The port is about 300 metres from the town alongside a lovely park. Mooring is either in boxes with a small jetty alongside or along the wall with power and water, trees and lawn provide a great area to sit around outside the boat. In the 9 days here we have had a mixture of cool but fine weather, thunderstorms and 40mm rain overnight and hot fine weather with temps between 26 and 30c. Once again we are reminded what a small world it is, the lady in the port office who collects the fees has a brother living in Wanneroo, a suburb not too far from where we live.
We moored next to a dutch couple, Imka and Marius who spoke some english and we had a good time learning a few more dutch words while they practiced their english. They showed us a newspaper of the things that were happening in the next week so we could see our stay was going to be longer than planned. We went out for my birthday dinner and when we arrived home Imka had put a birthday card on the door as she thought it was sad I didn’t have my family with me today.
The supermarkets and shops are close to the port so it was time to restock, we rode in and filled the saddlebags and even managed to carry home a crate of Heineken on the back rack. The Heineken was on special and when we returned the crate and bottles to the recycle receptacle a refund docket meant we got 24 bottles for 4.39 euro. What a great encouragement to recycle. Refunds are also made on plastic bottles.
The library in this community area has free internet for 30 minutes, I cant use my USB so it means the blog will have to wait but we can catch up on some emails. The advertising for the Joure festival shows that the Hot Air Balloon festival is on during the following week as well as the Boerebrulloft.
On Sunday we met Max and Geertje who lived in Sydney for 9 years before returning to Friesland. They saw our Aussie flag as they were walking through the Marina and called in to see us. It was good to chat in english and we found out more about the festival and also about the bargain bus tickets available as it was School holidays and travel was cheaper.
On Monday we went for a bus ride to Workum , one of 10 or so interesting towns we visited by bus over the next week. I had heard about the Joop Huisman Museum here, which has a wonderful display of paintings and articles by Joop Huisman who paints everyday things he found while collecting and recycling. It is hard to explain but if you ever go to Workum you must visit this museum!!!!
With very good connections it is easy to visit places of interest close to the route we are travelling. The views from a bus are quite different to that from the canal. The photo below was taken from the bus and looks across the horse paddock with the canal running alongside ( you can just see a boat) the houses.
A typical modern dutch scene, windpower technology, old and new.
A lovely building in Bolswerd seen as we walked around the town.
While waiting in the bus for the bridge to come back down we got a good view of the way the bridge keeper collects the toll( called Brugeld )by lowering the blue clog from a fishing pole.
When we were shoping we met this mother doing her shopping ( Dutch Style ) along with her three children . Her bicycle had a large box in front into which went the trolley load of groceries you can see her pushing in the background, as well as her two little boys. It has inspired me to take a dutch bicycle home as they are very easy to ride and I have promised myself that by going down to the local shops by bike instead of in the car will save money, especially as the price of fuel has gone so high.
During the rest of the week we visited Max and Geertje for dinner and met Cindy their daughter who still has an Australian accent and Maurice and baby Justin. We went to the Balloon Fest and marvelled at the many different hot air balloons, went to the Boerebrulloft and went bike riding visiting nearby towns. Sunday saw us having drinks with Max and Geertje and their Australian/Dutch visitors and soaking up the sunshine.
Then it was time to make a move to see what other exciting places where just around the corner on the next lake.
