Thank you so much for letting us stay, we had a wonderful time. You can count us amongst those visitors, Niels. Niels’ visitors book is testament to just how enjoyable it is to stay in his home and the’ determination of guests to come back and stay again. Niels arranged for a host to meet us at the boat house, since we arrived on a late flight, but he had left us a welcoming note and bottle of wine, and he emailed the next morning to check that all was okay. That said, do try to make time for an evening stroll along the Browersgracht waterway, where the canal bridges are lit up and there are spout-neck gables galore. (Everyone cycles and often several children accompany their parent, strapped to the back seat or plopped into the front basket.) On the other side of the canal from the boat house is a small park with a bar and outdoor seating and well-stocked, late-night shop can be found just a couple of streets away.
The main museums are less than 30 minutes walk away, down café-lined streets though of course, you could hire a bike to get there. It is a short distance from Niels’ place to Anne Frank’s house, and a little further, the centre of Amsterdam. The kitchen is really well stocked with utensils. The boat house makes great use of space and has an uncluttered Scandanavian-style, while at the same time feeling warm and homely. There are two bedrooms, one very cosy but with a double-bed, a bathroom with state-of-the-art shower, small utility room or perhaps big utility cupboard, and a delightful terrace where my friend and I ate breakfast every morning, sitting in the sun. There is wooden flooring throughout, a spacious living room, large inviting dining table, and huge windows looking out over the canal. (Don’t worry about dropping the key – it’s attached to a ball of cork!). A large chalet or perhaps cabin, the boat house sits in the canal, accessed by steps down from the canal side. Niels’ boat house was just the best place and the perfect location for our weekend away. Julius Caesar wrote.My friend, my daughter and her boyfriend were all up for a suggested end-of-summer adventure in Amsterdam before returning to work and school respectively. He was fully aware of the wealth of the island and the goods that were already traded from Britain to the Roman Empire. So Britain was not unknown either to the Romans or to Caesar himself. And Caesar himself states that one of the reasons for his expeditions to Britain is to punish the Celts for supporting the Gauls in their rebellion against him. Veni Vidi Vici tattoo on the back with stars. This tattoo shouts roman all over, everybody remembers Julius Ceasar with the laurel wreath around his head, and his undying quote inside a laurel wreath represents what the line is all about. Most of the evidence dates from before 50BC, with virtually no evidence after that date, suggesting the port was important before Caesar's invasions of Britain. Simple Veni Vidi Vici tattoo in a laurel wreath on the wrist. Coins found on the site show trading links with Brittany as well as Italy. Iron, silver and bronze were exported and there is evidence that figs, glass, tools, as well as wine were imported. Archaeological finds of amphorae used to transport wines from Northern Italy show links with the Roman world that pre-date Caesar. Hengistbury Head, for example, in Dorset developed into a main trading port with both France and Spain. Iron Age hoards, like the one at Hallaton in Leicestershire, often contain coins from the Mediterranean world and beyond - all clear evidence that Britain was to a greater or lesser extent, integrated into the world of trade and commerce. Diodorus Siculus, a Phoenician living in Sicily, writes about trading with Britain around 60BC. Pytheas, a Greek geographer, although his original text is lost, writing around 330BC describes a visit to, and exploration around, the coast of Britain from his home town of Marseilles. The Ancient Greeks knew of Britain as the ‘Tin Islands.' Herodotus, the Greek ‘father of history' wrote of trading with Britain in the fifth century BC. History texts often paint Britain at the time of Caesar as a blank canvas, off the edge of the world, but this is not really true. But just how accurate are they, and, despite Caesar's assertions, how successful were his two invasions of Britain? Julius Caesar always brings to mind the famous dictum of Winston Churchill, ‘ History will be kind to me, for I shall write it!' In his writings Julius Caesar provides a vivid and detailed account of his invasions of Britain in 55BC and 54BC which have passed into history as unvarnished truth, partly because we have few, if any, other written sources from the time. A personal reflection on Julius Caesar and the conquest of Britain
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