Houlle

Remember, you can click on the photos for a bigger image

A lazy day today, with the most wonderful weather:  full on sunshine, no wind. 

Holiday time!   I only got up at 8.00, Ian stayed in bed and read his book for a bit.

We went for a walk this morning – this is what we saw

A farm right next to the canal

How pretty

Quaint - but still in working order

The end of the canal

Interesting rickety roofs

The gin distillery

Rubbish bins - a sight unseen in the the Netherlands and Belgium.

After lunch we read our books, lazed in the sunshine, and took great interest in what the locals do on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the spring.  They certainly make the best of it.

Big boat, small engine

How much kit does one fisherman need?

In the evening we got a reasonably fast internet connection and watched the F1 grand prix with a bit of buffering now and then but it did not spoil an exciting race.  Yay, Rosberg won!

Then we sat outside in the evening sunshine, Ian brought out his drone but it only flew for a few minutes before giving a low battery warning so he brought it back down again.  We also had a chat to the fisherman with the serious equipment: it is supplied by his sponsor and he is a champion angler in some or other class.  

He spoke a little English, about par with my French, so it was an interesting conversation. His fishing pole is 13m long and he caught 1.4 kg of the minutest tiddles (max 6cm long) which he takes home to deep fry.  Once again – so friendly, keen to talk. What is this nonsense about the French being xenophobic?  Especially anti English.  We have only encountered really, really nice, friendly, helpful people.

Stills from the drone:  unfortunately due to the low battery, and Ian not keen to go diving for his drone if it sank in the canal, there are only 2 stills.