Netherlands 2011 Tuesday 21st June

Map showing Naarden to Rotterdam

We left Naarden at 7.30am so as to beat the winds that were expected today. We travelled back out the same way we had come in but then turned into the Ijmeer, which is like open sea. It was very misty and rainy and it was hard to see, but we travelled from channel marker to channel marker and made our way into Amsterdam via a very large Sluis.

It was very eerie and took a couple of hours. We knew the winds were getting worse later in the day so we left early. It was the wind or the mist!!!

This is all we could see out of the window!!

The Carr's following

                                        The bridge we went under to go into the Ijmeer

We sailed through Amsterdam and turned into Hout Haven and down through 14 lifting bridges through the suburbs of Amsterdam. It was very pretty. It took a few hours as we had to wait for each bridge to open.

                                         The big Lock (Orangesluis) entering Amsterdam waters

Me in the Sluis - Yes Getting wet!!!

A few cranes in Amsterdam

Bob waiting for a bridge to open

The bridge has opened

Canal near Aalsmeer

After 6 hours of driving we arrived in Aalsmeer so that we can visit the flower markets tomorrow.

We rode our bikes in the wind and cold about 5 km until we arrived at the flower markets – Flora Holland. The flower auction was a fascinating sight. There were dozens of tractors with flower trolleys swarming around the large halls. We watched through a glass window at the flower auction taking place. This is the largest flower auction in the world – the area under continuous cover is equivalent to 250 football fields.

The following information was given to us.

Number of locations                          6
Number of auction rooms                13
Number of auction Clocks               40
Number of Employees                     4500

Turnover per year                              4 billion euro

Number of Flowers and plants        12 billion
Turn over per day                             16 million euro
Number of flowers and plants           48 million

The flowers come from many different countries and are despatched to many countries. Some are same day delivery. It was fascinating. 

                                            Flowers wating to be sold

                                                     The Auction Room

When we came out of the auction halls to ride home the weather had really turned bad so we spent the afternoon on the boat catching up on all our chores.

                           We hand pulled this over so we could get back to the yatch club

We left about 8.30am in the wind and rain again and headed to Leiden. It was a pretty trip through the lakes and canals. Holland is such a pretty place with all the water ways – it’s just the weather that ruins it.

We arrived in Leiden just in time for the German family (from Halle) – we met them at Parry’s beach in WA a couple of years ago. They drove about 3 hours to come and see us. Heiko, Edith, Tobias and Eric arrived with a tasty German cake and some more Storck chocolates and toffees. We felt very spoilt.

                                        
                                             Edith, Tobias and Eric
We spent two days in Leiden. It was a bigger town than I expected and we had plenty to see. The weather was kind to us the first day so we explored. We spent some time in a windmill, where we climbed to the top where we had a great view of the town.

                                         
                                                Penny and Tobias with leiden Behind
 Saturday the rain came in again with a vengeance, so we travelled down to Den Hague in the boat - all six of us. It was a great experience for the kids. They stayed on the boat with us that night as they couldn’t get a third night at the hostel. It was very cosy with six on board but we all managed and had a great time. The Carr’s joined us for drink and so there were 8.

We were going to have an Australian barby but the weather was so bad we had Spaghetti Bol instead. We woke up Sunday morning to sunny day, cold but sunny so we all headed off to the city. We were in a yacht club about 4 km from the centre so we rode in to find out what was on in town. Our first visit was to the Mauritshuis museum. This housed many paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens etc, but the main attraction was the “Girl with the Pearl Earring” by Vermeer and the “Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolas Tulp” by Rembrandt.

We then rode 5km to the coast to Scheveningen ( the English Channel)  where we met Heiko and Edith for lunch on the beach front. We had Kibbling and chips (little pieces of fish fried in batter) then we said our goodbyes. They had a 3 hour trip back to Halle in Germany. It was great to catch up and I am sure the kids enjoyed the experience of the boat. Tobias did some driving and proved to be a good “mate”. We have been left with a couple of drawings the children did on the boat, So cute.

                                    
                                            Riding on the Beach front

                                                   The Beach

We then rode back into Den Hague and visited the Panorama Mesdag  - a huge 360 degree painting of Scheveningen that was painted by Henrick Willem Mesdag, The panorama is viewed from a constructed dune with real sand and beach chairs. It was incredible. I really enjoyed the display, but no photos allowed so can’t show you.

                                                        The Peace Monument

We then rode around the corner to the Peace Palace.  This is the home to almost all international organisations in the fields of peace and justice. We tried to organise a tour over this building but they couldn’t fit us in until July 11^th so we gave it a miss and just took a photo. We did look at the Eternal flame of peace encircled by the path of World peace consisting of 196 stones from 196 countries. Our stone was a gorgeous stone from the Pilbara area. The weather was improving – the sun was shining and no rain.

                                                    Festival in Leiden

We woke the next morning to plenty of sunshine and heat and the humidity was dreadful. That was Monday. Tuesday we woke to thunder and lighting then big storm, but by 11.00 that had past and we were now in humid hot weather until 7pm when the sky opened up again and as I sit here its pouring again. I really find this weather strange and not much fun – the only good thing is I don’t have to clean the boat!!!!

Monday we went on a tour over the Binnenhof. Through the centuries the Binnenhof has been the centre of political life. We went on a tour which took us through the Hall of Knights and the second chamber of parliament. It was all very interesting. Every year on the 20^th September the Queen delivers her speech in the Knights Hall and then rides around the city in her carriage. Princes Day represents the start of the new parliamentary year and the speech by the queen tells the public what is happening in the political year.

                                                 Lois and Russel in front of the Knights Hall

After leaving the tour we had lunch with the Carr’s and then went off in search of a another museum. Couldn’t find one open so rode home. Monday in the Netherlands is when most museum are closed.

We left the next morning for Delft and arrived in the pouring rain. After tying up we headed off to explore. We decided to do a few museums. One in particular was the Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles – Royal Delft. I expect most are aware of the Delft fine china. It was an interesting tour over the factory where the firing was done, then the painting room and the rooms of fine china. It was very expensive so didn’t come away with much.

                                                                 Me surrounded by tiles from Delft

We spent a few days in Delft and then travelled to Rotterdam and stayed for a few days with the Dixons in their yacht club. We rode into Rotterdam and explored on bike the second busiest port in the world.

                              

                                                           Russel in Rotterdam

                                 Rotterdam with Williamstad Bridge - We rode over this

Penny with Yatch haven behind

The Australians in Leiden

Netherlands 2011

We had a great trip over on Malaysians Airlines.  I do enjoy travelling with them. We arrived in Amsterdam and met Bob and Lois at the airport and then travelled to Steenwijk by train. It was the weekend so there was no direct train and we had 3 changes. We struggled with our bags. On and off each train but arrived in Steenwijk and caught a taxi to Scheerwolde where Arcturus was waiting for us in the big hall.

She looked very sad as she was very dirty and dusty but we spend the next three days cleaning her up and now she looks like her old self.

 Today (the14th) we will go into the water and hopefully our mechanic will arrive and fix the things he had 9 months to do so we can take off and start our 2011 adventure. We are already behind our schedule because of the holiday.

We had a pleasant surprise yesterday when our friends John and Rinolda came by in their boat to say hello. We will catch up with them in the next few days in Steenwijk to pick up our canvas top that they had repaired for us.

 We are very tired and our bodies are very sore as we have been polishing our boat. It is starting to look sparkling again like the boat we saw first. We will both be glad when this working is over and we can enjoy our trip.

We had drinks to say good bye to everyone at Scheerwolde.

We met an English couple - Peter and Chris who have been living on their boat for a month. They had major problems with a leaking hull - the hull apparently rusted out. They had it all repaired, but Tuesday when they put it in the water in leaked again. it was all very disappointing for them. we left them Tuesday a very disappointed couple. I do hope things improve for them.

It is now Friday 17^th and we made it to Steenwijk but that is as far as we have gone. The weather turned ghastly – or is it just the Netherlands!!

We arrived in Steenwijk on Wednesday afternoon. We were waiting for the Gilberts to arrive in Scheerwolde as they are taking their boat from Holland down to France so they can sell it. We waited and waited but then received a phone call to say they had lost a fan belt and were stuck on the side of the canal not far from us and Kevin is to replace the belt. We decided to ride to them instead as we needed to get into Steenwijk by 3pm. It was not what Yvonne thought. We rode and rode and after about 5 klm we spotted Yvonne.   We went to collect all the French maps from them. So after a big chat we rode back to the boat and sailed to Steenwijk where we are still sitting.

                                                              Arcturus moored on the side of the Steenwijk canal

The canal in Steenwijk is being worked on by the local council. They have removed a lot of old sand from the bottom of the canal and are now replacing it with new sand. The canal is abuzz with noise all day and the turbulence on the water is making me quite sea sick and the water is covered in brown foam making the cleaning of our boat quite pointless.

                               

                                          The machine making all the noise

We are parked out the front of our friends John and Rinolda’s home. Russel and John decide to put in a manual greasing system and have been working on this for two days now. John has been great in taking Russel everywhere to buy parts for this. I believe this is now finished and today we will head off toward Amsterdam.

The other problem we have is that we cannot access our French account. We each accessed it once and now the card won’t work so I am trying to contact Paris so we can get some money. I do hope we can sort this out quickly.

Plenty has happen since we left Steenwijk. The weather has been terrible. I even had to dig deep into the bowels of the boat to get out all out winter gear – beanies and gloves were put on yesterday as we were travelling in the windy, wet canals. We travelled from Steenwijk, stopped at Giethoorn for water and gas, (we were able to get rid of our German gas bottle) and travelled to just before the Ijssel in an overnight stop where we had just enough time to settle before the thunder, rain and lightning came.

                                                        Rain Rain Rain!!!

                                                Hopefully showing the way we went

We left the next morning and travelled passed Elberg and onto Harderwijk where we to wait for John and Rinolda. We had a fabulous meal at a local restaurant- pork spare ribs, pepper steak etc. We had a great evening ending in an ice bomb to celebrate the wedding of John and Rinolda. 

                         

The Ice bomb!!!


Lois and Bob were having problems with their boat so had stopped to fix it at an overnight stop, so they decided to stay the night as we were experiencing waves over our boat. We heard from them the next morning. They were a head of us!! They left their spot at 7am to catch us. We decided to reach Naarden. The trip was very rough – waves over the front of the boat, but we managed to reach Naarden safely.

This is showing just a few of the windmills we saw whilst travelling

We stayed two nights. Today we rode to the railway station and caught the train to Barnveld where Russel took his greasing machine to find out what was wrong. Nothing wrong with the machine must be the switch which tells it when to come on. So 50 euro later we caught the train back to Naarden where I did the washing and Russel re installed his greasing machine.

washing day!!!!

                                      Drinks after a long day!!!

We will leave tomorrow and head for Aalsmeer.

Forgot to mention that we did get an answer from our bank in France. we are able to take out 500 euro every seven days so we are back in the money and counting of the days when we can get some more. we are able to book up agains the card, but Holland is not a great place for international cards. They seem to enjoy the cash.