30 August
Spijk to Nieuwegen

We had an easy 25 km to do today so started the morning with some chores and a long hot shower courtesy of the de Gors Yacht Club.

Our route took us up the Merwerde Kanaal and there were a couple of locks and a passel of lifting bridges, all of which went smoothly except for one. It appeared out of order and we sat around for about 45 minutes until a chap turned up with a big hammer and gave it a whack - or maybe not :) :) :). Anyhow, whatever he did he got it working again.

The sluis into Nieuwegen was closed when we got there, displaying the 2 red lights which means REALLY closed. The last boat waiting in the line informed us it would not resume service until 3.30 and as it was only 1pm, we chose to go a little way up the Lek to the Amsterdam Kanaal and go around that way.

Every couple of 100 metres down the canal were these pumping stations - keeping the polders dry. The miracle that is the Netherlands illustrated in this unassuming bit of machinery. Twenty-six percent of the country is reclaimed land.

Our detour took us through the enormous Prinses Beatrixsluis (220 metres long, 18 metres wide).



Can you imagine if these doors failed.

Canal-side traffic.

Because I know you've been missing them, here is today's windmill :)

And this little chap, just 'cos he showed up next to the boat with three little lady-friends.

29 August
Geldermalsen to Spijk

Going down river was a lot faster than going up. We left late, after 11am, and were tied up at the yacht club de Gors in Spijk by 2pm. Going up took us almost twice as long.

We left late 'cos it was Skip's birthday and we slept in a bit. I did a bit of provisioning at the Albert Heijn which was only 50 metres away from the harbour. I could roll their trolley right to the boat so stocked up on heavy stuff for Skip. We also took on water and fuel (1.26 per litre with the anti-bacteria muutie already added).



Unlike Saturday, we mostly had the river to ourselves the whole way down except .....

... for a couple of km's there was a fishing competition.
"It was THIS big!", the chap on the left tries to explain to his competitors.
(Remember: you can click on the pics to make them bigger)

The de Gors yacht club in Spijk charged us 8 euros a night with elec at a 50c pay meter. The very nice new showers were free and a spit away from the boat so I plan to have a nice long hot shower tomorrow. The weather has been so hot lately, we haven't bothered to switch on the water heater and have been having cold showers instead.

So, it being Skip's birthday, we decided to cycle the couple of kms down to Gorinchem and find a restaurant for dinner.

"Look! Table BBQ!" we spotted a board outside a nice looking restaurant. So, natch, we had to give it a try. Now, you might think we had had enough BBQ lately, but you would be wrong.
 

"Hmmm. I'm not too sure about this."
And, when even the shrimp were'nt cooked after 30 minutes we told them to take it all away ...
 

... and bring us a steak instead.
(Which was delicious.)

28th August

Geldermalsen

 

It looked like it would be a good Grand Prix today, so Skip wanted to be back on the boat for a couple of hours from 2pm.

 

We took a look at the cycle maps and decided on a short ride up to a small town called Buuren, which has an interesting history with a pivotal role in the House of Orange and the Netherlands state.

 

William I, whose marriage to the heiress of this region in 1551 led to the county falling into the hands of the House of Orange.

 

The center of the old town was all a-buzz, with stall-holders setting up stands along the narrow cobbled streets. We stopped at one to ask what was happening and were informed that there was to be a wine tasting fair in the afternoon from 1 to 6. WINE TASTING!!! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. We immediately decided to come back after the race and take a look see.

 

They were still setting up the fair at this stage.

Buuren was only a 6km ride along the river from the boat, so after the race (which was a good one and how the heck did Hamilton get on the podium from starting last?), we rode back again.

 

 

Mmmmmm, not bad ...

But the cider from this stand was SIMPLY THE BEST!

 

The streets were now thronged with people supping of the grape. At the start of the fair, you purchased a 10 euro glass which came with a wine carrier and a booklet on all the 45 stall holders, and you could taste as much and as many wines as you wanted throughout the fair. So we did.

 

 

Walking around with my glass and wine carrier.

 

We only tasted some of the french wines right at the end, making it a mission to try the ones from everywhere else. And there were wines from all over. From afar: New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, California and a lot of stands from South Africa;  and near ie  Europe:  France, Italy, Spain, Portugal (oh yeah there were some lovely douros and ports), Hungary, Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Germany, Croatia and Macedonia. AND: the Netherlands! Who knew????

 

 

"What shall we try next?"

 

The Dutch wine, I have to admit, was not exactly my favourite, but OMG OMG the best thing we tasted all day was an exceptionally good cider from the cellar de Gulderling from the Linge valley, right here where we are. It was sparkling and dry and beat off the best champagne in  our opinion. We even bought a couple of bottles to take back to the boat.

 

 

Apparently this is the best-selling red in Macedonia. I took the photo for Daniela.

 

The best wine I tasted all day was from Stellenbosch, the Ernie Els winery's "Big Easy", which was wonderful, but at 15 euros a bottle all we did was taste. We also bought two bottles of red, one of them from France (the Cahors region) and the other from a rare vineyard in Bulgaria. I shall have to see whether I can get any of them in my already overstuffed luggage.

 

There was a young Portuguese guy selling wine from the Douro and an interesting Pink Port.

"We'll try some of that later.", we thought.

But by the time we got back to his stand, he had sold the lot! Good on him. But I still don't know what pink port tastes like.

 

By now, as you can imagine, everyone was having a fine old time so we wandered around behind the church where they had set up some food stands and a stage with live music. We opted for the Hungarian Goulash as that seemed like a good, heavy option to soak up some of the alcohol.

Luckily the cycle path back to the boat was short and traffic free :)

26 August
Leerdam to Geldmarlsen

We were in two minds whether to leave the boat in Leerdam and cycle up the river to Geldmarlsen, or take the boat the couple of hours up-river.

While we prevaricated, I took a walk around town, stopping in at a couple of market stalls as Saturday is market day. I followed my nose to a van selling rotisserie chickens and couldn't resist taking one home for lunch.




 

We hadn't far to go to visit the glass works.

Skip spent the morning visiting the glass blowers at the end of our dock and cleaning out the blocked sink. I suspect one was more fun than the other.

We opted to take the boat up river.  A happy decision. The Linge is our favourite Dutch waterway so far - very, very pretty and always something to look at.

The Linge is such a pretty river.

Being a glorious summer weekend, everyone was out on, or in, the water. There was everything that floated on the river today from inflated inner-tubes to chock-a-block-full day trip boats and everything in-between.

There are a couple of these boats doing day-trips up and down the river.

There are hundreds of small plots along the banks, most with private boat moorings and most with their owners enjoying the good weather on the riverside.
We gathered from a few For Sale signs, that one can buy these small plots for recreation use although it is obviously not permitted to build any solid structures on them as all we saw were umbrellas, tents or awnings - not even the odd garden shed. Some were pretty basic - bit of mown grass, a BBQ and a few plastic chairs but some were really quite ornate with beautiful gardens. 

This is an "Oeverparceel".

I had to go and ask Mr Google, natch, and he informed me that on average along this river it costs around 30 000 euros to buy one of these Oeverparceels, as they are called. There are apparently also restrictions of how many and what size boats can be moored on these plots.

Today's beautiful riverside home and ...

 

... and today's windmill. I'll try not to make a habit of it.

The upper reaches of the river became increasingly rural with beautiful tree-lined pastures down to the river and mile upon mile of apple and pear orchards.

There are very few public moorings available for visiting boats along the river, so we had our fingers crossed we would find a space at the town yacht club. Luckily there were a few spaces available, and the havermeester waved us in to a prime spot side-on to a grassy bank near the facilities (and router). We would have been happy with a bow-to mooring slot, but prefer side-on moorings when we can find them as it is easier for both us and the bikes to get on and off.  The cheapest mooring fee so far - 8 euros, with electricity from a pay meter, 50c per kilowatt.

After a short walk around town, we headed back to the boat for "borrel" (tapas) and a spectacular floor show provided by nature as a thunderstorm passed some ways north of us, lighting up the sunset. We wouldn't have minded a little rain as a relief to the heat, but it remained dry.

I gave Skip the night off, and we had "borrel" for supper.

We like it so much here, we are staying another day, and we like the river so much we are going to cycle up and down it tomorrow.

26 August
Gorinchen to Leerdam

Looking at my map, which I do often (I LOVE maps), I noticed a river going nowhere. Most boats heading out of the town head up the Merwede Canal or out to the Merwede River, but I have a fondness for small rivers going nowhere, so up the Linge we went today.



This photo is apropos of nothing and should have been in yesterday's blog about the fishermen's museum. I am sure there are some of you who remember these. Maybe you have spent longer than you wished pulling on that string. I know I have no fond memories of our unlamented Seagull.

The river is navigable for 35 km up to a small town called Geldermalsen and is everything a small river to nowhere should be - windy (as in curvy, not breezy), tree-lined, full of reed beds with plenteous water birds, and small villages with farmyards and some gorgeous homes. And all the way along, there were people swimming from boats and the river banks - must be clean water. 

Some of today's homes:

Not bad, hey.

We only got half-way, as we had left rather late, and moored up at the Oude Horn yacht club in the small town of Leerdam (10 euros a night, pay meter electricity - 50c pieces).

Now it turns out that Leerdam is quite famous, although we had not heard of it. It is the glass capital of the Netherlands and home to the Royal Leerdam Crystal factory - creators of some of the world's best art glass.

Skip was so fascinated by the glass, the demo movie and the attractive and charming assistant, that he forgot to take any pictures. "Did you get one for the blog?" I asked. He dashed back and hurriedly took this, although there were more spectacular displays which you will have to just take my word for.
They had pieces from about 15 euros up to 3 000 - I would say most of the things on this shelf were in the 300 - 500 euros range.

There are dozens of small glass blowers in the town and we plan to visit one of them, right here next to the dock, tomorrow morning. We did visit the Royal Leerdam and looked at some of their amazing stuff in their shop, but they only have one tour a day and it was over. They don't have any on weekends either.

They don't just produce art glass here either, right next door to the Royal Leerdam is another huge factory where they make 5 million beer bottles every day, 7 days a week. That's a LOT of beer bottles, and 90% of it is from recycled glass, which is a reassuring statistic.

Today's windmill. You should be grateful that I only include the occasional windmill, but this one was a bit different.

The weather today was thankfully cooler, although still 29 on the aft deck this afternoon. But the light breeze made it more agreeable. Tomorrow will be more of the same, although the weatherman thought we might get the odd shower, but then he thought that today and he was wrong.

I managed to get a load of laundry done at the yacht club this afternoon (I had decided it was too much of a faff at Gorinchem) -  5 euros for a wash and dry. I only bothered with the bedding as the rest I can do on the boat. Everything dries in a flash in this weather.

This came down the canal in Gorinchem today. Three surfboards and a sofa. Well, why not?

25 August
Gorinchem

Another HOT HOT HOT day. It was an unpleasant night - airless and sticky - and the boat retained its heat until well after midnight. The coolest spot was on the foredeck, so we put our TWO camp chairs up there and read for hours until the aft cabin was sleep-able.

We decided to leave the boat for the hottest part of the day, so plotted a cycle route which took in 4 ferries, a medieval walled town, a castle, a fishing museum (I know, but it was air-conditioned), dikes, a river or two, lots of air-conditioned cafeterias, as well as a half-hour on a bench under a tree.

Today's ferries:

A BIG one...

A medium one (I know, THE HAT!) ...

A small one ....

A cute little itty-bitty one.

The first ferry took us to Woudrichem, a charming little village, once the center of fishing in these parts, til the closure of the big sea dikes put an end to that.

The village was preparing for their annual fisherman's festa at the weekend, festooned with fish themed flags & bunting. There were also fish nets draped wherever it was possible to drape one.

A couple of km's and one small ferry later, we came across the kasteel Slot Loevenstein. Very picturesque and a nice air-conditioned cafeteria where we had lunch.

The kasteel cost 12,50 to go around, and after I had peeked in the souvenir guide book, I decided we would'nt bother. The grounds were free, and probably the best bit.

Back aboard at 5.30, just as the sun dipped behind the building across the canal leaving the boat in the shade. All very well, but as last night, the boat was still 33 inside and 35 on the aft deck. Camp chairs on the bow again.

Tomorrow is predicted to be a little cooler with maximums of 28 instead of 32, so here's hoping.

All in all we did 45 km on the bikes, with frequent stops.

24th August
Biesbosch to Gorinchem

OMG, hot, hot, hot.

We opened the front windscreen window, which now leans precariously on the folded-down mast, but lets in a welcome breeze especially underway and believe me we needed it as we made our way up a windless channel to the Biesboschsluis leading out to the Merwede River.



The central window-pane folded down gave a welcome breeze.

This bit of channel is feeling quite familiar, as we have now done it twice before by boat and once with the bikes.



For awhile we followed a day-tripper. You can see from the tree how shallow the channel is in places. This was obvious, others not so much.

There were a lot of boats of all sizes and shapes out enjoying the summer weather. A lot of them are open boats and I just don't know how they can stand the heat with no shade.

Lots of boats out enjoying the sunny morning.

The big river Merwede was also flat calm, except when a speed boat or fast ferry would pass by creating lots of wake. There were plenty of huge barges cruising up and down too, but they seem to create minimal wake.

The Biesbosch lock leading out to the Merwede River.

I was surprised at how many beaches there were. Real proper sandy beaches. Definitely more sand than Praia Almoxarife ;), and many of them with swimmers and sunbathers - and the odd herd of cows enjoying a long drink or huddling under the trees to get out of the sun.

The cows did'nt seem to mind sharing their beaches ....

... with the humans.

From the minute we got to the Jachtensluis leading into the small town of Gorinchem we knew we would like the place. It had all the small town feel we like and the hanging baskets full of petunias and geraniums on all the lamp posts and bridges were a colourful touch.

The Jachtensluis into Gorinchem. The small lock only takes two boats our size, plus a few little ones tucked under our bow. 

Just beyond the lock is a low, fixed bridge which today was 2.75 (it can vary). We stopped to take down the awnings and windscreens and scraped through although Skip had to duck. There is another bridge, same height, a little further along and then one of 3m.

The pretty town lies just beyond the lock. There are three low bridges 2.75m, so we had to take the tent and windows down.

There are good moorings all along this narrow canal through the center of town and we eventually picked one near the end because, at the time, there was some shade from the trees lining the road. Unfortunately our shade moved across with the sun and we spent the late afternoon in full sunshine and, oh boy, is it hot.

We hoped the shade from these trees would last. Sadly it did'nt.

I took a walk through town to escape the heat, stopping in every air-conditioned shop I could find. "Just browsing," I prevaricated when approached by shop assistants. You'll be surprised at how interesting home-wares become when displayed in an air-conditioned shop.

I also had to locate the harbour office to pay the dues (13 euros, elec & showers extra) and it was way back down the canal at the lock. The shower complex and washerette (their term) are also down there. I might put the bedding in tomorrow as they have good commercial machines - not the piddly home ones you find in some places - although it is rather a long way to schlep the laundry bag.

The mooring between the last two bridges. Zoe is furthest at the end.

Skip was supposed to be cooking again, but we both decided it was too hot. There were Dominos Pizza delivery guys flitting about on their scooters, so no prizes for guessing what we had for dinner.