21-25 October We got back to Amsterdam Airport on Sunday evening and decided to catch a cab home to Moondance. It was a Tesla taxi - so quite fun for us. It was nice to get back to the boat. I was still pretty exhausted from our busy trip to Spain so Howard did the majority of packing up and winterising the boat. We met with Jasper the mechanic who is going to coordinate some repairs and improvements to the boat over the winter.
We also hired a car on the Wednesday from the nearby garage and visited Monnickendam in the morning to meet with the guys who are going to make our new back deck canopy, to finalise the design. In the afternoon Howard went to visit the ship yard in Keizersveer where our boat will be taken out of the water next year for it's survey and re-certification, and then visited our friends Ruud and Petra in Vlaardingen. We thought it was odd that the garage asked for no ID, no deposit, no sighting of credit cards or filling in forms or even payment in advance when giving us the car. They just handed over the keys with the assurance that we were from the Jachthaven. However in the afternoon, when I was on the boat alone, I had a visit from the owner of the garage and the harbour master asking where the car was. Apparently Howard had said he'd bring the car back in "the morning" by 12 o'clock, and they assumed that he meant "this morning" and were surprised and a little worried when the car didn't return. But were quite happy to know that it was not stolen and it was just a translation misunderstanding. On Thursday we had a big day finishing our packing up of the boat and our suitcases, emptying our drinking water tank and winterising the plumbing. I used the hire car to drop our suitcases at the hotel, and then we set off at about 4pm to catch the bus to the airport hotel. The weather was cold and wet so we were happy to go and looking forward to seeing everyone at home in Australia. But we are also looking forward to returning next year in May for some more adventures.
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AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
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