Dordrecht Town
Dordrecht is at the confluence of the great waterways of the South, and has been important as a harbour and was granted City rights in 1220.
After the festival we had time to look around the town without all the crowds. It was here in the sixteenth century that the free Holland Cities chose independence and the House of Orange and the Netherlands was born.
A typical view of the town with a cruise ship and a barge right in front of the town which wraps around the harbours,
At the other end of the old town the Grote Kerk dominates the view.
This archway leads into the area which was once the Warehouses and Mansions of the English Traders. The Boat club where we stayed was the harbour for the ships to unload their goods.
Staying here has been a musical experience as the Grote Kerk with its 67 bells carillion is the largest in Europe and they chime in various sequences every 15 minutes all day until midnite, when the hour only is tolled until 6 in the morning when they start again.
video
Many of the old buildings around the larger harbours have been restored.
This is one of the original old bridges which is operated manually by swinging on the chains.
A walk through the old town between the harbours is a delight with many of the old buildings still standing among the new ones.
There are many shops in the inner city area and we found what we have been searching for, an eggshell mattress topping to make our beds a little softer. Of course the only way to take it back to the boat was by bike.
Outside of the Historic city is a large outer city where you can find any business you need. It was here we took the computer to be repaired as I couldn’t get the wireless connection to the internet. Thankfully it was just a simple problem with Explorer, as we had been changing to so many wireless connections, it got confused and we had just to take it back to default to get it working again.
KINDERDIJK
Just north of Dordrecht is the World Heritage area of the Kinderdijk and its many windmills which were used to pump water from the various polders into the creeks and eventually into the rivers from the early 1700’s. It was exciting, as we had read about the Kinderdijk in a book about Holland last year and wanted to see the area. To get there we caught the Waterferry which runs between Rotterdam and Dordrecht to Amblasserdam about 10k north and rode our bikes out to the Kinderdijk.
Soon it was time to leave Dordrecht and travel south down to the Beisbosch area.
BEISBOSCH
The National Park De Beisbosh is freshwater tidal area with willow forests and small meandering creeks, lovely clear water and many sandy banks just waiting for unwary boat travellers to get stuck on them.
We stayed a couple of days on a mooring in the middle of the Sleidrecht Beisbosch and went walking.
The pathways have been made through the bog area and you have to keep on them. While walking we kept getting raindrops on us even though it hadn’t been raining. This is Kevin trying to catch the drop to see what it was, eventually we found it was an insect infestation on the trees which gradually built up a tiny drop of water then dropped down.
We went through the lock and crossed the river to go down to the Brabant Beisbosch which has a very popular swimming area which was very nice but too cold for swimming. The waters in the Brabant are very tricky and after getting bogged a few times we decided the stress was not worth it and went back the next day to the Sleidrecht.
Here we came across a boat out collecting the willow and a group out fishing,
then it was time to go back out onto the Merwade, taking great care to check if any barges were coming, and sure enough one came past just as we were going out but this time we had a good view.
Now it was time to make our way up the Noord Canal to Rotterdam.
Dordrecht is at the confluence of the great waterways of the South, and has been important as a harbour and was granted City rights in 1220.
After the festival we had time to look around the town without all the crowds. It was here in the sixteenth century that the free Holland Cities chose independence and the House of Orange and the Netherlands was born.
A typical view of the town with a cruise ship and a barge right in front of the town which wraps around the harbours,
At the other end of the old town the Grote Kerk dominates the view.
This archway leads into the area which was once the Warehouses and Mansions of the English Traders. The Boat club where we stayed was the harbour for the ships to unload their goods.
Staying here has been a musical experience as the Grote Kerk with its 67 bells carillion is the largest in Europe and they chime in various sequences every 15 minutes all day until midnite, when the hour only is tolled until 6 in the morning when they start again.
video
Many of the old buildings around the larger harbours have been restored.
This is one of the original old bridges which is operated manually by swinging on the chains.
A walk through the old town between the harbours is a delight with many of the old buildings still standing among the new ones.
There are many shops in the inner city area and we found what we have been searching for, an eggshell mattress topping to make our beds a little softer. Of course the only way to take it back to the boat was by bike.
Outside of the Historic city is a large outer city where you can find any business you need. It was here we took the computer to be repaired as I couldn’t get the wireless connection to the internet. Thankfully it was just a simple problem with Explorer, as we had been changing to so many wireless connections, it got confused and we had just to take it back to default to get it working again.
KINDERDIJK
Just north of Dordrecht is the World Heritage area of the Kinderdijk and its many windmills which were used to pump water from the various polders into the creeks and eventually into the rivers from the early 1700’s. It was exciting, as we had read about the Kinderdijk in a book about Holland last year and wanted to see the area. To get there we caught the Waterferry which runs between Rotterdam and Dordrecht to Amblasserdam about 10k north and rode our bikes out to the Kinderdijk.
Soon it was time to leave Dordrecht and travel south down to the Beisbosch area.
BEISBOSCH
The National Park De Beisbosh is freshwater tidal area with willow forests and small meandering creeks, lovely clear water and many sandy banks just waiting for unwary boat travellers to get stuck on them.
We stayed a couple of days on a mooring in the middle of the Sleidrecht Beisbosch and went walking.
The pathways have been made through the bog area and you have to keep on them. While walking we kept getting raindrops on us even though it hadn’t been raining. This is Kevin trying to catch the drop to see what it was, eventually we found it was an insect infestation on the trees which gradually built up a tiny drop of water then dropped down.
We went through the lock and crossed the river to go down to the Brabant Beisbosch which has a very popular swimming area which was very nice but too cold for swimming. The waters in the Brabant are very tricky and after getting bogged a few times we decided the stress was not worth it and went back the next day to the Sleidrecht.
Here we came across a boat out collecting the willow and a group out fishing,
then it was time to go back out onto the Merwade, taking great care to check if any barges were coming, and sure enough one came past just as we were going out but this time we had a good view.
Now it was time to make our way up the Noord Canal to Rotterdam.
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