2026, May 16th – 31st (part 2)
On the evening of Saturday (16th) Nicki, Amy and Tom drove up to stay with Lucy, in readiness to watch her run her first official half-marathon on the Sunday morning, running to raise funds for the Red Cross.
We were all up and out by 7am to catch the tube across London, with at least a half hours walk the other end to reach Hackney Marshes so that Lucy could start her final preparations before her allocated start time at around 9.45.
Amy, Tom and I had planned to catch her at mile 9, and again further along, which was exciting, and we also caught a glimpse of her at around the mile 13 point, just ahead of the finish. Her time was a PB of 2 hrs, 16+ mins – an excellent result for her.
Once her run was complete, we all met up at the Red Cross stand, where Lucy was treated to a much needed massage and a bit of downtime, and then she was ready for her next activity if the day! This one was less taxing though, meeting up with friends for post-run drinks followed by a concert.
Amy, Tom and Nicki returned to Lucy’s flat (having themselves walked around 8 miles throughout the day), and after a brief rest, Amy and Tom left to head back to Southampton, leaving Nicki to chill for the evening
The penultimate day of Nick’s UK visit was less exhausting – Lucy had arranged for them both to see an IMAX screening of Project Hail Mary in the afternoon, and a stage production of Warhorse in the evening, which were both excellent.
Finally on 19th she took a flight from Heathrow back to Schiphol and back home, arriving close to midnight. With Lucy joining us just a few days later, whilst Nicki was in the air I moved the boat back into the centre of Groningen to make it easier for both her return and also for Lucy’s visit, easily finding a nice mooring on the main canal.
Just as I left the boat to meet Nicki at the station, I was treated to a singing procession walking along the opposite side of the quay – very probably a religious festival since this seemed to be the start of the Whitsun period (aka Tweede Pinksterdag).
It was close to midnight when Nicki finally arrived at the rail station, much to Pip’s utter delight – she loves going to rail or train stations, as either she’s going on a ride or, even better, someone arrives that she hasn’t seen for a while – Casper is probably equally enthusiastic in his head, but can’t be bothered to show it!
So, our little troop was all back together, and we then had to wait a couple more days in Groningen before Lucy turned up, having taken the Eurostar from London to Schiphol, followed by a train ride into Groningen. Once again, Pip was beyond herself with joy at yet another family member’s arrival, and Casper was quietly thrilled too, just in his own way understated way.
Besides coming over to see the dogs first, and us second, Lucy had registered to take part in a Park Run some distance from Groningen – she was/is aiming to do a Park Run somewhere in the world in a park that starts with every letter of the alphabet, and that particular park is one of only a handful that starts with Z – the town itself was Hoogeveen, and the park, Zuiderparc.
After a mere four days with us, it was time for Lucy to return home, and after seeing her off at the station we moved out of the town centre to a nice little mooring along the Reitdiep next to the Zernickebrug. We stayed there for four nights, returning to Groningen to stay for just a couple more days, mooring more or less in the same spot as before.
Once firmly installed again, we were happy to be in touch with Howard and Deb (of Moondance) who were also arriving in Groningen, and arranged to catch up with them the following day on Shensi, when we spent several happy hours into the evening catching up, drinking and eating. The next day turned out to be the town’s first Marathon run which, amazingly, ran right by Shensi! We spent much of the day watching and encouraging the runners as they raced past, until Jodi and Eric (of Ria, based at Reitdiephaven) called round with wine and nibbles to join us later on, and another few hours of pleasant company was spent on the stern deck, and that was how we saw in the end of May 2026.
