Earlier this month we went on a short trip to Holland to visit Esther's folks. Mike travelled on to Germany to attend a meeting for work.

This time we decided to try travelling by ferry so we drove to Harwich and spent 6.5 hours on the boat! While this was a long time on board, on the plus side we only had 1 hour's driving after our arrival at Hook of Holland and it was easier entertaining the boys on board than it is in the car.

Es had a good time in Holland and visited some friends and even the Rotterdam Zoo with the boys. It was good to spend some time with Klara and Henk and on the one day that Mike was in NL we also managed to spend some time with Erik, Leny, Daphne and Bump, due in August '08. Daphne is over the moon to be getting a baby brother!

Our journey back via the same route went very smoothly, and we took a cabin with 2 berths. First Alex had a nice nap (and Es tried but was dreaming too much about Titanic) and later Mike and Thomas had some (semi) quiet time. We also managed to have a shower on board so we felt quite refreshed when it was time to start the drive back to Ash Vale from Harwhich.

Two days after our arrival home we had a visit from Esther's friends Linda and Ria. Es took the Tuesday off work and us ladies went into London for the day. Linda and Ria also enjoyed spending time with Thomas and Alex, chasing after them in the garden and pushing Alex on the big boy swing.

Some photos from these exploits can be found in the Gallery.