To Rotterdam

Early in the morning it was quite misty, too misty to leave actually, but that was no problem as we wanted to have a look at Schoonhoven anyway. Although it is supposed to be the silver jewellery town, we had to look around a bit before we found this:





But all in all, it is quite a nice old Dutch town on the riverbank. We left around half past eleven, this is what it looks like from the river:





In the beginning, it was pretty quiet, but as we got nearer Rotterdam, there was a lot of traffic on the water and it was important to keep your wits about you.





After 3 hours we were safely tied up in the City Marina, with nice and luxurious hot showers but not the promised wifi Internet.

Location:Vijf Werelddelen,Rotterdam,The Netherlands

Schoonhoven

At around 10 this morning the heater mechanic 'phoned to say that he had repaired the heater and was on his way to us to put it back into the boat. Once that was done, and the repair tested and found to be successful, we quickly walked into Utrecht for a small shopping expedition. The we set of on the trip right through the city. You go under 16 arched bridges, which is quite pretty. Fortunately the sun had come out as well, and people were sitting on the terraces on the side of the canal.









We had carefully planned our departure time so that we hit the first low bridge, which had to open for us, immediately after the lunch break. Several bridges and two locks further found us on the river Lek. We have done a bit of 'river cruising', but this time we have planned to follow the Lek to Rotterdam and (much) later we'll tackle the Maas, a little bit of the Waal and the IJssel.
The Lek was not too busy today, we were passed by only two big tanker barges and saw about ten going the other way. After just under two hours we arrived in Schoonhoven, the 'silver jewellery' town. The weather changed just after we arrived, so we'll go into the town tomorrow, the forecast seems reasonable.

Some Lek-pictures:

Utrecht

We spent the weekend in Loosdrecht, at the club I belonged to over 30 years ago and where I learned to sail.





Yesterday, Easter Monday, Jaap (a friend from my primary school days) and his wife Liesbeth fetched us and took us to the visitors' centre of 'Natuurmonumenten'. That is an organisation which buys specifically important areas in the Netherlands to protect nature there. My great grandfather was one of the founders in 1905. In spite of the poor weather, it was a very nice visit. Afterwards, we had dinner at Carien's house, which is very near that visitors centre. Carien and her brother Hoyte are friends from my high school days, it was a day of seeing 'old' friends!

This morning we set off for Utrecht. The weather was still cold and rainy. We stopped just before Utrecht to consult a mechanic about our diesel fired heater which does not want to start. He removed the heater and took it to the workshop and phoned a bit later that he can fix it and will bring it back by noon tomorrow. We then carried on to Utrecht itself where we are now.

The final picture is of our new soup-making efforts. We bought a very nice handheld blender with which Lyn now makes great soups!

Location:Nieuwekade,Utrecht,The Netherlands

Loosdrecht

After leaving the berth in Amsterdam, we crossed through the city, which is always nice:





Then through the Weespertrekvaart and via the Vecht to Loosdrecht, where we are currently tied up at the yacht club where I was a member 33 years ago. And what's more, the first person I walked into recognised me! So I guess I haven't aged that much after all....

We stay here until Tuesday. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. On Monday we go to the open day of 'Natuurmonumenten' in 's Graveland. Natuurmonumenten is an organisation of which my great grandfather was one of the founders.

Location:Oud-Loosdrechtsedijk,Loosdrecht,The Netherlands

Alkmaar - Amsterdam

As promised in yesterday's post, we start with some pictures of the launch of Onbekommerd after the winter storage period. As you can see, this time we were actually on board during the process. Once we were afloat it was simply a matter of turning the key to start the engine and reverse out, waving goodbye to the capable and friendly Nicolaas Witsen crew and Ed (who came - with Elly - for coffee on board that evening and gave us these pictures:

After a good night's sleep (we did not sleep all that well on the ferry the previous night), we quickly went into Alkmaar as it was the first Friday this year that the cheesemarket was on. It was absolutely packed with people, it being school holidays as well as nice and sunny weather. We found this street organ:

And these cheesebarges going through the canal:

Then we left for Amsterdam, where we arrived mid-afternoon. We went to the shop where thy sell the charts you need to get anywhere in the world (you tell us where you want to go, we'll get you the charts, the owner said). A dangerous place for planning / navigation enthousiasts like me.... We got the chart sets we need for our planned trip to Denmark this summer.
Finally we took the tram to Lyn's favourite shop, Broekmans en Van Poppel which specialise in sheet music. Lyn wanted a copy of Beethoven's C Major piano concerto, because the previous day, we bought this:

The idea of living on the boat for 6 months without being able to play the piano was really difficult, so after a lot of research we got this digital piano. It (just) fits into the wardrobe in the cabin. We have a stand for it and also a set of headphones so that Lyn can practise without disturbing the neighbours. The first session was this afternoon and was very successful by all accounts. Onbekommerd is probably the only Valkvlet with a piano......

Back afloat!

Just a very quick post:
Onbekommerd was back in the water just after 12 today. All well, the engine started immediately as expected and we motored the half a mile or so to the 'Bierkade" in Alkmaar. Cleaning the interior and provisioning the boat took most of the afternoon. There was one particular purchase which is unusual for a boat, we'll leave you in suspense and publish a picture tomorrow, together with one or two pics that Ed took of the launching process (with us on board). We are pretty tired now, so it's bedtime in our snug front cabin. It's so good to be back on board again!

Location:Bierkade,Alkmaar,The Netherlands

Almost travelling

Sorry, not much posting this last week!
On Wednesday we went for a celebratory lunch with Gwilym and Janine to mark the granting of Dutch citizenship to Lyn (which officially was granted on 7 February and will be confirmed in a ceremony at the Dutch Embassy here in London on 26 April). After lunch we went to the 'Isabella plantation' in Richmond Park. Later this spring, this will be full of Azaleas and Rodondendrons, the first bit of colour is already appearing. We'll go back when we are back in London in May.


On Sunday we went to Stratford City Westfield shopping centre with Sean, not to shop but to have another look at the Olympic Park and have lunch.
Tomorrow we are off to Onbekommerd on the Harwich - Hook van Holland night ferry. Subject to WiFi availability I'll try to post a picture from the ship. Otherwise it will hav to wait until we have revived the internet connection on Onbekommerd. We plan to spend the first night (Thursday) in Alkmaar, there is no WiFi there so we need to get 3G for the iPad and Lyn's iPhone before we can communicate. From then on we'll try to have at least short daily posts of our travels.