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On our way to and from Holland at Easter we visited Houghton Mill on the way down to the Harwich ferry and stopped over in Cambridge on our way home
Although
there has been a mill on this site for most of Houghton's history, the original
mill site (certainly in the time of the Domesday book) was approximately 0.4
miles along the river towards Huntingdon.
The
present building was probably built in the 17th century, and was extended in
the 19th century.
In
the 1930s, the mill was decommissioned. Local residents bought the building and
it was given to the National Trust. After the war, the mill was in use as a
youth hostel, and was one of the few YHA establishments where smoking was
forbidden because of fire hazard
The beautiful village of Houghton
On our way back home we stayed in Cambridge and took the opportunity to see some of the sights of this University city
We even found time to drop in at Fenners to see some cricket
But then we came across this gem of a place
... this is definitely a wonderful place to visit
Over Easter we stayed at Witven campsite, Veldhoven, near Eindhoven. It was about 7kms from Oranje Zwart Hockey Club - the hosts of this year Eurohockey League.
On Easter Saturday - a hockey rest day - we caught a train from Eindhoven to the beautiful city of Utrecht - which was about 50 minutes away.
Utrecht's
ancient city centre features many buildings and structures from the Early
Middle Ages. It has been the religious centre of the Netherlands since the 8th
century
Utrecht
boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and
terraces by the water
Utrecht was built around the Dom tower ...
... which you can see from any point in the city, so there is no way you can get lost
The
Dom Tower was built between 1321 and 1382 and is 112 meters high. It became separated from the cathedral after a tornado struck the church
in 1647
Flower market on the streets of Utrecht
The
Railway Museum in Utrecht, Het Spoorwegmuseum, established in 1927 is dedicated
to preserving historical equipment from the Dutch national railway
In 1954 the museum was permanently housed in the Maliebaan Station in Utrecht ...
It has
been beautifully restored to reenact the luxury of 19th-century train travel,
complete with a ticket window, a grand lobby hall, waiting rooms, and two
dining areas
This year's tournament was hosted by Oranje Zwart Hockey Club, Eindhoven.
The last 16 teams in the competition played in the "knock out" stages on the Wednesday and Thursday before Easter.
England had three teams in this stage of the competition
Reading, who played RC Polo (Barcelona) ...
... but lost 4-2
Beeston (Nottingham) lost 4-3 to Waterloo Ducks from Belgium
Surbiton were drawn against the host team, Oranje Zwart
and in what was an entertaining game,
Surbiton went down 3-1
On Friday, the last 8 teams battled out for a place in the semi-finals. Harvestehuder (from Hamburg), Racing Club de Bruxelles (Brussels), the phenomenally supported KHC Dragons from Belgium and Oranje Zwart won their places in the semi-finals. Harvestehuder and the home team won their matches and progressed to the Final with the two Belgian teams fighting it out for the bronze medal
Racing Club raced into a 2 goal lead ...
... but the Dragons fought back and scored three times without reply to secure third place
The final for the coveted Alain Danet Trophy was a thrilling affair with both the Dutch and German teams committed to attack
The Dutch were first to score ...
... through star penalty corner specialist, Mink van der Weerden and then extended their lead
However, the Germans fought back and the score at full time was 2-2
So the match went to a penalty shoot out, where the striker starts at the 23m line and has 8 seconds to score against the goalie.
Thrills and spills galore
and the Germans ran out winners
Congratulations to Harvestehuder on their victory and to Oranje Zwart for making it an entertaining final and also for hosting the competition.
