Tuesday 31 July 2012

A Full Boat In Haarlem

I think that Haarlem is my favourite place we have visited so far. It helped that the weather finally changed and we had glorious sunshine for the whole stay.

As the canal goes right through the centre of Haarlem, a large and busy town, you have to go through in a convoy, so that the disruption to road traffic is kept to a minimum. We were part of a convoy of 17, mainly made up of yachts, so that in itself was sometiming great to see.

Part of a convoy, going through Haarlem

I had my birthday in Haarlem and my parents, my sister Helen and my niece Lily all came to visit. None of them had visited Haarlem before either, so it was great to be able to explore it together.

The town market was in full swing in the main square and we were able to stock up with some fabulous bread and dips for lunch. Lily and Emma tried every food sample available from the stalls and then tucked into a cornet of chips and still had room for lunch back on the boat.

In the afternoon we left Haarlem and sailed to a nearby lake so our visitors could see a bit of the surrounding area. We dropped anchor in the lake, which we hadn't tried before and were all pleased to find the anchor held and we were in exactly the same place in the morning as we were last thing at night.

Lily acted as Stephen's lookout, shouting instructions about the lights on bridges (there is a red - red/green - green system to tell you when the bridge is opening and you can pass) and my Dad getting a chance to handle the boat

Next day we sailed back to Haarlem and with the weather still great were able to go back into town.
Helen, Lily, Dad & Mum on board



Monday 30 July 2012

Leiden - Getting Lost & Yarn Bombing


Leiden – what a beautiful place! Twinned with Oxford, on account of both being the home the their respective countries oldest universities, and full of stunning buildings

We were able to moor at a marina pretty much in the centre of the town, which is flat and compact, so great for cycling around.
View down over Leiden

View of Leiden, from the Marketplace
The only unpleasant moment was entirely of our own making. We were cycling back from the station, when we realised we were heading in the wrong direction, but weren’t entirely sure what the right direct was. So, Stephen decided to cycle on to the next big road junction (which was within view) have a look each way, then come back for Emma and me (she travels on the back of my bike). Sounded like a good plan.

Since we were only going to be waiting a couple of minutes, I didn’t actually get off my bike, just stood straddling it, exactly where we had parted, by the side of the road. I was facing away from where Stephen went, so didn’t see him cycle off.

Ten minutes passed – no sign of him. OK, he must have gone down a side road to find his bearings. Twenty minutes – still nothing.  Slightly concerned both for his whereabouts and the fact I’m still in the cycle lane on the side of the road (it was pretty quiet - rush hour was over), so Emma and I move to the pavement. Forty minutes – nowhere to be seen. Emma is asking for Stephen and I’m telling her he’s gone for “a little look around” and will be back in a moment.

I decide to give him and hour before I make my own way home (I can see a “Stadplan” – a town plan poster a little way away). An hour comes, and goes. I look at the Stadplan, realise it’s pretty easy to get back to the boat and cycle off, getting there about ten minutes later.

Relief! I can see Stephen’s bike on the boat – he hasn’t gone under a bus. He sees me and stops writing a note which reads “Have gone for the Police – back shortly”.

Turns out, he cycled to the next junction, worked out where to go and cycled back to where he left Emma and me, but he couldn’t see us, so cycled back to the boat and had a cup of tea before getting worried and deciding to go to the police.

Why didn’t we just ring each other? Because Stephen’s phone had fallen in the water at Termeuzen and we hadn’t got round to replacing it (we have now; please email or text me if you need the new number).

Panic over! Emma to bed (it was 8:30pm now; way past her bedtime) and a large glass of wine for us!

So, a bit more exploring the next day, which, as luck would have it, was market day. I love markets, and this was a great one. A bit like a Farmers Market mixed with a regular market mixed with a Cheese-O-Rama event. Fabulous! We came home with the best lunch we had had in ages!
Emma shopping at then market
Also, for crafty types, there is a fair bit of yarn-bombing/guerrilla-knitting going on Leiden and The Hague; here are a couple of my favourites; these are mooring posts that have been given knitted and crocheted jackets.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Willemstad & Rotterdam

We totally fell in love with our next stop - Willemstad. A beautiful town centre harbour where the moorings, electricity and water are all free, as the town considers that moor income is made for the local businesses by encouraging boaters in and by the non-boater visitors who like to walk around the harbour and watch the boats from the (numerous) waterside cafes and restaurants.

We'd heard that some towns have adopted this approach, but this was the first we'd found. I must say that the strategy seems to work. The harbour was chockablock with boats all rafted together and the nearby shops and eateries were very, very busy too.

The view behind our boat 
The view in front of our boat, when the harbour was pretty empty


From Willemstad it was onto IJsselmonde, just outside Rotterdam for a couple of days, to get caught up with laundry & boring stuff, then on to Rotterdam itself.

More rain as we arrived in Rotterdam but we did get to pass under the rather impressive Erasmus Bridge
Sorry for the poor light in the picture, but that's a pretty accurate representation of the day!

The marina was stayed in the the Defthaven area of Rotterdam was very friendly and the Delfthaven area is beautiful, full of old houses and churches. We moored just up from the Pilgrim Fathers church.

 
Making the most of a break in the rain, we headed out to explore and found a great "Brown Cafe" called Oude Sluis. A Brown Cafe is probably best described as being similar to a "proper" pub in the UK; one that hasn't been tarted up and Weatherspoon-ed.

They did great food and the barman recommended a beer called Op n Top. It sounded a bit like a novelty lager but the barman assured us it was good, so we went with the recommendation. It was fabulous! Unfortunately, it's brewed by a small brewery called De Molen and isn't widely available yet. But do keep a look out, it's really wonderful.

Emma in Oude Sluis
 View of Delfthaven

Once again, the weather curtailed what we could do in Rotterdam; Stephen made a mad-dash to the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum to see a Rembrandt, Emma and I went for a walk (and got soaked) and then it was on to Delft!


Tuesday 24 July 2012

Finally! Some Wi-Fi!

Free wi-fi has been very lacking since we crossed in the Netherlands (very few McDonalds!) and when I tried to buy a Dutch SIM card for my wi-fi dongle I got told a load of old rubbish by the salesman, so declined to purchase!

So, a bit of an update on where we've been and what we've been doing. It feels like we've mostly been getting rained on!

I'd do a couple of postings with the most interesting bits and hopefully get the blog up to date!

We crossed the Schelde from Termeuzen to Vlissingen back on 5 July. Stephen did a really great job of plotting the route and getting us across without incident or seasickness! The Schelde is a really major shipping route and there are some massive ships on it, like the Maerske Singapore, below.

Picture courtesey of shipspotting.com
Copyright:Manuel Henandez Lafuente

Stephen, crossing the Schelde with a big ship behind him


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Oh yeah, dealing with ships like those were a bit hairy! Anyway; we made is safely into Vlissingen and from there sailed on to Middleburg.

Middleburg is a really beautiful town, when it's not raining. I had been there before, many, many years ago as a member of the Ocean Youth Club. I think I was about 17 and we sailed a yacht from Ipswich to Middleburg and back. That was when I discovered just who seasick it is possible to be!

 Lovely Middleburg - not raining



Not-so-lovely Middleburg, in the rain

The rain wasn't letting up and the mooring was pretty expensive, so we moved onto the Veersemere and had a lovely (and free!) night moored up on an island in the Veersemere. Just  us, two other boats and an awful lot of geese.

The rain stopped for a while and Emma finally got to fly the kite.

Emma and Stephen flying the kite 


Pershilla, moored on the Veersemere

After the busy harbours at Middleburg and Vlissingen and crossing the Schelde, it was really rather wonderful to have a night in such a remote spot.

Saturday 7 July 2012

Beautiful Brugge

Brugge is about 4-5 hours from Gent by boat. We arrived in the late afternoon in sweltering sunshine and moored at the Flandria Jachthaven which is really well equipped (it has a washing machine and a tumble drier!!) and only about 15 minutes walk from the city centre. The walk is via the Minniewaterpark, a beautiful park with swans, ducks (important features of a park, if you, like Emma, are three years old) and some strikings buildings.

If you have never been to Brugge before, the amount of fantastic buildings is rather overwhelming at first, you could take picture after picture and still keep seeing something beautiful round every corner and in every square.


We decided to take the walk suggested by the Tourist Office which took us past some wonderful buildings, through the fine squares and alongside the canal.

Emma was very taken with this door knocker - although don't
think it would really suit our door at home 

I passed this street-organ player on a side street 


Later in the day we took a canal trip, which sounds like it would have been a bit of a busman's holiday for us, but since the bridges in Brugge are far to low for our boat, was a wonderful way of seeing more of the city than you can on foot.
The following morning I took a trip, on my own, to the lace museum. I make bobbin lace, so I was really excited to see this. Also, to be honest, I was pretty excited about being out on my own for a couple of hours - Stephen and Emma aren't really interested in bobbin lace!

The lace museum is housed in a row of old lacemakers cottages and is pretty small but has some wonderful exhibits. You aren't really supposed to take pictures, but I snuck a flash-free picture of a modern piece, above, on my iphone.

I arrived just after opening time and discovered that the demonstrations only take place in the afternoon, which was a bit disappointing until I realised that it meant I would have the whole museum to myself, which was a real luxury! I also met a lovely American lady, Virginia, who is planning to take up lace, so it was great to have a bit of lace-chat with a fellow enthusiast!

In the afternoon there was a free festival on in Minniewaterpark, "Feest in 't Park" with music, dancing, events for children, craft stand from all around the world (far higher standard than the usual festival crafts) and some great food.

Emma was particularly taken with the African Drumming Workshop 

And she's always ready for an ice-cream, even is she does seem
to end up wearing as much as she eats!


Thursday 5 July 2012

Gent in the Sunshine

We had been recommended to go to Gent via the Old Leis, rather than the new cut, which is heavily used by commercial traffic. It probably takes a bit longer, but we aren't in a hurry and would much rather pass through nice scenery.


As promised, the scenery was fabulous, as were the houses - there is some serious money along this stretch of the river! We are now adding several of them to our "What We Will Spend Our Money On When We Win the Euromillions Lottery Rollover" list.


I would say they are better than the houses along the Thames. And all conveniently close to the water, so you can be really nosey as you go past!


 I rather like this one

I could live with this one too

We were able to moor right in  the centre of Gent, outside the City Brewery. First job - try their beer! I had the white beer and Stephen had the amber beer and both were great, if stronger than beer at home. They also do a "Inferno" beer, at 9.9%, which we decided against, as we didn't want to end up in the water.

Mooring fees paid and beer drunk, it was time to explore. We headed into the Historic Quarter (for some reason Gent has two quarters, Historic and Art, rather than four) and took ourselves round St Bavo's Cathedral, through the beautiful squares and along the canal.

Gent Opera House 

Emma spotted Father Christmas on his balcony (on his holidays?)

Next day we headed off in search of some playgrounds for Emma and a exploration of the Arts Quarter. We took a picnic lunch and Emma was able to make friends with a lovely little girl called Yulia and played happily with her for ages.


Next stop, the Gent Museum of Fine Arts, for a bit of culture. Amongst the very highbrow and worthy paintings, we found one with this guy in:


Emma pulls this face a lot, whilst telling us "Max (her best friend) taught me this!"



If you have never bee, I really recommend a trip to Gent. There is lots to do and see, great cafes and squares for people-watching. And great beer.


Tuesday 3 July 2012

Criss-Crossing into Belgium

Much as we loved St Vernant, it was time to move on into Belgium. I've always been a fan on Belgium, but Stephen was viewing it as "a place to go through on the way the The Netherlands, with good beer".

True, but it's much more than that, beautiful scenery, great waterways, lovely chips. And good beer.

The route was mainly being used by commercial boats (called peniche) and we spotted one called "Emma"!


A peniche called Emma, carrying scrap metal

The border between France and Belgium follows the River Leis for quite a long time, but it actually follows the route of the old river, which has been canalised (straightened, widened and dredged), so you now end up criss-crossing the border several times before you get into Belgium "proper".

Our first stop in Belgium rather proves this point, as the marina was actually in Halluin, France. Walk across the bridge and you are in Belgium. Emma loved it there, mainly because the marina had a playground.


Due to high winds we stayed in Menen/Halluin for a couple of nights, visited the town and were able to get the washing done (such is the glamour of our new life - one of the first questions in any new town is always "I wonder if there is a launderette?").

We'd both been practicing our French as much as possible, but Menen, despite being on the French border, is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, which really threw me and rather fried my brain.

There was a free music festival on in town which we had thought about going to, but Stephen heard some of the bands from the laundrette and decided there was a good reason neither of us had heard of any great Flemish pop/rock acts. Plus it was raining. Again.

Once the winds had dropped, it was on to Kortrijk where we were able to moor right in the city centre for only E8 per night!

The weather was good, so we hopped of the boat and headed into town.

Kortrijk is really beautiful, but the people are all so glamorous I felt woefully under-dressed, in my standard boat-clothes of jeans and a tee-shirt. Despite the cobbles all the women seemed to be wearing high heels (and staying upright) and everyone had beautifully coiffured hair. I felt a total scruff!

It did, however, have three free bouncy castles in the city centre, so Emma was happy.


It also has a very impressive belfry in the town square


And there was an international food market taking place, we were particularly drawn to the Italian sweet stand, below.


Emma also sampled a nutella-filled pancake. She loved it, even though she ended up wearing most of it!


Once back on the boat we meet our new neighbours, Barrie and Ruth Morse. As with everyone we've met on this trip, they were delightful and an absolute mine of information about boating in The Netherlands; I just hope I can remember everything they told us!