Berwick-upon-Tweed. That would turn out the be the first harbor in England, since we said goodbye to Scotland and Edinburgh! It’s only 15 miles from the border of Scotland, but Berwick-upon-Tweed sounds already very English 😉. A friend told us: ‘Ah, if you hear about a town called ‘something-upon-something’, you are in England!’. During our 8 hour sail to Berwick, it was great weather: sunny, 18 knots of wind and we were going with a speed of 8 knots on average, we had a wonderful day!
When we crossed ‘the border’ over water to England, 2 dolphins swam next to our boat. As a goodbye from Scotland or a welcome to England sign! During the 2 weeks that we have been in England now, it has been another 2 times that we have seen a small group of dolphins close to the boat. Each time is magic, they are such beautiful animals!
In the quite harbor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I did my 4 days of online training. Each month I reserve 4 days in a row, to give online sessions. It’s such pleasure to work with Dutch professionals, such as teachers, managers, specialists. My Online Academy offers 8 different trainings which participants can choose from. It’s all about how to give better presentations, facilitate groups online, blended learning and hybrid learning. Many times I tell participants that I am giving this training from our boat in the harbor on our world trip and they are surprised because when you collaborate online, and you wifi is working great, it feels like you are not that far away!
After the 4 days of work, we went sightseeing and explored the lovely city of Berwick: the lighthouse, the old Elizabethan town walls, castle, the union bridge. There’s a lot of history in this town, because it’s the most northerly town in England, positioned at the river Tweed, so strategically important. That’s why the town switched ownership for 14 times in it’s history, from Scotland to England and back again! As you can image, many times with a lot of battling involved, hence the town walls.
We even went to the hairdresser in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Once the hairdresser found out that Gilles and I were going out for dinner that night in locally famous restaurant Limoncello, she immediately said: ‘Let’s do some curly hair then, love!’. So with lots of curls in my hair, we went to the restaurant 😊.
Also Amble, our next destination, turned out to be a great little fishing village. With a castle, colorful beach cabins along the pier and typical English country side trails, that we explored with our e-bikes. We ate sausage-on-a-stick in one of the shops along the beach and went to the local pub to have a drink. So far, England has been very enjoyable and tomorrow we are sailing further south this east coast of Great-Britain.
