Back across the IJsselmeer

We left Enkhuizen this morning, the weather forecast predicting relatively light winds. The idea was to go to Hindeloopen today and onto Vlieland tomorrow.
It was quite a nice trip today, although the wind got up in anticipation of a rain squall towards the end (although the rain never materialised).
The problem on the IJsselmeer is that even with a relatively benign wind (say 4 Bft), you get a nasty short chop on the water due to the shallow water. Add to that the green colour, and the attraction of the IJsselmeer reduces to the nice towns, both our starting point - Enkhuizen - and our destination - Hindeloopen - today being very pleasant. But the water itself, especially after the Baltic, no....

We found a good place in the old municipal harbour in Hindeloopen. In the season it is 'wall to wall boats' here, but now that the schools have gone back and the builders holidays are over, it's quiet now on a Sunday evening.

We'll look at the weather tomorrow and hope we can move on to Vlieland. A relatively late start as its high tide at Kornewerderzand only at around 13:30 and we want to take the outgoing tide.

Location:Dijkweg,Nijefurd,The Netherlands

Visitors, the Zuiderzee museum and Bach

Yesterday, Ineke and Franco came to visit us. We had a really nice 'Dutch' time, starting with 'koffie met appelgebak', followed by a walk through the town of Enkhuizen and a lunch including haring and paling (and a glass of wine of course).





It was nice to see my sister and brother in law after about 5 months!

Today we visited the Zuiderzee museum, or at least the 'buitenmuseum', which is a reconstruction of several features of the old towns around the Zuiderzee before it was transformed into the IJsselmeer in the 1930's. When I say 'reconstruction', it means that entire houses were moved intact or rebuilt, not 'replicas'! We had seen it a few years ago and were so impressed that we wanted to go back. We were not disappointed, this is really worthwhile.






Apart from the 'displays', there are - especially on a Saturday - several activities, some for kids, but others also appeal to adults. Lyn - as an educationalist - was especially interested in a visit to the school, where we followed a lesson in old-fashioned 'schoonschrijven', writing in the style of the 1930's. We were given ink, nibs and paper to try to emulate the teacher.





Finally, tonight we went to a Bach concert in the Zuiderkerk.
Busy day!

Most probably we'll still be here tomorrow. It seems like the conditions and the tide might be favourable for a trip to Vlieland. So the plan is to spend a few more days on a Wadden island after all!

Location:Tussen Twee Havens,Enkhuizen,The Netherlands

1955 = museum?

We discovered that there is quite an interesting excursion one can take from Enkhuizen, so we were tourists today!

To start off, we took the ferry to Medemblik. The ferry is the 'Friesland', originally built as a ferry between Harlingen and Terschelling.





It was built in 1955 and is now called a 'museum boat', to which I take exception (I was born in 1951!) and hence the title of this blog post.
But I do remember travelling to Terschelling on the Friesland as a young boy, probably in the early 60's.....

What was interesting is that you have a very different view from the top deck of this boat than from Onbekommerd, a few meters above the waterline.
This is the Buitenhaven in Enkhuizen, if you look very carefully you can see Onbekommerd too.





The next part of the trip is on the steam train from Medemblik to Hoorn. It appears this is run by a bunch of middle-aged men (well, at the top end of middle age maybe ..... ;-), 'playing train'. There is an engine driver of course, a stoker shovelling the coal, someone who gets of the train at unguarded level crossings to stop the road traffic with a red flag and a conductor to clip the tickets. And at each of the four stations where you stop, there is a station master with a red cap!














The last part of the trip was a bit of an anticlimax: by Dutch railways back from Hoorn to Enkhuizen (but at least it was on time!)

Location:Tussen Twee Havens,Enkhuizen,The Netherlands

Pea soup and mussels

We left Nye Kruzpolle a bit after 9 this morning and were through the new lock at Stavoren and on to the IJsselmeer just over an hour later.
To our surprise, the water of the IJsselmeer was dark green, it was as if we were moving through pea soup! According to the hourly VHF report, the water temperature was only 15.8 C, which does not seem warm enough for algae to grow wild. Anyway, pretty it was not!

We arrived in Enkhuizen soon after midday, well in time to get a nice spot in the Buitenhaven. We'll be here until at least Saturday, my sister Ineke and her husband Franco are in Holland (I can say that now, as they are not in Fryslân, Groningen or anywhere else where the use of 'Holland' would cause offence) on holiday and they will visit us on Friday.
We walked through Enkhuizen where there was a street market on:





And we finally found a restaurant where mussels (with chips!) were served. We have been waiting for this since coming on board in April!









If you look very carefully at the picture above, you'll see a ferry called "Friesland" in the background. More about that tomorrow!

Location:Tussen Twee Havens,Enkhuizen,The Netherlands

Weather forecasting

The weather forecast for today (we look at several forecasts, but they all agreed yesterday) predicted heavy rains for most of the day.....
We have hardly seen a cloud in the sky and it has been the first day in about two weeks without any rain at all! Fantastic.
It seems that forecasting the weather here in NW Europe is a lot more difficult than in Cape Town. There the forecast is pretty accurate, even a few days out. Here we often find anomalies, although todays's prediction is quite a bit more off the mark than usual.
We hope though that tomorrow's prediction is accurate as it suggests sunny skies and little wind: perfect to cross the IJsselmeer to Enkhuizen.
We are on Nye Kruzpolle, an island in a lake called 'Fluessen'. It's quiet now (after a boat with loud music left). The people tied up behind us have a 'Stabij', the same breed of dog we met in the Princenhof a few days ago. They were quite impressed that I knew the (relatively uncommon) breed. This one is as friendly as the other one was!

Location:Nijefurd,The Netherlands

Aegehoek - Sneek

This morning was very nice on our mooring at Aegehoek.





Quiet, a bit of sun, a bit of cloud (a bit cool, but the heater did its job...).

We left early-ish as we wanted to make sure to get a reasonably nice place in Sneek. Although most of the schools seem to have started up again, the 'rental boat season' is still in full swing. It now moves towards groups of German men having some sort of 'bonding experience' together. A concept which is quite strange to us, but each one to his own. But it means that popular spots like Sneek are still busy. We needed to do some shopping, food as well as some stuff we needed for the boat, so Sneek was called for.

We are tied up next to the 'Waterpoort' of which I have posted pictures several times before. Quite busy with traffic, both on the water and on the road.

We look forward to another Marrekrite mooring tomorrow.......

Location:Waterpoortsgracht,Sneek,The Netherlands

Aegehoek

We spent two nights in Eernewoude.
Yesterday, Jaap and Feikje invited us to their house in Beetsterswaag, which was very nice. After spending 10 weeks 'in convoy' with them on Jildou and Onbekommerd respectively, it was quite different to first be in a car and then in a hous.! And Feikje fed us very well: a nice Dutch lunch plus Nasi Goreng for supper!
This morning, after a big rain and wind squall, we left Eernewoude for Aegehoek, a Marrekrite mooring between Eernewoude and Grou. This is one of our favourite moorings, very protected and - now outside the high season - pretty quiet.
Probably Sneek tomorrow, for some shopping and wifi Internet.