We arrived in Akkrum at the end of Sneek Week, ( a week long yacht racing festival which is a huge attraction for all of boating Holland) we were in Sneek last year and had a lot of fun.
After the quiet of the turf route it was quite a shock. The train bridge was opening and closing and boats were milling around every where (it is quite a site with the train lines on a turntable ) and after the train bridge was another opening bridge to wait for.
We cruised down the side of the Sneekermeer and into the channel leading to Joure.
JOURE
Arriving in Joure we found it very busy but found a nice mooring on the grassy area inside the harbour opposite the Orangerie which has very nice meals.
We were pleased to find Irene and Jan here again, we met Irena last year and once again it is a small world, Irena’s brother Henk lives in Perth and we met him and Marietta when we went back last year, we have some good photos to take back to Henk.
We stayed a few days as we wanted to visit the Museum which we missed last year. It is very interesting as Joure used to be the centre of the Clockmaker industry and Brass moulding and the Dowe Egbert Tea, Coffee and Tobacco factory. There are still three clockmaking businesses and the Dowe Egbert Coffee manufacturing in town, you can smell coffee when they are roasting.
The museum is a collection of buildings which used to be the brass foundry, and the Dowe Egbert warehouse. In the foyer of the museum we saw these old machines which were used by Dowe Egbert Coffee and tea makers to put tea and labels on the tea bags and to pack tea bags in cartons. We got a nice packet of herbal teas to take home. Museum
Kevin was interested in the brass foundry as there were the original moulds for making brass fittings and decorations for the clocks as well household brass such as drawer handles. I thought they were just artistic trays of pretty shapes until he showed me the racks of pattern trays and the finished articles. I suppose it was a nice change for him after visiting all of the Schlosses in Germany.
There were also a clockmakers workshop and many beautiful clocks.
We had a lovely dinner with Max and Geertje whom we also met last year and lots of fun trying to get the camera working on automatic and then running back for the photo. This one was the best we could get, I must have more practice. Kevin visited the factory where Max works as they build large buses.
While here we took a bus to Herenveen Train station to organise our train trip from Leeuwarden which is near where we leave the boat, to Rotterdam and then to Paris. The fare could be done on the net but to get the over 65 discount and holiday discount we needed to do it in person. Unfortunately we were told we would need to go to Leeuwarden about a 100 k away, so off we went there in the bus, however, once there we were told it could only be arranged in Groningen so we went back to Joure in our 2 hour ticket allotment. In Friesland during the school holidays they have a special where you can travel anywhere for two hours for 2 euro so it is a good way to see the countryside. Also in Summer a discount for travel is available.
STAVOREN
After a four days we left to travel to Stavoren on the Ijsselmeer as it was a town we hadn’t visited.
We have had wonderful summer, and for the last three weeks Friesland has had incredible weather without any rain. After travelling through many lakes each of them with sailing schools out with students in small yachts of all sizes and colours, they looked like colourful dragon flies darting about.
We arrived in Stavoren and were fortunate to find a little spot for Courlis right in the town with lovely grass and a backdrop of trees.
Stavoren has one of Friesland’s large pumping stations with 6 huge electric pumps which sends the water out into the Ijsselmeer when the level gets too high after a lot of rain.
This view has all the elements of Holland it is only missing the traditional windmill.
Ellen and Jan came over in their car from Hardervijk to visit us and have a BBQ. It was really fun, Ellen was born in Australia but came back when she was 4 yrs old, Jan says she still doesn’t sound really Dutch and we say it is because she learnt the best language first, none of those funny rrrrrr’s or throaty noises for us Australians.
Stavoren is a sailors paradise with lakes on one side and the Ijsselmeer on the other. The Stavoren C Class won the 2009 Skutsje race and we were invited to their prizegiving night it was good fun.
Wherever you look there are yacht masts, a good place to pick out what type of sailing boat you would like. This harbour had about 300 yachts and is one of five in the area as well as the town harbour where there are 30 or more big sailing barges.
View from our boat around part of the town harbour.
Of course it is not hard to find us we are one of a kind up here.
While we were here we took the Ferry across to Enkhuizen on the other side of the Ijsselmeer and while waiting we spoke to this couple going on holiday with their little baby in this bicycle buggy with his baby capsule on top of the camping gear and mum on her bicycle with full packs on the back. I suppose by now you can see I am fascinated with the different ways people have of transporting their children at home or when going on holiday when cars aren’t an option. Holland has a bicycle or buggy for all occasions from baby buggy, shopping buggy to touring bike to the wheelchair bicycle seen in the Drente story.
We had a very calm ride on the hour and a half journey across the Ijsselmeer and Kevin almost convinced me we could go across in our boat, until the next day when we were riding around the yacht clubs having a look and it was really windy with very choppy waves out their. No way am I going across.
ENKHUIZEN
We went to Enkhuizen to visit the Zuider Zee Museum, it is a village of about 60 or more houses, shops, a church, warehouses, a fishing village with fishing boat and smoking houses, which are all original and have been transported from towns all around what was the Zuider Zee area and re-erected here. Each of the buildings has a plaque and it is written in english also, which was a real bonus, telling the story of someone who lived in the house and the area the house was from.
It is an incredible site as it is like a real village in Holland with a windmill, cobbled streets, canals, a church, gardens with real vegetables and fruit trees and washing on the line and fields with breeds of sheep and goats from old stock and rabbits and fowls in yards.
In the fishing and smoking shed at the rear of this photo we had smoked herring served hot for 2 euro.
These photos are from houses originally from Urk, one was a house belonging to a widow who took in washing as her husband had died in the big 1883 storm. A young girl acting the part of her daughter was doing the washing and telling her story after the washing was hung across the pathways and the lawn, very authentic. Another house had the woman of the house telling her story as she showed us around the kitchen and cooked some herring.
The broom makers house.
The Cheese warehouse is the white building, yummy samples.
Today in the church in the village there was a wedding and we caught the two flower girls walking into the village.
Finally we called into the fishing wharves to see the net making. They even have an old fishing boat to go on rides.
Then it was time to walk through the town of Enkhuizen and back to the harbour for our trip back to Stavoren.
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