Groningen - Assen - 1ste Uffelterbrug (yes, you are reading this correctly!)

Well, Groningen did not ‘do it’ for us. Busy, noisy, dirty, vagrants in the street and an overfull yacht basin did not endear it to us. We prefer a bit more peace and quiet and a bit of space. Or maybe we are getting old?!

On Saturday we left after the lunch hour of the bridge keepers (we had to do some ‘business’ in the morning) and set course for Assen. That also brought us to Drenthe, our 11^th province on Onbekommerd, the only one we have not been to is Limburg, in the South. That wont happen this year either. The weather en route to Assen was not too good, with rain showers every now and then, including the mother of all downpours just as we entered a lock. Bad timing! Otherwise it was quite uneventful but a bit slow and as we could not make the harbour in the centre of Assen before the closing time of the bridges (5pm on a Saturday), we tied up in a very quiet little ‘passanten haven’ on the outskirts of Assen. Apart from the fact that it was a bit shallow (we had to move the boat along the quay in order to be off the bottom), it turned out a perfect spot, very quiet and a nice smell of some flower in the air! My cousin Saskia and Harrie came on board for a meal and we had a very nice, interesting and lively conversation which lasted till around 11. This (Sunday) morning it was beautiful weather and we set off in the direction of Meppel at 9.30, knowing that we could not make Meppel itself as the speed limit on the Drenthse Hoofdvaart is 6KM/hr, there are numerous bridges and about 6 locks which all close at 5pm on a Sunday. So we are now tied up at 1^st Uffelter bridge, just on the side of the canal. It is not a bad place, but there is a main road on the other side of the canal, so quiet it aint! Otherwise we are well, another 2 Onbekommerd weeks before we go back to London. We look forward to see Sean there and Lyn will go to Cape Town the week after to work on a project there for 2 weeks and also see Greg. We do miss our boys!

Pictures tomorrow. We only have a GPRS connection here, which is too slow to get pictures uploaded!