9 August
Niewe Meer
Amsterdam

It was a rainy start to Tuesday, so we had to take the long route to Amsterdam via the Zuidersluis instead of the shortcut through Almere Haven. That would have meant taking down the aft deck tent in order to squeak under a bunch of 2.5m bridges as we are 2.4m with everything down and that would not have been fun in the rain.

Unfortunately the other side of the Zuidersluis was 14km of the meer to Amsterdam and as usual it was windy and choppy from the wrong direction. This time, however, we made sure the Weber was well tied down.
"I hate the meer! I hate the meer!" Skip muttered the whole way across.



Happily though, the weather had improved by now and the sun came out as we approached the city. There were lots of boats out and about, and the lock into the Ij was quite an experience as the lock keepers stuffed in as many boats as possible. As usual, a couple of charter boats made a hash of it :) .


'OK - let's see how many boats we can stuff in this time.'

Instead of taking the Spaarne route through to Haarlem (which we did in the spring), we turned left just after Sixhaven into the Kostverlorenvaart. The canal passes right through the city.

Kostverlorenvaart through Amsterdam.

At first there were lovely old buildings leaning over the canal, then a couple of kms of apartments, hundreds of houseboats and industrial units on the outskirts. All very interesting. Astonishingly, considering how busy the other route is, we only saw 2 other boats the whole way through.

The canal has a lot of low lift bridges, but Skip went ashore at the first bridge and chatted to the young bridge keeper who kindly called ahead to all the others and from then on the green lights came on as we approached and we were able to pass through all the bridges without any waits.

Love the way the trolleys'  electric pole goes up with the bridges.

Lock keeper's office.

At one point we passed the Olympic stadium. Heidi and Michael live just on the other side, but unfortunately they are in France on holiday so we could'nt stop for a visit.

There must be a Portuguese community around here somewhere.

Frustrated gardener lives here.

Not all the bridges were pretty.

The houseboats come in all shapes and sizes - unfortunately I missed the photo of one with a thatched roof.

From the canal one can check out everyone's decor.

The canal eventually opens out into a charming small lake, the Niewe Meer, with woods, picnic spots and yacht and rowing clubs around the edges. We picked the prettiest yacht club, WV Onkelaar, to spend the night. The friendly club has good facilities, and the laundry is just about the cheapest I have come across - 2 euros for a wash, and 1 euro to dry. We paid 15 euros which included wifi and stroom (power). The club is a spit away from Schipol and would be a convenient place to leave the boat if they did'nt have a waiting list going back to 2009!

BBQ for dinner - yes, how did you guess?