Leaving England ( again )
Arriving in Holland
On the 17th March 1991 Fiona and I left Carlisle to begin our new life in Holland, the following day we arrived in Amersfoort --- we had no friends and nowhere to stay --- all we had was the Honda, three bags of clothes, a small amount of money and a lot of optimism.
It's raining
and as I said, we have nowhere to stay, fortunately we managed to find a
hotel and as promised we wrote postcards home - no mobile phones then ----
things were far from good - cold, wet and lonely - however next day we had
a chance meeting with a member of the a motorcycle club - Confederates MC,
and things suddenly took a turn for the better. Within a month we had a
home - albeit a caravan - and I was now working, my employment lasted the
next 13 years.
The story from now revolves around motorbikes, first the bad news, I managed
to crash our Honda one night --- we were alright but the bike was beyond
repair --- now the good news --- Fiona would now let me buy my first "Harley
Davidson" .
Harley Davidson
When someone
buys a Harley Davidson usually they always write their praises, but unfortunately
my one was a bit of a disaster - photo two- From the outset the oil pump
was not working and as I discovered it had not been put together very well,
however with the help of friends from the motorbike club I was able to rebuild
and repair it, until that is, on our way back to Crete a couple of years
later it decided to break a valve in the middle of Italy --- that's a story
that needs a page on it's own.
After a top end re-build a short time later the gearbox decided to self
destruct --- time for another re-build.
By now I was tired of repairs and decided to buy another "Harley"
--- a 1200cc Sportster --- unfortunately my troubles persisted so I bought
a new 883cc Sportster - photo three.
On this bike Fiona and I have made many trips back to England, that is until
2002 when it too decided to die on the motorway and I had the embarrassment
of being brought home on a breakdown truck --- the last straw --- I sold
the bike and bought a car!
Settled in Holland
Barneveld
As I said earlier
our first "house" was in fact a caravan in a wood, no-body told
us it was beside the zoo, imagine the scene --- we had a few beers, darkness
fell, then the strangest noises imaginable coming out of the trees, at first
I blamed it on the strength of the Dutch beer !!
As the first winter approached we went house hunting again, once again lady
luck was on our side and Fiona found a great apartment close to Amersfoort
town center where we lived for the next four years.
As I worked in Barneveld and a house became available, in 1995 we moved
to "Chicken Town" as it is known in Holland ( It is an agricultural
town surrounded predominantly by chicken farms ). Just as we were settled
in our Barneveld house the council decide to demolish it to make way for
a new road ! This meant yet another move to another part of town - photo
four.
In 2004 we returned to Enland, renovating a house in Padiham Lancs.