Day 19 September 26th Penzance to St Martin's

Our final day proved to be less traumatic than the previous one.  It was another fine, calm day as we sorted ourselves out, had some coffee and organised a taxi to take us to the Penzance quay for the 0915 sailing to Scilly.  We were there in good time, soon deposited the luggage, checked in and settled down in the comfy chairs in the upper saloon for the crossing.  We were soon underway and enjoyed more coffee and toasted sandwiches as our breakfast.  Both of us wandered round the deck at different times to enjoy views of the 

Round Island lighthouse

Cornwall coast and the islands as they came into view.  The 2½ hour journey soon passed and we were met on St Mary's quay by Heather and Alan, we had a short conversation with them but soon the launch Voyager was at the quay ready for the final leg to St Martin's.  We were met on the quay by Matthew Martin

Martin/Andersen family

whose family had been looking after our house for part of the time we were away.  We left our luggage in the Higher Town waiting room, walked home and I went with the car for the luggage.  We met the rest of the Martin/Andersen family and all was safely home after a very interesting journey.

 

Day 18 September 25th Dover to Penzance



the white cliffs as we arrive

Our final morning on board was an

Dover Castle

early start as we had to disembark by 0850.  It was another fine day and so after breakfast we were ready to leave.  We collected our luggage (very well organised) and joined the queue to get a taxi to the station.  We soon made it!  I had cautiously booked us on a train leaving Dover at 1145 which would still get us to Penzance by early evening but this proved to be a huge mistake.  We watched the 0945 and 1045 trains leave but decided to wait in the excellent coffee bar for the one we were supposed to travel on.  At about 1130 a notice came up that our train was delayed, a bit later we heard that our route to London was unusable but there would be a slower train going to London Victoria but this would mean missing our Paddington train.  We were regretting not jumping on the 1045! It appeared there was a vehicle accident on a level crossing at Deal.  We crossed platforms to get on the Victoria train but were eventually told he could not move because of a lack of a guard.  Then we were advised that there would be a bus to take us to Ashford International station and so we crossed back to the entrance and joined the bus which took us to Ashford.  Here we were back on track (literally!) and eventually arrived at Paddington to catch a train at 1606 - 2 hours later than planned.  Our journey was now uneventful and we arrived in Penzance at about 2130 and so had a good rest when we settled down at Heather and Alan's flat.   

Day 17 September 24th Amsterdam



The palace

It was a fine day as  we arrived into 

Nieuwe Kerk

Amsterdam and we had already planned what we wanted to do here.  We had visited the city before at the start of our Rhine/Danube river cruise several years ago.  We were moored in the city centre by the railway station and from there we avoided the red light district and walked along Damrak and eventually found the flower market. 

typical Dutch houses

We stopped to take photos of the Palace and Nieuwe Kerk  (16th century church) which we passed along the route.  Christine had looked forward to visiting the flower market but all that was there was a series of stalls mostly

munt clock tower

selling tulip bulbs.  We did stop to buy some roses and other souvenirs.  We had a coffee, 
wandered back via the Munt clock tower to the  main road and caught a tram to return to the station.  We then took the obligatory canal cruise which took 

a sail training boat

us past a lot of the famous sites of the city and under several low 

along the canals

bridges.  It was then a few minutes walk along the Rhine bank to our boat.  A good visit as there is plenty to see and do in a very interesting city, others on the boat had visited the Rembrandt house and the Van 

houseboats along the canal

Gogh museum.  All found that there were huge queues to the Anne Frank house on a Sunday and no one tried a visit. Plenty to return to see on another visit!  We were all aboard and left the quay at about 5pm.

Sunday picnic Amsterdam canal style

  We stayed on our balcony as we made our way to the mouth of the river, through a lock and out onto the open sea.

going through the lock

Day 16 September 23rd The Kiel Canal






road bridge 

various boats we passed

Today we had the interesting journey of taking most of the day to traverse the Kiel Canal in

wind farm

northern Germany.  It saves quite a long journey of going around Jutland and was built so that German shipping and navy had access from the Baltic Sea to the north Atlantic. It was early morning (before we were up) that we entered the lock at the eastern end.  We didn't see too much of what 

 a village

went on but it was obviously not too drastic a change in water level.  After breakfast we

cross canal ferry

went to our balcony and watched the goings on from there.  It was like a day on a river cruise as we could see both banks but in a much larger boat.  It was wide enough for two boats and we passed ships of all sizes going in the opposite direction.  We could also see the vessels ahead and behind us.  The canal is busier shipping wise than either the Panama or Suez canals.  We passed villages, industrial plants,

rail bridge

small car ferries crossing the canal, went under bridges carrying both road and rail traffic and generally were kept well occupied with the changing sights.  

western lock

We went to the restaurant for lunch at one stage and eventually arrived at the western end lock at about 1530.  Again there was not much of a change in water levels at this lock.  We were soon on the open sea and having picked up several pilots, they were transferred to a large pilot boat
 which then took them to 

container ship in lock

boats waiting to enter the canal.  

the Astor

the pilot boat

We could see the Frisian Islands and some windfarms with the Astor cruise boat following us out of the canal.  The end of the day was much better with clear, warm weather.  Eventually we went inside and prepared for dinner after another relaxing but absorbing day.


Day 15 September 22nd Heading South East

Our next day was spent entirely at sea as we headed southwestwards towards the Kiel Canal.  The day was fairly uneventful as we were out of site of land for almost the entire day.  It was slightly misty and so we only occasionally saw land, another boat or a wind farm.  We spent the day mostly reading and knitting with breaks for food, a wine tasting session and a port lecture 

us ready for dinner

on Amsterdam.  I still had the remnants of the cold but hopefully did not pass it on to anyone else.  At the end of the day we had a Captain's circle party and then a formal dinner with us dressing up.  A good day as it was fairly relaxing.