It was good to see the sun shining at last - we cycled from the boat on dedicated nature paths winding through woods and open land and even across an army firing range which was a little intimidating when machine guns opened up - there had been red flags and notices but they were in Dutch so we assumed that they did not apply to us. We are still here.

Far reaching landscapes with big skies, swallows skimming the waterways and a reed bunting precariously balancing on tall reed grass, field edges sown with wild flowers, creamy bedstraw, marigolds, white and pink briar in the hedgerow and swathes of pyramid orchids. I found time to paint a small sample. There is a promise of better weather, maybe we can move on this Monday.