Boats, Fries and Dragon Flies

Today's Highlight: all of it
We had an action packed day today (well, not high speed action). First we went and picked up Laura's bike from the fix it shop and took it back to her, then we went and signed up for a boat ride on a historic (around 65 years old) boat with the St Nicholas boat club. The club runs tours by donation. The boats are small and open, and the tours last about an hour. It was really neat to see the city from the water. We got to look in house boats as we passed (I would have thought living in a house boat would be more private, but I guess not what with all the tourists on the water) and we saw all kinds of birds and trash floating in the water. Actually, we saw a seagull eating another bird; not really the highlight of the trip, but well worth mentioning. There were 10 other people on the boat with Adrian, Zanna and I. Most of them were from the UK, but there were also a few from the states. There were tons of other tours on the water. Most of them in huge glass topped boats spewing out black exhaust smoke. Those boats were really funny, because they are all too big to turn the tight corners in the canals. It would take them about a min to shimy back and forth to make the turn, and all the other little boats would have to wait to pass. We went under a bridge so low that we all had to duck. I guess that it was a kind of secret passage, for small boats only.
We had a great time in the sun, and only got a little splashed by the stinky water.
Afterward we went to get fries (I know, how many times can we do that in one week?) and then biked back to Zanna and Hidde's where we had a little wine and played with the cat.
Zanna out did herself again when she made dinner. It was all delish, and there was more than enough. Hidde showed us some music that his punk band recorded (pretty good for punk music :) and then we biked home in the dark.
It was a great day, and tomorrow we are going to the Zoo to see the baby giraffes (and hippos, and lions, and elephants and the polar bear... etc) so I have to get to sleep so that I can oh and awe all day tomorrow.
Oh, and Adrian was the photographer today, so everyone should complement him on this photo he worked so hard on. He's a budding genius.
Love to all
Emma and Adrian