10 August
Haarlem

Lovely sunny day. Out of the Niewe Meer and turned right into the 'Ringvaart van die Haarlemermeerpolder' - catchy names they give their canals, hey.

A mix of business units and urban interspersed with farmlands and flower growers (Arlesmere flower auction is not far). There were lots of free mooring spots, and very few boats using them. Again, we saw only a couple of boats on the canal all day. It is mid-summer so where are they all? gone to Friesland maybe.



The Ringvaart van die Haarlemermeerpolder.

We are really close to Schipol here and it was fun watching the undercarriages pass over us and trying to guess which airline they belonged to.

We agreed these looked like cheese graters.
We later discovered they're luxury apartments.

Most of the bridges today were high enough for us. The occasional lift bridges had call buttons on a pole just before the bridge. Unfortunately the buttons are really low down and one has to lean way over and use the boat hook (or broom when one has dropped the boathook over the side, ahem) to reach them.

As we approached Haarlem from the south this time, we skipped going right into the city. There are good moorings in the old city centre where we stopped last time, but we know how noisy and busy they all are so chose to stop just before getting there.

We are tied up at a lovely quiet small haven just off the Spaarne that belongs to the WV Merlenhaven yacht club. There are free moorings just beyond the haven but too shallow for us. The club charges 70 cents a metre and as we are 10 metres (wink, wink) it is only 7 euros a day. If one wanted facilities - showers, laundry, etc (which we don't), the main yacht club is a little ways down river. We have a huge green field across the canal from us full of cows and water birds (with chicks :) ) but are only a couple of minutes cycle from the city centre.

Happily moored at the Haarlem yacht club.

We put the bikes ashore and went to the Ikea to replace the crockery we broke on the meer back in May in the "BBQ Overboard Splash" incident. The ride took us through the centre and now we know where all the boats are - the moorings are chock-a-block.

For awhile, I have been watching out for the perfect dish-drainer and today, at the Ikea, I found it!

Skip managed to find some of the fittings for the solar panel installation.

Got back to the boat in time for drinks on the aft deck and .... yes, you guessed correct again, a BBQ.



These cup-a-soups are delicious.
Highly recommended.
( And I promise I have'nt been paid to say so.)