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.