News from Holland

Since the verdoemden cancellation of my trip to Old Blighty the problem with my neck and back has subsided somewhat.  The physiotherapy here is free and eventually has got on top of the aches and pains.
I hope to reinstate the trip for next year, health in other areas permitting.

Meanwhile, I took Alexander to Texel a couple of weeks ago.  Texel is the smallish island just to the north of the province of Nord Holland where we live.  There is a ferry which takes about 10 minutes and is very cheap.  There are jokes about Texel relating to the fact there are LOTS of sheep there but I will leave them to your imaginations.

While there we visited three museums, one on aviation, one on the sea and one on wrecks.  The last had cartridges said to have come from SMS Lutzow, scuttled following damage sustained at the battle of Jutland in 1916.  In the other two were engines from allied and German aircraft recovered from the sea around Texel.  It's the first time I've had a close look at the sleeve-valved Bristol engines of WW2.

While recently engaged in an experiment to finally discover the capacity of the Guzzi's tank (it was 3 gallons, btw) I  went to Camperduin on the coast as I had discovered there was the wreck of an old RN battleship which had beached there in 1920 whilst on tow to be scrapped.  Unfortunately, most of the remains had sunk into the sand and there were only a few bits of metal visible.

I had heard of Camperdown before as another battleship had borne that name and a quick google search  revealed that a battle was fought just off the coast in 1797 between the RN and a fleet from the Batavian Republic.  The Dutch lost most of their engaged warships and it is no wonder a RN warship was named Camperdown.  HMS Camperdown is also remembered as the ship that sank HMS Victoria in the Med. in 1893 after Admiral Tryon cocked up a manoeuvre big time.

Finally, for Roger.  I decided it was time to renew the rear suspension of the MZ so got a new set of dampers from england and married them up with a set of springs I had had on hand for some years.  I have also replaced the rear brake shoes and hope to have the beast back on the road when the rain stops!