31 May 2017

Spakenburg to Randomeer mooring.

I spent an entertaining morning visiting the Spakenburg museu and wandering around the old harbour taking pictures of lovely old boats. There was a tour group of about 20 ladies of a-certain-age (OMG I'm one of them now!) just starting a tour when I arrived, so I elected to wait in the charming museum coffeeshop with a cuppa browsing through their books while the group went ahead of me.

I found a really interesting book in english written by an american woman detailing her gramma's penchant for wearing the traditional clothing from the town. Unlike the "black-stocking" religious cults further north around Staphorst, the ladies of Spakenburg wear their dress just because they enjoy it.

Of course, the museum had many examples of the outfit and what totally astonished me is the awkward over-the-shoulder-sorta-shawl thingie they wear. It is called a "Kraplap" and is usually made out of a colourful floral cotton and fastened with a red and white check sash. All very well and good, but it it HARD.  I mean, HARD.

The only way I can think to describe it is this:  imagine you have a green rotary cutting mat on the table in front of you. Mmmmm you think, I am going to now glue a piece of floral fabric to my mat. OK, now what. Well, how about I cut a slit in the middle of it and hang it around my neck?  Maybe fold it over my shoulders a bit? I'm telling you, completely bonkers. You really have to wonder how they came up with this idea bearing in mind they have been wearing them for 150 years at least. But wear them they do, even today, summer and winter and apparently they wear them without jackets on in winter because "they look like sumo wrestlers" when they wear a jacket over the top according to the writer's gramma.

Still, the museum was interesting giving an insight into the town's history and the effect of the Zuiderzee closing on the town - which was substantial.

While I spent a happy couple of hours in the museum, Skip took himself off on a bike ride around town. "I saw a whole lot of old ladies in funny dresses!" he reported when he got back to the boat. I explained about the Kraplappen.

After lunch, we decided it was too hot moored up in town, and moved up the meer about 12 km to some moorings next to the woods below Zeewolde. We put the bikes ashore and bundu-bashed a couple of 100ms up to a bike path leading to Nijkerk, about 15km away. Never having been to Nijkerk, we decided to follow it. Well, we can now cross Nijkerk off the list. Big, unnatractive industrial town. Nah.

Lovely quiet night with nowt but birdies to disturb us….