GELDERLAND - MAY 2010

HARDERWIJK
We have travelled the lakes between the coast line of the old Zuider Zee and the new polder of Flevoland before so this time we were just making a stop in Harderwijk to pick up Diana and Arthur who came by train from Rotterdam to spend a few days with us. We caught up with Bob and Lois for coffee in the square.

It was a beautiful sunny day as we cruised down to Naarden and the sandy beaches along the way were very busy with lots of people soaking up the sun and getting all over suntans.How do we know?

Next stop was Naarden and we stayed for the night just off the Gooimeer in a huge harbour which holds 1250 boats.

NAARDEN

We had a great BBQ in the restaurant

and rode our bikes into Naarden the next day to visit the fortified town which is in the traditional star shape and surrounded by moats and high walls.

We visited the fort and had an interesting time wandering through and watching the cannons fire in the afternoon, then it was time for coffee and back to the boat.

We went into the canals past Muiden castle and onto Weesp.

WEESP

We stayed in a small boat club in Weesp with a beautiful garden with all sorts of flowers I had never seen before. The boat clubs are a great place to stay. Most of them make some extra money when their members are away and they hire out the pen. They are much cheaper than marina and usually about a euro per metre, have power provided with good showers for 50 cents.

What a small world it is. When we pulled into the club we saw a boat with an Australian and an American flag and met Rob and Terry, then as we were walking into town we stopped to talk to some Australians from Melbourne we had met a couple of years ago. While chatting, a young couple walked by and hearing us talking stopped to say hallo. Now we had four people and a baby from Melbourne and four from Perth plus two back on the boat in this tiny town.

Each year in Weesp art works are set up in the canal.



While walking through town back to the boat after seeing Diana and Arthur catch the train back to Rotterdam we stopped to speak with a man outside his house. He renovated the house which was built in 1625 and invited us in to see his handy work.It is always intersting to see the different styl houses.


We decided to leave for Dordrecht in the afternoon as we heard there was a big Steam Festival being held on the next weekend.

We consulted the chart and decided the quickest way was to travel was down towards Utrecht via Maarsen and take the Amsterdam Rhine canal down to the Merwede canal. It was a very pretty scenic cruise and we stopped overnight on the canal. In the morning we walked through a lovely park which was once the gardens of a large mansion and cruised through the lovely town of Maarsen.

Now a little warning to anyone interested. We have previously three times come out onto the Amsterdam Rhine Canal without any problem from different exits. BUT this time the exit was not all smooth sailing.

After Maarsen the canal carries onto Utrecht but we decided to take the Maarsen exit into the Amsterdam Rhine canal. Knowing the canal was very busy Kevin slowly approached the main canal and although we couldn’t see right or left as the exit is through a tunnel under the road. The canal ahead looked quite calm. However careful one is there is always !!!!!!!!!

As we came out, two barges on the opposite side were passing one another, because of this a barge on our side shifted across from the usual path of travel and was only about 10 metres from the side and 20 metres away from us. After lots of screaming from me, my trusty captain Kev quickly threw the boat into reverse and backed back into the exit with huge waves rolling us from side to side, it was like being in a washing machine.

At one time we bounced off the side wall while rolling around waiting for the 110metre barge to pass by the exit. All during this I was standing trying to hang on thinking of the next visit to the second hand shop to buy all new wine glasses. Every drawer and door came open and filled the floor looking like a nightmare day at a jumble sale. The trolley came off of the roof and was held on by the bike lock we put on in case someone likes it more than we do. Inside was our new little BBQ which Kevin had only just secured with a stretchy. The bikes moved out of their bike racks and were held there by the locks. Needless to say I was a gibbering mess and Kevin very white knuckled. However life on the canals goes on and out we ventured again and across to the other side without trouble.



The Amsterdam Rhine canal can be rough because of the steel shuttered sides, though once you are on it is usually easy to get out of the way of the barges. After gathering our wits and picking up the phones and the camera off of the floor we carried on to the Merwede canal in the midst of the jumble. After passing through the lock we found a quiet mooring, changed our undies, cleaned up the boat and had a drink or two.

GORINCHEM
We went through the next lock, passed by Noahs Ark and down to Gorinchem and a welcome rest. We got more provisions for the boat and had a red wine with an English couple and a dutch couple who live on their boats full time and winter in Roanne, France where we had been before and cught up with news of canal closures.
We spent two days in Gorinchem to regroup and convince ourselves we were having fun. I did some washing and thought how wonderful it is that the sock thief did not come with us. The socks are captured within our 9x3.5 m boat and have very few places to hide, consequently every wash day I am able to put the pairs back in the drawer without moaning about the sock thief.

We left Gorinchem through the lock onto the Merwede River keeping well out of the barges’ way, the wind was blowing about 30 kph as we made our way down to Dordrecht.

OVERIJSSEL MAY 2010

May 13 to 24 Kuikhorne- Friesland to Ommen - Overijssel

May 13, we are now away and cruising down to Grou, we heard that yesterday was the coldest May 12 in the Netherlands since records were kept.

We got a mooring on the town quay. Behind the houses opposite is the church square which has a tuneful set of bells which played day and night.


In the evening we walked bout 20 metres across the road and had a very nice meal in the Italian restaurant with some very nice Italian Red which kept us warm all night.

From Grou we cruised down across the Sneekermeer then turned off to Joure to visit our friends Max and Geertsje. We had a lovely couple of days there then off again through the Tjeukemeer and out of Friesland and into the Province Overijssel. At the lock on the Linde the lockkeeper gave us an Overijssel flag for the front of the boat.

Two years ago we came down the same way and passed under a small bridge into the main canal at Ossenzijl with plenty of clearance. This time we thought the bridge looked a bit low but decided to give it a try, our measuring stick out front scraped and we had a few centimetres above the bimini. Obviously the water was higher than the last time.


South of Kalenberg we passed through the thatch growing and milling area. All the houses were thatched and along the canal we saw thatch in its various stages.





Our next stop was Ommen on the Overijssel vecht north of Zwolle. The weather is getting warmer and we are having some sunny days. We moored on the town moorings right opposite the Hotel Zon which had the sun bathing chairs we had seen on the German Island of Borkum out on the canal side waiting for Summer.

Ommen has the interesting National Tin Figurine Museum.

The brochure said a Diorama of the Battle of Waterloo was on display using 10 000 figurines. We went into the museum thinking of little lead soldiers from our childhood so were very surprised when we saw the dioramas with figurines which are 2cm high moulded from tin 2mm thick. The detail and painting of each figurine is very realistic.
This is a diorama of Roman Gladiators in the Colosseum. The gladiators and the first two rows are tiny 2 cm figurines with wonderful detail. If you can enlarge it you will see the audience with their thumbs pointed down.
This next photo are figurines by a Grand Master of Tin Figurines, an Englishman called Mike Taylor. The detail is fantastic.

The next diorama is from a 1226 battle between the farmers of Ommen and the Bishop’s men as he wanted more taxes. The Farmers met in a boggy area as they knew the horses would get stuck in the bog.
Look at the detail in the picture after as when we looked closely some of the farmers were giving the brown eye to the Bishop’s Men. I guess a modern interpretation.

Shopping in the Netherlands is very civilised. While searching the shelves and trying to read labels in the Ommen supermarket we took a welcome rest with a coffee from the free machine and sat down to drink it along with the free fruit buns. Shopping would not be such a chore at home if one could sit down to a free morning tea. The internet café was also offering free coffee.

From Ommen we travelled down to the Ijssel River and into the harbour in Kammpen. It is always interesting travelling on the rivers after the canals as the current was flowing about 3 kmh and the old harbour had a very small entrance. As always my trusty Captain Kev got us into a good mooring and off we went to check out the old city and spend some time soaking up the sun and having coffee and appleflappen.

FRIESLAND - MAY 2010

3rd May -10 May 2010 - FRIESLAND

It was good to see Courlis was nice and dry after the very cold and snowy winter spent on the hardstand in Eibertsnest Marina in Kuikhorne, Zwagwesteinde

Edie and Otto were here, having just had their boat taken out of the hall and put in the water, they stayed a few days before going back to Germany by car for a couple of weeks. On Tuesday Edie took us shopping to get all of the heavy groceries, beer and wine, then it was time to unload the bikes, fenders, etc put inside for the winter and start to get some order into the boat.


On Monday 3rd May the cold weather started. 6 days of the coldest weather we have experienced has had us searching under the bed for all of our warm clothes. The wind is coming from the North Pole and the days have been constantly around the 10 deg C in the day and 5 deg at night. Even Kevin who does not usually feel the cold like I do has been wearing a woollen beanie and scarf as well as jumpers and coats. Going to the loo is a big decision, no central heating makes timing critical when having to remove so many layers. Going shopping was also a big production with our wet weather gear on top of all the coats. It is a wonder the tyres held out.



Yesterday, Sunday we had our first sunny day although the wind is still coming from the North Pole, we finished doing all of our getting ready to cruise things but decided not to set off yet hoping it might warm up in the next few days.

Monday and it is cold and rainy so we decided to take the bus to Leeuwarden and then onto Franeker to see the Eise Eisinga Planetarium. We had missed seeing it when we passed through Franeker on the way to Harlingen in 2008. After checking on the internet that it was open off we went to the bus stop. In Friesland travelling by bus is very reasonably priced and a good way to sight see.

Eise Eisinger built the scale model of the solar system in his living room in his house in Franeker starting in 1774 and finishing in1781. It was finished just before the discovery of Neptune which was lucky for Eise as he would have needed a mighty big living room for the accurate scale model.

The planetarium is the oldest working planetarium in the world and driven by a mechanism using 10 000 nails as gear teeth in the cogs. All of the working parts can be seen by climbing steps up into the roof space above the living room.

Tours of the living room are given at half hour intervals so we did not have to wait long for the English commentary. All through the museum the written explanation is in Dutch and English which was such a pleasure and very interesting.

The Eise Eisinga Planetarium is an amazing accurate piece of technology built over 229 years ago and a must see when you come to Friesland. Here is the address.


Tuesday afternoon we ventured away from the heater again and rode our bikes down to catch the bus to Kollumerzwag, a small town well known for its huge secondhand shop. The building covers about 80x50 metres and has two stories. I got some green stemmed wine glasses from the glassware section. As you can see there were plenty to choose from.

Then we ventured into the tools section. Here there were men diving into boxes of old tools and fossicking among the shelves which held a real treasure trove for the males of the family.

Next we went looking for hiking poles without luck, then saw a nice barometer we got for 6 euros and to another section where I got a thingummy I liked,.

After going through the winter jacket section Kevin got a very nice warm jacket and I got two raincoats. Just as we were wondering how we would carry all of this we spied a beaut little gas barbeque so that came home too.


On the way back to the bus I took a photo of the beautiful street trees.


May 12
we are inside the boat with all the curtains closed, reading books and keeping warm thanks to our little heater. In all the 6 years we have had the boat we have never used the heater as much as this year. I have completely changed my mind about wanting to spend a winter in Paris in a boat. We were going to leave today but it is too cold.