Made it to Bolsward

Sunsets on board are an occasion to take nice pictures:





After a very quiet night 'in the countryside', we went to face this low bridge. There was a 'not so low' one first, and Lyn measured the headroom we had. That made us slightly more comfortable that it would be possible. And yes, with 7cm to spare we slowly conquered 'Spiketille'.




We then discovered that the next bridge was very narrow, one chart said 3.8m, the other 4.4m. We are 3.45 m wide, so we should fit through in either case. It was closer to 4.4 than to 3.8, so not difficult in the end:





We only take these pics after we have passed the obstacle and the stress is gone!

A bit later we arrived in Bolsward and we decided to call it a day and tie up. As it is Ascension day weekend, it's quite busy on the water and the mooring facilities filled up soon after we arrived.

We have been in Bolsward before, it is one of the Frisian 11 towns and has good facilities for boats. On this picture, you can see the Dutch flag with the Orange streamer, which indicates a Royal occasion. Yesterday was princess Maxima's birthday, but I guess they don't fly the flag on Ascension day?

Location:Gleibakkerij,Bolsward,The Netherlands

Franeker and Easterlittens

After a nice evening with our friends (and fellow boaters) Hans and Jet, we left the mooring in front of their house at 8am as we had an appointment at Valk Yachts, the 'birthplace' of Onbekommerd in the town of Franeker. We tied up at the boatyard at 11:30.





After we had a few things done (including removal of the heater, which - after the repair in Utrecht - is playing up again) and made arrangements for some TLC to Onbekommerd next winter, we tied up along the quayside of Franeker itself.
This morning we set out to explore this small but extremely interesting Frisian town. A University was founded here in 1585, only a year after the first University in the Netherlands in Leiden. It is no longer here, but was in existence for over 250 years.
Also, Franeker houses the oldest still working planetarium constructed by a mainly self taught woolcomber, mathematician and astronomer called Eise Eisinga. He built the planetarium in the space of 7 years in the ceiling of his living room. So even today you can see the actual positions of the planets, the moon and the sun there. It is fascinating! Here are some Franeker pictures:





Planetarium (unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but it is worthwhile to Google it!)





Korendragershuisje.




Onbekommerd in Franeker


This morning we set out on a new adventure: through the 'Bolswarder Trekvaart' to another Frisian town, Bolsward. Why is this an adventure? Well the canal, which is supposed to be 1.65m deep, turns out to be 1.2 m (Onbekommerd needs 1m). So not a lot of water under the keel. On top of that, the bridges are 2.50m. That is exactly what we need. We are now tied up along the canal in a very rural setting:





This is near Easterlittens, about a third of the way to Bolsward.

The lowest bridge will be early tomorrow, we have dropped the GPS antenna to get minimum headroom requirement. So we'll see tomorrow 'if it fits'. If not, we'll have to turn around and retrace our steps to the bigger canals. Not really a problem.
Watch this space......

Location:Weakens,Iens,The Netherlands

Discussing the German Wadden trip

It was one of these wet Dutch days today. We started by visiting the market in Sneek in a steady drizzle. After some shopping, we set course to Headammen where our friends Hans and Jet live. Together we are going to do a German Wadden trip early June, so we all thought it would be a good idea to do some pre-trip planning.
We had a nice dinner too!





Tomorrow, we'll set course to Onbekommerd's birthplace, Valk Yachts in Franeker to get some items sorted.

From Monnickendam to Lemmer and Sneek

The weather yesterday was almost perfect for an IJsselmeer crossing, so we set off from Monnickendam at 9:





A three hour trip with sun and little wind brought us to the 'Naviduct' lock at Enkhuizen. This lock is built as an aqueduct, on top of the motorway. Here we are waiting to enter:





As it was a Sunday, there was quite a bit of traffic, but not busy, just nice:









By 3pm we were tied up in Lemmer, back in the Fryslân province. Lemmer is not one on the 11 Frisian towns, it is a 'vlecke', wich means a large village. The old lock is quite nice and so is the quayside in the old quarter. Nice in the pre season, packed in mid summer and noisy with several bars and discos. The weather was still nice and we had pre dinner drinks outside in the cockpit for the first time this year.









This morning it was pretty windy, but as we are now only navigating lakes and canals that's fine. We made our way to Sneek, which being sort of a major town has a few facilities we need (such as a Vodafone shop to sort out the Internet on my iPad).

Tomorrow the plan is to visit our friends at the Headammen (that is also a Frisian word!).

Location:Koopmansgracht,Sneek,The Netherlands

Monnickendam

Our first day back was quite busy in the end.
We had (and still have) lots of chores to do. Certainly, on a boat, the job list never ends.
Ed and Elly came to see us with their new dog, Bentley:






We had a real Dutch barbecue, as it was the opening of the season in Monnickendam. The allocated portions of meat will keep us going for a few days. There was nice live music too:










It's quite cold, but at least it is dry!

Tomorrow, the forecast is light winds and sun. Ideal to cross the IJsselmeer. We'll probably aim for Lemmer, we have never entered Fryslân there.

On our way back to Onbekommerd

After collecting Lyn's new passport on Wednesday, we could start planning our return to our 'home on the water'. It's not easy to find an affordable one way flight at short notice, but somewhat surprisingly, we could use some almost-expiring KLM frequent flyer miles to book tickets for Friday 6:40pm.

This morning, we enjoyed visiting the exhibition of Leonardo anatomical drawings with Gwilym and Janine at the Queen's Gallery:






Then we had lunch with Sean and John Eloff. Nice Japanese food!





Now we are at Heathrow, waiting to board our flight. We'll report from Onbekommerd tomorrow.

M&M World

Yesterday was May Bank Holiday (for our South African readers: this has nothing to do with banks, it's what a public holiday is called here).
Rachel and Mathew, Lyn's niece and her husband who live in Cambridge had come down to London for the day to see the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings in the Queen's Gallery (we are going on Friday). We met them afterwards and walked to Sean's office. He was there, studying for the CFA2 exam he is writing in under 4 weeks time. We went for coffee and muffins together:





After coffee, Sean went back to the books, but as Rachel and Mathew did not have any fixed plans what to do next, we asked Sean - who after all by now is a real Londoner - for suggestions. Somewhat to my surprise he suggested M & M World, which is in Leicester Square. So we walked there, not quite knowing what to expect.
This place is quite amazing, it's a classical example of the power of merchandising and branding. They have used the simple concept of an M & M (a coloured sugar-coated chocolate) into a cult. In this store, there are 4 floors (!!!) of M & M branded merchandise, anything you can think of has been "M & M'ed". Clothing, souvenirs, cups, glasses etc etc.


















And yes, you can buy M&M's too!




Thanks for the suggestion, Sean!