Gouda to Zwammerdam. Gouwe / Oude Rijn.

The first hour or so out of Gouda, up (or down?), the Gouwe was a big snore. I'm amazed Skip managed to stay awake (I was doing sudoku). Things improved, though, once we made the turn into the Oude Rijn. 

About the only thing of interest on the Gouwe this morning was a series of these lifting bridges which can lift to 34m.

Remember, if you want to view bigger versions of the pictures, click on them.

We have come to at least two conclusions on this trip : 
1. Big canals are not for us and ... 
2. We are real bumpkins and don't like big towns either. Even Gouda was too 'big'. 

Jaws dropped when this came, backwards, through the Zwammerdam lift bridge and down the really quite narrow river.

We found a lovely mooring in the village of Zwammerdam - trees, grass and a pretty lifting bridge, and FREE. Happily we are again on the dog walking route and there is a never-ending parade of cuties going walkies next to the boat. Cuddle-time :)

Today's cycle route.

After a Bakker Bart lunch of sausage rolls, we took a nice long ride around the nature reserve just north of here. A labyrinthe of lakes, waterways, islands and woods with pretty villages dotted around. And all on a lovely sunny afternoon. Such a pleasure!

Giving the bottom a break.

I bet these prime moorings in the village of Nieuwpoort are chock-a-block in season

Until we discovered that part of the route took us on a ferry which was closed for the season and we had to consult the maps and plan a detour around the top of the lake which turned a 26km ride into a 38km one. 

And guess what?  The bike batteries only last 30km, so the last 8km or was pedal power alone. Good for the legs, I told myself. I can have an appelflap when I get back, I told myself.  Two glasses of wine tonight, I told myself. 

Then my kind Skip, who still had a trickle left in his battery, swapped bikes with me. Very gallant, but can I still have the appelflap, I debated. What do you think?

Spotted on the back of a pothole repair truck.

Pollock or Mondrian - can't quite decide ...

Utrecht to Oudewater. Hollandse IJssel.

For the fourth time in three days we dropped the Bimini and tent to pass under the first bridge of the morning.

Entering the Hollander Ijssel

It was such a gorgeous day - sunny, clear blue skies, no wind - that we left it down for the rest of the journey to Oudewater. Pronounced, we learned from the first lock keeper who asked us where we were going : ow-der-vaater. 

With our bimini down, we were able to pass through most of the bridges

Pretty!

Once again we crossed the big Amsterdam-Rijhn Canal, but being Sunday, there was little traffic. The first lock keeper had called ahead for us and we made swift progress through the next lock and series of lifting bridges which were all expecting us. We appologised to him for his having to work Sunday on such a glorious day. "Hey, I get paid one and three-quarter times to be out here in the sunshine!".

Lovely houses with lawns to the water's edge.

We got to do some nosy window peeking.

We just loved this stretch of the Hollandse Ijssel. Such a pretty, narrow river with so much of interest along the way. There are plenty of free moorings on this stretch of the. We pulled into one where they had installed a water point for the boats and topped up the tanks.

Oudewater town quay.

We are now tied up on the quay in the centre of town on a free mooring. Most towns we have come across on this trip would have charged for the privilege.

The town blurb says it is the prettiest town in the green heart of the Netherlands, and for once I totally agree with their PR department.

At times very rural.

Other times, the houses got fancy.

And then even fancier.

We picked a nice circular cycle route from my new cycle maps and went for a couple of hour bike ride. Much of the route was along the narrow Lange Lindschoten canal, which we soon realised was the upmarket side of town. VERY nice homes and gardens, including the stately home Lindschoten. 

Lieve Hecksie's outhouse.

No, I told Skip. You can't have a figurehead too.

The cycle routes are such a pleasure - well signposted and virtually car free. Even a cycling "poepslang" (according to my dear husband) can enjoy them worry free.

Utrecht.

The sun came out for the family's visit. Good thing too, as after lunch on board we had to take down the windows, tent, mast and flagpole to get through the 15 bridges through the Oudegracht which runs right through the centre of the old town.  

David getting ready to duck.

Being a sunny Saturday the canal side cafes and restaurants were chock-a-block with people enjoying themselves. There were many mutual "Cheers" between boat and shore! It was lovely to see them again.

You take my photo, I'll take yours!

The bridges are all a maximum of 3.15 at the top of the centre arch.

The cafes were full of people enjoying the sunny afternoon.

We moored on the north side of town and the family left as they had to be back in Amsterdam by six. We got out the maps to figure out the next weeks cruise plan and discovered it would be much better to start out from where we had left in the morning, the other side of town. So back down came all the windows, etc, (we're getting good at this) and back down the gracht we went. By now it was sunset and the bridges and cafes had their lights on. It was very pretty. 

Happily it's a much nicer mooring than on the north, so the crew were happy! Too many drunk party boats on the other side, one of which bumped into a piling right behind Zoe and, to our great amusement, lost their BBQ over the back, coals and all.

Culemborg to Utrecht. Lek River /Merwerde Kanaal.

As promised, we took the camera into Culemborg to snap a few pics of the charming old town. The day had started drizzly, but by the time we walked from one end of the old town to the other the sun was threatening to come out and the day ended bright and sunny. 

J van R's house.

The smell of cinnamon and ginger led us to a wonderful bakery where we bought some goodies for lunch and some rather nasty, as it turned out, cookies. Oh well, they looked good and the bread was lekker.

Interesting steeples. Pity about the advertising boards.

The main town square, where they have had a Tuesday market for 550-ish years, is particularly attractive, although I wish the town council would ban the shops from putting ugly advertising boards in the middle of the pavements. It does detract from the ambience and I can't see why they can't just advertise in the window.  It was a juggle to take photos without them being centre forward.

They have had a market here every Tuesday since the middle-ages.

Back on the river, we passed through yet another enormous lock and crossed a second arm of the big Amsterdam-Riijn canal, dodging ginormous barges, until we turned into the pretty little Merwerede canal with its small locks and friendly lockkeepers. I'm sure the big lock keepers are perfectly friendly too, it's just that they are faceless up in their high control towers.

We were happy to be back to small locks and ....

...a pretty canal.

This was a different kind of lift bridge to the ones we have come across before.

After a couple of kilometers of lifting bridges, we got to a junction just outside Utrecht where there was a 3.3m fixed bridge, so we had to pull over to the side and let the Bimini and tent down. It's the first time we have taken it down since we got the new set-up, but happily it came down easily and went back up almost as quick.

Even with the tent down, we only just squeezed through.

Heidi, Michael and David will be joining us for the day tomorrow (Saturday), and the plan is to take the mast, tent, windscreens and even the flagpole down and pass through the 15 bridges on the Oudegracht through the middle of old Utrecht. We did it with Brett when we were here last in April, and it was very special.

See how law-abiding the citizens are. Even the barges comply.

While Skip was braaing burgers for supper, we heard some thumping loud music. A small truck with a disco setup on the back was barreling along the cycle path followed by a crocodile of hundreds, yes hundreds, of roller-bladers all carrying light sticks. What fun they were having. An hour or so later they passed by again going in the other direction. This is a university town and I presume they were mostly students.

Maurik to Culemborg. Neder-Rijn / Lek River.

There was a brisk wind and grey skies when we set off this morning with only 20 or so kilometers to do today. We had'nt gone far downriver when we spotted a small harbour with some interesting looking boats so we pulled in for lunch. 

The tiny harbour was somewhat overpowered by an enormous hotel boat.

The town was Dijk bij Duurstede, a very pretty old town full of galleries and antique shops. 

Dijk bij Duurstede

He reminds me of someone ....

We followed some signs up to the kasteel. There are only a couple of towers left, but very picturesque they are set in gorgeous gardens. 

Would make a wonderfully romantic spot for a wedding we agreed, and according to someone we spoke to later, that and other events is what it is now used for. 

I'm happy to report that the kasteel complies with the "Display of White Vases" regulation.

We shopped in the town square at the butcher, the baker, and the cccc .... cheese shop. Sorry, there was no candlemaker.

The harbourmaster had recommended an eetcafe close to the harbour dyke and we stopped in for lunch. It is run by volunteers and staffed by disabled young employees. The apple gebak was heavenly. Turned out the volunteer on duty was originally from Hermanus. 

We can recommend the appelgebak

The town was gearing up for a Shanty Festival this weekend where teams from all over the country, and Germany, come to perform sea shanties and other traditional boating songs. 

Part of the show is a display of old traditional working boats and that was why the harbor was full of them. There were more arriving every minute so we had to vacate our spot to make room.

Making friends with the crew.

These old town are protected by dykes and you can see why. The most recent high water was in 1995.

A little further down river we crossed over the Amsterdam-Rijn canal and BOY we realised that when it came to barges we had, thus far, seen nothin'! HUGE HUGE HUGE barges, one after the other lining up to pass through the locks just past the junction. There are two locks, side by side, 350 meters long. Thank goodness little Zoe was just crossing over. Even so, we had to do some dodging.

According to the sign, this Volvo Duett completed the Pan America expedition from Alaska to Panama in 1965. I knew it was a 1965 Volvo Duett because ....

... it said so on the back.

Another 10 km and we pulled into the small town of Culemborg for the night. I had picked the town as our next stop as I liked the name. There is a wonderful old wine estate in the Cape called Culemborg. 

They were selling Cape Culemborg wine in town, so we had to have one with the ribeye steak we bought in Dijk. This is the Estate's plonk, but very drinkable it was.

We discovered why when we took a stroll through town - this is where Jan van Riebeeck came from and the wine estate is named after this town. For the non-South Africans who did'nt grow up with J van R drummed into them in history class, he was the first founder of the Cape Colony in 1652. His house is now a museum and is just one of a town full of interesting old buildings. We left the camera on the boat but will take another stroll over the dyke into town tomorrow and snap a few.

For those who may not know, if you click on the photos above, you get them in a bigger size.

Arnhem to Maurik. Neder-Rijn.

We left shortly after 9am and headed down the Neder-Rijn in bright sunshine. The jackets were stripped off and we even opened a couple of the tent flaps. Big wide river with plenty of room for little Zoe and the constant stream of barges most of which were headed up-river. 

It was a pleasure to be doing our normal cruising speed of 10km. The river is much more interesting than the IJssel, with villages and farms and even a couple of "hills"! Yes, there are a few areas of high ground in these parts, usually wooded which made them appear even higher.

Ferry

There are only a few bridges along this stretch and they are very high, so no need to open. In between the towns and bridges, small ferries take cars and bikes across the river. 

Our progress was hindered only by two ginormous locks. We had to wait 20 minutes at the first one along with another motor cruiser. 

The first lock we shared, but I think there's room for both of us ...

The second lock was opening its doors as we approached and once the four loaded barges passed out we sailed straight in. We had the whole 260m lock to ourselves!

Plenty of room.

All the barges we passed today were fully laden and, to our inexperienced eyes, appeared to be on the verge of floundering. Put it this way, if the crew needed to walk from the stern to the bow (which would take awhile anyhow), they would get their feet wet. Good thing there are no waves on rivers.

FULLLL !!!

Just as we were negotiating the second lock the heavens opened and it rained, hard, for the next half hour to our next mooring spot in the Maurik lake. 

The island-dotted lake was once a stone quarry and at places is over 25m deep. Can't say for sure as our depth sounder is only set to 25 and it went off the scale. There are a couple of marinas, a yacht club, golf, tennis courts and rows and rows of rental chalets. This is obviously a popular summer holiday spot although we saw not another soul. We tied up to the reception dock at one of the marinas (the one with a washing machine :) ) and it was at least 2 hours before a man showed up to collect his money. 

A wash and dry was 6.50 euros. That's a medium price. The cheapest we have found is still at Strandhorst, our 'home' port, where a wash and dry will set you back 4.50.
The WiFi is free, as it is in most places, albeit usually not strong enough to stream any video. We do listen to the radio quite a bit. When the BBC news gets too repetitive/boring/depressing we switch across to radio 4 extra. Last night was Round the Horne followed by the Navy Lark. Oh my, I can remember listening to these on Springbok Radio when I was a kid, and they were oldies even then! Oldies, but goodies.

We came across houseboats again today.