Alkmaar to Haarlem, 2 days and some rain

I didn't feel like posting yesterday partially cause I was feeling a little sad about Chuck who seems to be going downhill.  His back legs have been getting a bit weaker, the left one in particular for a fair while,  but they're suddenly a bunch worse.  He's been adjusting to this relatively sudden change but it has been a bit hard.  It appears to not be painful which is key.  He can't stand up from sitting anymore, he has to sort of iron cross his back end up by putting his front paws back near his hips and sort of pry/balance his way up.  Delts and core of steel coming his way.  He sort of fell into a ditch yesterday while going for a drink and his slightly out of control back end jack knifed on him on the slope and in he went.  He couldn't get himself out so I had to pull, which seemed to hurt, new that, till I got a hold of him rather than his collar.  The result? He's gotta wear his much loathed harness when I suspect I may have to haul him around, like getting on and off the boat or walking near ditches. This morning was a bit grim, he seemed much worse, limp is 3 of his 4 legs and it was like he'd lost the rhythm of walking sometimes and he'd have to sort it out again, however after a restful day on the boat while we motored along in the rain he was much better this afternoon .  Still kind of staggering and still can't stand up from sitting properly and if he gets his weight too far back, down he goes, but trotting along and coordinated and at a pretty normal speed so that was nicer. 

Anyway, we left Alkmaar yesterday and went back to a previous spot in Oost Graftdijk, great place to walk and it's free.  There was a creepy Romainian dude, he had a weird monosyllabic conversation with me, but he did go away, so that's fine.  Chuck and I saw more sheep being moved and we're they ever delighted to get into the new field with knee high grass!!!! You could hear them tearing it off from a good distance!!!

As the sun had finally come out and Chuck was wet, we sat out in the sunshine in the grass next to the boat for a good hour which was lovely.

Took this picture of the boat too....

After yesterday's beautiful sunshine and sort of warmth, I am wearing 3 layers including a wool sweater and a down jacket, the forecast for today was at best grim, however neither X nor I this morning felt like sitting on the boat in the rain all day so we hauled off for a longish day to Haarlem.  It was grey and drizzly all day, the wind wasn't as cold as it had been, previously it was off the North Sea and absolutely frigid, this was from the south, so not so bad.  There were a lot of bridges and locks so meals got a little disorganized, we may have to plan to stop for 20 min at midday or something in future for longer days cause by the time we got to Haarlem and it was raining properly, I was hungry, thirsty, getting cold and tired cause I'd slept badly that night I had a wee hissy fit as we were coming in to tie up.  Often the signs in the moorings are long and have lots of long dutch words.  I'm doing ok with dutch and I can actually figure a lot out, but it would be nice, I though, if they'd just use the internationally or at least EU offical signs rather than writing freaking essays in dutch that you can't read from a boat through the rain, even with binocular.  Jeez.

Actually, I said rather worse than jeez, but anyway.  We got tied up, had some food, had some tea, had a nap, and then the sun came out!!!! What a difference!!!! So Chuck and I went off for a tour of the town, which was pretty typically Dutch, with some exceptionally big churches and a couple of creepy touches, plus this suoer narrow house!!!!