Welcome, Knox Edward Lambert..

2 days into the cruise.....The day before yesterday we sailed from Amsterdam aboard the 'Viking Aegir'. It has been fantastic to have Roz & Byron to talk to & play dominoes with. We were not sure when the boat was sailing so we went to bed around midnight as usual only to be woken a couple of hours later by lightning & a loud crash of thunder. As there was no movement I thought I would go out on the verandah to watch the summer storm. As the cabin is double glazed & almost sound proof, I was surprised to see the rain teeming down on the water around the boat. I was even more surprised to see the shoreline scooting past at about 15 knots. We had felt or heard nothing of our departure & the boat was skimming along rock steady & totally silent. It felt very cosy sitting the verandah watching the storm over the passing villages. When I went back to bed I left the curtain open & occasionally woke up & opened one eye to see something new go past.
When we awoke we were tied up about 100k upriver from Amsterdam & did a day tour of some old, but still functional windmills. Quite interesting & very pretty.
In the afternoon we sat on the top deck playing dominoes watching the world go by.
It was all very relaxing but by the time we went to bed Yvonne had drunk far too many wines & was very crook all night.
The boat sailed all night & the morning saw us tied up in Cologne (back in Germany again). Yvonne had recovered just enough so that by 10.30 she was just able to come with us on a walking tour of the old town area & the enormous St Martin Cathedral which took over 600 years to build, from the 1200s to 1860.
We drank some local Colsch beer which all of the local 24 breweries brew & is considered a speciality of the area. Guess what ?? It tasted just like beer.

After our afternoon nap we finally received the phone call we have been waiting weeks for.
The birth of 'Knox Edward Lambert' . Congratulations to the whole Lambert clan.
Perhaps Yvonne can relax a little more now.
As I write this, I am sitting out on the verandah of our cabin waiting to watch our 11pm depature.
Damn,, Missed it again.
2 minutes ago we were still at the dock I looked up from this screen & we were at the dock. This time I looked up & we are sliding silently up river. I did not see, hear or feel anything.
Well I am up to date & will continue this soon.

Knox Edward Lambert, 8lb 8oz. Welocome to the family.

Complete with snappy hair do.

Pretty lady in a pretty location.

View from the top window of the windmill in the previous picture, behind Yvonne.

Cologne.

Part of St Martins, Cologne,

Our verandah

Some boat along the way. Seemed to have 2 of every sort of animal on board.

Someone we know.....

The last 2 days we have been looking around Amsterdam with Roz & Byron. Its been great to have someone else to talk to, On day 1 we hired bikes & rode the 7.5k into the city, which really is a cycle city as there are many more bikes than cars & they have their own cycle roads & traffic signals. We walked through central Amsterdam which is very colourful & very crowded. There were plenty of cannibus cafees & scantilly clad girls in the windows in the red light district. NO we did not smoke any dope or eat any cannibus cookies, but we did do a cruise on the canals.
Tomorrow is house keeping day & return the lease vehicle, prior to getting on the boat on Saturday

Colourful units next to our hotel.

Bike park.

Off to town on the dedicated bike road. There is 1 on each side of the car road.

A couple of drinks at a hole in the wall, with our new friends.

The condomerie.

View of the canal from our very comfortable hotel, window

Wonky houses along one of the many canals

Roz & Byron with Rembrandt museum in the background

A well used canal in the central city area.

Amsterdam.......

Departed Bayeux, slowly headed for Amsterdam with a few minor detours. First stop Maisy near Omaha beach where there are kilometres of WW2 German trenches & gun emplacements. We walked down heaps of trenches & clamoured through many underground bunkers & munition stores. Many of the structure are still intact & many had been blown to pieces during the fighting. Besides us, there was hardly anyone looking at this stuff. I guess there is just so much still there, right up the Atlantic coast. The fact that it was 34 degrees may also have kept people away. We were talking to a lady who said a few months ago there was 2 metres of snow lying here. It was hard for us to imagine.
Next stop, Omaha beach, site of the blood soaked allied D day landing. Now a place for people to swim & sun bake. Overnight Abbeville France.

Today we went through Wissant, France, on the beach just south of Calais. We paddled in the water trying to see the white cliffs of Dover. They were just visible as a shadow through the haze of English pollution
(I guess it can't always be clear). As soon as we crossed the border & hit the great roads of Belgium & the Netherlands we covered distance very fast. We realised just how crappy French roads really are.
In fact we covered Belgium from south to north in under 2 hours including the lunch stop.
Good digs in Amsterdam & it looks the nicest European city we have seen to date. It feels great to be here.
As I write this my sister Roz & husband Byron are in the air over the atlantic & will land in Amsterdam early in the morning. It will be good to catch up with her tomorrow.

Entering a German underground bunker

This door leads into many underground rooms still in perfect condition. Notice the chunks taken out of the sloping roof from direct shell strikes during the fighting.

Testing the temperature of the Atlantic on Omaha beach.

One of very many guns still in place. These fired several miles into Omaha beach during the landing.

The monument at the point of the first landing at Omaha beach.

The comemorative stone above the beach sculpture.

 On the beach at Wissant.

Omaha beach

Entrance to underground bunker.

Normandy

We have arrived in Normandy in north western France, after a 3 day transit of just over 1000k.
On day 1 we only managed about 200k as we skirted the Alps in a half moon and then started heading north. Mountain roads & a little sight seeing ruined our distance.
Day 2 saw us spend about 50 euro on tolls but we managed about 700k in under 6 hours including stops, no doubt due to the fact we had the cruise control set to 130k the whole day. It was like floating through France on a magic carpet.
Day 2 evening saw us in a completely muslim town, shopping at the Halal super market, with signs warning of Ramadan all over the place (there is quite a story to be told here, but not in this blog).
Lunchtime today we arrived in Bayeux, Normandy & went to the war museum & then visited the military graves, which are beautifully kept by the French. There were soldiers of many nationalities buried here, English, American, Russian, Canadian, Scotch, Australian & German. We did not see any French graves.
The cemetary with its many personalised inscriptions was surprisingly moving for me, especially after seeing all the things that took place here at the museum only minutes before.
Tomorrow we go to the D day landing site at Omaha beach & work up the coast, heading for Belgium & on to the Netherlands.

War graves at Bayeux.

A strange ship looking building under construction in Lyon.

Outside the war memorial in Bayeux.

One of many castles in France. This one seemed in good condition & was being used.

Spotted this bumble bee on the way home from the cemetary, it was about an inch long and a half an inch wide.

The Big Day Out...............

Today we drove back to Bourg D'Oisans, at the base of Alpe D'Huez climb.
It was all very strange as we were trying to find out if the road from Briancon would be open as it is in a deep ravine & forms part of the course & various websites has conflicting closure times, so we set off with our fingers crossed, at 8.30am. &about 7klms out of Bourg D'Oisans Every square inch was parked in, with people walking kilometres with packs on their backs to reach Bourg D'Oisans. When we arrived in town there was bumper to bumper traffic & wall to wall people & every nook, footpath & spare space was parked in, with congested traffic crawling at about 2k. Things were looking bad & as we were driving down the last 100 metres of the sprint leg of the soon to be closed track, there it was, a gift from GOD, an easily accessible vacant park that seemed invisible to everyone in front of us who was searching. So in we drove, a short walk to the start of the climb. Circus does not begin to describe todays event. It turns out there were over a million people on the mountain today. The noise colour & costumes were overwhelming & I think every bicycle in Europe was there. We walked up the hairpin bends about 4k from where we parked our car, to the steepest part of the ascent & had to step out of the way of the bikes as they passed. At one stage the cyclists were brushing past us. They had just ridden over 100k from Gap & now had to pedal up 16k of 10 degree switchback roads & they were still travelling faster than we do on the flat.To make it even tougher, they had to ride down the other side of the mountain, back down the valley & up the mountain a second time to the finish.
 We met two English cyclists from Yorkshire & spent a couple of hours chatting with them, while waiting for the cyclists. An hour or so before the cyclists arrive the caravan comes through, this consists of about 50 various company vehicles throwing out heaps of freeTDF souvineers to the crowds. So we scored a bit of a stash. It was a show, a circus & a street parade all rolled into one. We knew when the bikes were approaching as there were 5 helicopters buzzing around & below us. It was a fantastic day out, with another mountain thunderstorm just missing us.
On return to the car it took us one & a half hours in the worlds worst traffic jam to do the 1k out of town & then through a torrential thunderstorm on the way back.
We got home at 9.30 pm. We were stuffed & happy.
Departing the Alps tomorrow.

Might be a little large.....

4k up the mountain & oblivious to the madness around him.

Yvonne waiting for the race with our 2 new Enlish friends, Tim & Peter. (left)

Are they coming yet ??

Part of the pre race caravan.

Trackside, anywhere in the world where are crowds or cities, you will find Australians

Yvonne goose steps to photograph race leader first time up the mountain, Sergio. Paulinho.

Tejay Van Garderen leads on the final ascent past our position, but was beaten 2k from the finish.

Walking down after the action.

Many thousands of cyclists attended.

Waiting patiently for the race.

No bike, but I got the hat.

Passing colour.

Tour De France ITT

Today we spent the entire day at Embrun & watched the individual time trial.
This TDF is one big travelling circus, with lots of noise colour & exitement & a fantastic jovial, friendly atmosphere. It was great just being there
 It was great to see all our heroes ride right past us. We had walked about a kilometre or more up the first hill climb to a nice shady view spot, with a picnic lunch, fruit & water & some nearby bush to pee in.Even though there are many thousands of people watching this event there is never a toilet of any sort, portaloo or otherwise. With each rider separated by 2 minutes, we were able to see & photograph all those people we have spent late nights watching over the last few years. The last to go was Chris Froome, the eventual winner of the day. Even though this was a hill climb section, the riders came past very quickly & you had to be quick to get a picture & as luck would have it my crappy camera has been playing up with the auto focus not working intermittently.

Chris Froome, current race leader & this stage winner flys right past me.

We call him 'spiderman'. because he is all arms & legs.

Cadel Evens, not doing quite so well this year.

Yvonne taking aphoto of me, taking a photo of her.

Me taking a photo of Yvonne, taking a photo of me at exactly the same moment as the above photo.

The day started clear & fine, but mid afternoon brought a large mountain summer thunder storm right on top of the mountain we were on. Luckily the rain headed north & we were left dry but when we got back to Briancon it had been teeming all afternoon & water was everywhere.

Back to Briancon via Alpine passes

Megeve behind us we took the alpine passes to Briancon instead of the main road. This turned out to be a great decision as we followed the popular Tour De France route over the Col Du Telegraphe & the infamous Col Du Galibier at around 3000 metres. There were literally thousands of cyclists on these passes. I could not have made it a hundredth of the way up & on the downhill side they were passing us at at least double our speed. We had a picnic lunch on the mountainside about 5k below the summit of Col Du Galibier.
We passed the memorial stone of a TDF cyclist killed on the decent in the past, quite sobering but not surprising.
As there is no hope of finding enough superlatives to describe this place I won't even try.
Back in Briancon now, typing this on the verandah of our unit at 10 pm, the half moon has just risen over the mountain our unit overlooks. I think I am starting to really get used to this & find it more enjoyable each day.

Tomorrow we head down to Chorges to watch the TDF individual time trial.

Driving up Col Du Telegraphe.

Pano shot half way up Col Du Galibier. (Lunch stop)

View from our lunch rock, the switchback road coming up the col.

Finished lunch.

Having lunch.

View south from the col.

Cyclist working hard at 10000ft

As we descend, someone else struggles up.

Very nice

Back in France, no toilets, Yvonne returns from a stop au nature.