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Published: September 18th 2014
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Mud Barges
Barges carrying dredging spoils passed very close to our mooring The weather has continued hot and fine and wonderful, and at times, very unlike Holland, with little wind. On the Sunday Paul’s brother and sister in law arrived – at 0900!!! Having had a good over-night crossing. The task was then to move cars such that they would have a car at the end of our next 3 days journey and so we didn’t have to do another circular trip. This meant – and here you will have to be patient – a trip in their car to Sneek, a return journey to Naarden for lunch in 2 cars and then 2 cars to Drimmelen followed by our car back to Naarden. Heather pleaded a problem with her head so stayed behind- a cynical person may have thought it showed a lack of problem with her head as the third journey, to Drimmelen, was something of a torture – it was Sunday. The roads were empty but one of the few bridges over the Waal was closed. There were diversions but they were called A & B and then became K & L with no explanation of where they were actually going. At one point Paul and his brother were going
down the motorway in opposite directions and then the situation was reversed – and somehow they both ended up at Drimmelen within minutes of each other which was little compensation for a long and nightmareish trip. The Dutch organisation was not at its best – and we were to see another example of this at the end of our visitors stay.
Fortunately the next day dawned bright, warm and barely a cloud in the sky. Unusually for us we had a destination to get to in 3 days so we had to ensure we did a certain amount of mileage each day. Even though we say it ourselves this first day was a super introduction to anyone new to Holland – out of this large marina on to a very large waterway and then the Markermeer itself, turn left on to the Vecht where at Muiden you see a castle and the Queen’s own boat, The Green Dragon. The Vecht is a narrow river which winds through the countryside and at times there are the magnificent merchant houses along both banks. We stopped in a little town Breuklen, pronounced Brooklyn which is where the travellers who founded Brooklyn came
from. They are not very similar! Before we went out for a great meal, Paul’s sister in law was courted by some very happy business men, out for a day out in a day boat with a Jeroboam of Champagne – several glasses were passed on to Isabela as “we can’t drink it all” – we always knew our sister in law had charm and skills but……….!!!
The next day – also glorious – this may get boring!! – we did sluises, big canals, lifting bridges and ended up in a very peaceful mooring on the Linge, a pretty little windy river. We were only held up in one sluis – because the bridge had to keep going down in order to let buses keep to their timetable – a new experience for us. We had managed to ensure the necessary mileage had been achieved so had a less challenging goal to get to Drimmlen the next day – a gentle motor in the sunshine down to the Biesbosch – the national park which is peaceful, beautiful but very, very shallow and where we touched the bottom last time we went there. The plan was to stop for lunch
so we tiptoed towards the centre but turned tail when twice the depth gauge went down to 0.00 and then shot up to 7 or 8 or 9 metres as it complained loudly about being doused in mud. However we did find a box mooring into which we were helped by a nice Dutch man, where we had some lunch. A further gentle motor then on to the Maas with the barges, and into Drimmelen where we were met by our favourite havenmeester – who said - you are back early – and you have all the best weather. You went away for August when it wasn’t so good – how clever. How far did you get? What a lovely welcome!. A lovely meal out of very fresh mussels – we are near to the Dutch mussel capital, Yerseke – ended our visitor’s stay with us.
All we had to do now was to get our car from Naarden!! Paul’s brother took us to Breda station on their way back to the Hook for the ferry. This saved us 2 bus journeys as you will remember – but they had demolished the station building and the bus garage next
Our Chimneys
When we see these chimneys we know we are close to Drimmelen door, they had dug up all the roads – and they had left no signs anywhere to say how to get to the station or where it was! Sat Navs are of limited use in situations like this but after talking to a helpful policeman we found a stopping place somewhere near. Paul then goes into the hotel nearby to ask – where has your station gone, to find that we are 5 mins walk from it. So very good, if lucky, navigation by all. We just hope that their escape from Breda and journey to the Hook was less tortuous; we do know they got there. The rest of our journey was straightforward – a train to Schiphol, another to Naarden and then a cab – and then a drive back to Drimmelen for a very lazy afternoon – not that lazy, blogging and boat cleaning!
Tomorrow some more jobs but we hope to get away again as we are not due back here until about next Wednesday to do Isabela’s winterising. Hard to think of that in a temperature of 26deg.
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