This is "Onbekommerd"!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Den Haag and from Leiden to Amsterdam (plus photos)

To start with, a few pictures of the 'Koningsdag' celebrations:

 This lad would play anything from his repertoire (7 items) for 50 cents.


 The 'free market' with Onbekommerd in the background.


 These girls were part of a performance by their music school.




 The winning cake




 All sorts of confectionary


Onbekommerd amidst the festivities 




In Leiden, my cousin Barend came on board for dinner.


The train from Leiden to Den Haag (The Hague) only takes just over 10 minutes, the walk from the harbour to the railway station is longer than that!

Den Haag was started around 1300 when count Floris IV built a small castle near what he considered an attractive forest.  Relatively soon thereafter, Floris V built a more substantial castle, which is now the 'Binnenhof', the seat of the Dutch government. From the 1300's, the ruling counts and later monarchs have resided in Den Haag. King Willem Alexander also has his 'working palace' (thats Royalspeak for 'office' there.
There is a particularly fine museum, the 'Mauritshuis', which hosts amongst others two particularly nice Vermeer paintings: "The girl with the pearl earrings" and "View on Delft".

Here is our collection of Den Haag pictures:

 Binnenhof and Ridderzaal

 Prime minister Rutte's office



 Paleis Noordeinde (the King's office)


The Mauritshuis is right next to the Binnenhof


 The girl with the pearl earring



View on Delft


Today we spent six hours motoring along very pretty scenery to Amsterdam.

Most of the way is along the Drecht and the Amstel:



But the last hour or so leads you straight through Amsterdam. Tricky with all the tourist boats but otherwise quite unique.





Tomorrow we'll go into Amsterdam, Saturday most likely back North.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Leiden

We enjoyed 'Koningsdag' in Woerden, it was definitely a good choice to go! The usual 'free markets' in the morning, where (amongst other things), kids sell their unwanted toys and buy 'new' ones. The ultimate example of 'recycling' or 'sustainability'! In the afternoon there were various entertainers on different stages throughout this old town. A very nice and relaxed atmosphere, no aggression, no drunken behaviour!

Yesterday we moved on to Leiden. The route took us over the 'Oude Rijn', which is a very pretty river. The bridges and one lock operated quickly. Still very quiet on the water and also very cold! Although (apart from a perfectly timed rain shower when acting off in Woerden), it's generally sunny, the wind is very cold.


In Leiden we had my cousin Barend on board for supper which was very nice. We don't meet often, but when we do we always have a good conversation!

Today we are off to The Hague, but we'll do it by train and leave Onbekommerd in Leiden for the day. It's only a 15 minute train ride and as The Hague has no harbour for us, it's a far easier option.

Once we log on with the laptop, I'll post some pictures of the last few days.

Location:Haven,Leiden,The Netherlands

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Woerden

Time for an update again!



We spent a nice three nights in Weesp. On Friday, Michael and Annemieke picked us up from the boat after lunch and drove us to Bloemendaal. This is a small town near the coast. The significance is that both Michael and Annemike grew up there and the three of us went to school nearby  and in fact that's how we know each other.

But Bloemendaal has a special meaning for us as it is where 'Thijsse's Hof' is. This is a 'natural garden', which was donated to my great grandfather by the municipality of Bloemendaal at the occasion of his 60th birthday (90 years ago!) in recognition of his work as a 'naturalist', someone who brought the love of nature as well as nature conservation to the people of the country in those days. His life motto was "Onbekommerd" ('un-worried" would probably be the best translation) and our boat is named after that! So we went to see Thijsse's Hof and we also went to the cemetery where he (my great grandfather, Jac. P. Thijsse is buried as well as his son (my grandfather), J. Th. Thijsse.

In Thijsse's Hof, there is a small exhibition, including Jac. P.'s desk, the many books he wrote and a diary he started when he was 18, in 1884.



Here are some pictures:







































After our visit to Bloemendaal, we had dinner at Michael and Annemieke's house. They gave us 10 of Jac. P. Thijsse's 'albums', which Michael's mother had kept. These are relatively rare, especially the first editions. What a wonderful gift!











When we got back to the boat, this was the view of the Weesp bridge:









Yesterday (Saturday), we first did some shopping in Weesp and then visited the Weesp museum. It is always interesting to visit a museum in a small town and learn about its history. There were people in the Weesp area in the iron age (300BC), but it started to grow in the 1700's as they made the beer and the gin for the vessels of the VOC. The clean water available from the river Vecht in those days gave the gin and beer a very high quality which meant that it kept well during the long voyage to the East Indies. When the VOC declined in the late 1700's, there was a short period where porcelain production kept Weesp on the map, but that succumbed to competition. There are also several old fortifications (built before 1700 of course).

Later there was the Van Houten chocolate / cacao factory, but that too has disappeared and what once was an industrial town, now seems to be a place where people working in Amsterdam live. But still a nice and interesting place!

Later during the day, Hoyte and Carien came for drinks, it was good to see them too!



Today was a day of extremes: we motored up the Vecht for an hour, then on the Amsterdam - Rijn canal between big tanker barges and river cruisers for passengers and then through shallow and narrow canals to Woerden where we are now and will celebrate 'Koningsdag', the King's birthday tomorrow.








Friday, April 24, 2015

Really in 'Holland' now

To start with, a picture of our meal with Marinus and Ike a few days ago in Franeker. Ike is a wonderful cook and always dishes up something we do not do ourselves. This time it was a typical Dutch dish: 'Raasdonders'. Don't know the English word for it, its a sort of pea, eaten with bacon.


Marinus was also helpful in taking a lot of paint and associated stuff of our hands and getting a lightbulb for the searchlight. Thanks Marinus!


Up till yesterday, we were in Friesland, but now we are in 'Holland' proper.
We crossed the IJsselmeer in beautiful windless conditions. The new self steering worked beautifully, but then in windless conditions its not a very difficult test!
Here is a picture of the replacement in progress:





And here is the finished product (well, thats the bit you can see, the computer, the compass, the steering pump and the rudder indicator are not that visible).




On our way over the IJsselmeer, we came past the Marken lighthouse, a well known landmark which we had not seem for two seasons.



Currently, we are in Weesp, we'll see our friends Michael and Annemieke today. Tomorrow we hope to see Hoyte and Carien and afterwards we start moving towards Leiden to see my cousin Barend. This is 'friends and family week'!




Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Stavoren

Just a quick update:

After the self steering stuff was replaced (it's working very well now!), we set sail to one of our favourite places 'in the wild', Aegehoek near Grou.
We had a very nice and quiet night there and put in another 4 hours to Stavoren. From here we'll cross the IJsselmeer tomorrow, the conditions look very good for that.
We have been pretty lucky with the weather: virtually no rain, either earlier in London or here in the Netherlands, since we left Cape Town almost a month ago. But here it has generally been cold, especially out of the sun (which did not shine today anyway) and in the wind. But that's still a lot better than rain!



Location:Stadsfenne,Nijefurd,The Netherlands

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Photos of the last few days

As reported earlier, the Blogpress app that I use to post from the iPad refuses to handle pictures. We are currently in Eernewoude and I have one hour internet available so I can use the main 'blogpost' site to write this post which I'll use to publish some pictures:

Onbekommerd was waiting for us in Franeker:



Lyn is always busy on board!

Work:



And a new pastime: art!




We spent two  nice nights on an island in the 'Heegermeer'. This was the sunset at 6:30!



Yesterday, passing the Langweerder Wielen, there was a very typical Dutch scene!





Thats all for now, we are off to Franeker to be there in time for the self-steering to be replaced tomorrow!



Friday, April 17, 2015

Heegermeer

After a nice visit by Jaap en Feikje we left Sneek for Heeg, where there is a company that specialises in electric outboard motors. We want to get one for our little rubber dinghy to get to the shore when we are anchored.
We identified the motor we want, but unfortunately it was not in stock :-(. So now we need to see if we can get it elsewhere.

From the 'electric motor shop' (which is called 'De Stille Boot', "The silent boat"), we went onto the Heegermeer. That's quite a sizeable bit of water, so a good opportunity to see if the automatic steering was in working order after the winter. It was not. In fact, it was completely dead! I called the shipyard where Onbekommerd spent the winter, thinking that they had made some mistake. Mr Valk, the owner, came to the boat himself and concluded that the 25 year old 'computer' has failed. The 'computer' is part of a system consisting of an electronic compass, a control unit, a steering pump and a feedback unit. And of course all of these 25 year old bits don't work with the new 'computer'. Well, one of those things. Quite expensive, but it needs to be done. On Monday morning we'll be back in Franeker where they'll take all day to do the job.
We'll see afterwards where our 'spring voyage' will take us, it might be not as far South as Zeeland.




Location:Nijefurd,The Netherlands

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Sneek

Yesterday we set foot on Onbekommerd again, which was great! The annual maintenance (not a lot this year, thankfully) had been done expertly by Valk Yachts. This morning we set off on the first of many legs this year. We did the 'Middezee Route' to Sneek. The weather is nice and sunny although a bit chilly in the (strong) wind. Tomorrow we expect Jaap and Feikje for a visit.
The plan for the first month or so is to go South to Zeeland and then back up to Terschelling where we plan to be around 14 May. After that to the Baltic.

At this stage, it appears I still can't post pictures using the Blogpress app. I have lodged a request to sort this out, until then words will have to suffice.


Live from "Onbekommerd"

Location:Lemmerweg,Sneek,The Netherlands

Monday, April 13, 2015

On our way back to Onbekommerd

After the usual busy and productive 6 months in Cape Town, we are now in Coulsdon, a suburb just South of London. Our son Sean and his girlfriend Nikola have recently bought a house there and we were very excited to see it (and to help with some of the chores that needed to be done).

I was going to post a few pictures, but for some reason the Blogpress app is refusing to access the pictures on my iPad. I'll have to check what's wrong there.

Early tomorrow morning we are off to Onbekommerd, via Gatwick airport and Amsterdam. It may take a day or so to get our internet on board sorted out, but as soon as we are 'up', we'll start to keep you breast of the 2015 adventures!

Location:Chipstead Close,Coulsdon,United Kingdom