London Pie Dreams!

London Borough Market and time to drool over the huge varieties of pies including regional delights from Yorkshire, Scotland, and Cornwall all filled with game and veggies! I could spend a month coming here for lunch!

Innovative espresso

Scooter based espresso in London Borough Market uses a tricycle Vespa configuration with an espresso bar on the cargo platform - amazing how innovative and creative folks can be when a business opportunity presents itself.

Whitebait

Waited many years for a chance to have a dish of whitebait and the opportunity presented itself at the "Fish" restaurant at Borough Market a skip and a jump from London Bridge! My whitebait dream is based on a real experience in the Greek Peloponnesus when I enjoyed a week of harborside restaurant serving crunchy whitebait. Helas this version turned out to lack as much batter as I would like and to be a bit limp! Still tasty but not quite the product I was looking to send me down memory lane!

Boar Rotisserie

The crackling looked perfect! Nicely presented boar had been roasted on a rotisserie and was being sliced off into sandwiches. Just mouth watering....

English pint!

Nothing quite like a pint of bitter at an English pub for lunch along with fish and chips! Beer is not cold, just cooler than room temperature, so you can really let the taste the ale and hops come through!

Sharon in the Sandbox

Perfecting horse control in the sandbox at Headley! Under the tight orders from the dressage trainer, Sharon guides 10 year old Merlyn around the sandbox circuit made up of sand mixed with cloth. Never knew you could train your steed to this level of perfection!

Boating in the Thames with swans

Nothing like pottering about in a boat on a hot summer day! Lunch and relaxation on the Thames near Shepperton, moored up to D'Oyley Carte island. Puttered down river to pick up an ice cream cone!  Glorious day - England doesn't get better than this! This is right after the men returned with ice cream cones! We'd had a picnic lunch earlier in the afternoon. Big boats, small boats, kayaks, sculls, Stand Up Paddleboard - we saw it all!

More old cruisers!

James (in the middle) took us for an evening walk to St James's (where else?) Park close to Victoria and Buckingham Palace, stopping off at Constitution Hill, Admiralty Arch, The Citadel, Horse Guards Parade, Cabinet War Rooms before making our way to Olivo Restaurant in Belgravia. Margaret left and Celia right. More stories of years spent in front of the mast, trials and tribulations of life and children now grown up leaving us with time to start our new adventures!

The Queen is having a Birthday!

Official birthday as opposed to real birthday! The day the Queen became Queen back in the early 50's. Troops will perform and bands will play and if you are really lucky you get an invite to the garden party! Constitution Hill leads to Buck House in the distance!

The Old Cruisers!

Many a day and night under sail going back to the early 70's back and forth across the English Channel in our Iroquois catamaran 30 ft Ellicat and Iroquois Mk II 32 ft Sitting Bull and Allan's 27 ft Leisure sloop Louis D'Or. What tales of adventure and narrow escapes! Peter and Nicky far back, Allan and Sharon front pair, us in the middle! Enjoying the real thing Turkish Cappadocia grill Doner Kebabs and Lamb Kofte in Kingston!

Schipol Airport Amsterdam

Waiting to board our BA flight to LGW I checked the aircraft registration online database and accident records to make sure she was clean aircraft and had not been banged up and fixed up! Apart from French air traffic controllers being on strike and causing huge ripple effect delays throughout Europe we arrive back to home territory!

Cat rescue canal boat

Yes... Amsterdam has a canal boat moored right in the middle of town for cat rescues! This is one of the longer term feline visitors who probably by the expression on his face has not endeared himself to any potential adopter! Clearly a grumpy cat!!

Amsterdam special

All over town many stores provide marijuana and supplies. Kitted out like coffee bars they offer different delights! Walking around town very frequently you get engulfed in a heavenly cloud by smokers enjoying their smoke treats!

Haarlem St Bove

Mozart played the organ here when he was 10 year old..... and what s magnificent organ it is with 100 ft pipes

Haarlem Canal Bridge

Classic Dutch counter weighted canal bridge over the waterway around Haarlem - adapted by Waterlogue.