Life on Langepôlle

We stayed on Langepôlle today. The weather was not great, but we did not have a lot of rain and in the afternoon the sun made an appearance. That gave us some fairly typical Dutch landscapes:





Lyn did a lot of work on the 'maths module' of the educational programme. I just read (Dickens) and started to think and plan about next year's voyage.

It's pretty quiet on the island tonight, apart from us there are only three boats. Last night there were a lot of kids from some sort of sailing camp who had a lot of fun, but they have left.

Of course we have a sunset to share:





The plan is to go to Langweer tomorrow. The fourth boat has just arrived...

Langehoekspôlle - into Fryslân

Yesterday was a perfect summers day, unusual for September. Sunshine, little wind and around 25C. We had friends from my high school / university days for tea and later drinks, which was very nice!

This morning, the weather was already changing. We did our shopping and left Hindeloopen after midday so that we would get to the lock at Workum after the lockkeeper's lunch break. As we entered the channel to Workum, you could see that the wind had picked up quite a lot:





We worked our way through the lock and bridges of Workum and tied up on an island between the Fluessen and the Heegermeer. The island is called 'Langehoekspôlle'. It's just a mooring place, organised by an outfit called 'Marrekrite' which sets up moorings 'in the wild' all over the province of Fryslân (which is Frisian for 'Friesland').





It's blowing quite hard now and as I write this, I can see the clouds of the cold front appearing in the distance. It's predicted that we'll have more autumn-like weather, the next few days.

Hindeloopen

We had a great trip to Hindeloopen, a beautiful late summer day, with little wind and plenty of sun. As it is Saturday as well, the IJsselmeer was full of boats, especially near popular harbours like Stavoren and Hindeloopen.
We passed the characteristic church tower of Hindeloopen shortly before arriving there:





We had planned well to get there relatively early (around 2pm), we knew it would get busy later. This is what the 'old harbour' looked like just before sunset:





And although we have posted quite a few 'sunset pictures' (Lyn's speciality!), this one is not to be missed, we think:





We'll stay here tomorrow, the forecast is for more good weather. To get into Friesland through the lock, either at Stavoren or Workum on a Sunday after such a nice weekend is going to be stressful and time consuming. So we'll do that on Monday, when schools and work have absorbed all the boaters!

Still Urk

As the weather seemed to be better to stay than to leave (sunny and a bit windy) and we have plenty of time and plenty to do, we decided to spend another day in Urk.
It's clear that summer is drawing to an end, the weather is nice at the moment but the days are getting shorter, it's a bit cooler all around and the forecast for next week looks not as good as it is now.

But we had a productive day, with some work on the boat. Lyn also worked on her educational programme and played the piano for a few hours in the afternoon.

Here are a few Urk pictures we took last night:










Tomorrow, the forecast is ideal for our last 'big water' trip of the season, probably to Hindeloopen.

Urk

A four hour trip, first the Zwolle-IJssel Kanaal, then down the IJssel and over the Ketelmeer to the IJsselmeer brought us to Urk, which was an island until it was connected to the mainland by a dike in 1939 and became part of the Noord-Oost polder in 1941.

We quite like Urk, it still has a little bit of the 'island atmosphere'. We treated ourselves to a meal of mussels and chips tonight and will stay here tomorrow.

Now that we have still three weeks to go, and would be able to get to Franeker (the winter storage / maintenance destination) in a day or two (if we had to), we finally seem to have found a bit more of 'inner peace' and find it easier to stay a bit longer in one place. We have already promised ourselves to time our life a bit better for next year's trip. It of course also helps that we now know how long (or short!) it takes to get from the Baltic 'back home'.

An outing

We are in Zwolle, but today we went on an 'outing'.
Took the train to Zutpen and then to a small station called Klarenbeek.
Good friends of ours, the crew of the 'Waterbufvel' which accompanied us on the 'German Wadden' part of the trip, have recently bought a house in Empe and Klarenbeek is the nearest station. We admired the new house in very nice rural surroundings and had a nice lunch:





The weather was very nice and it is predicted to continue like that for the next few days, including the weekend as well!

Our plan is to leave Zwolle tomorrow and head for Urk. That's on the IJsselmeer; by now we need a bit of 'bigger water' after all the canals.
We'll slowly move to Friesland, still over three 'Onbekommerd weeks' to go!

A weekend in Meppel: Picnic in the park

We have spent the weekend in Meppel. It's a really pleasant little provincial town. Now that the season is drawing to an end, the harbour in the town centre is very quiet (we actually are the only boat in the town harbour proper, that is BEHIND the lock which after 1 September does not operate on Sundays).
But yesterday, Saturday, there was market and the town centre was buzzing. And one of the two windmills was in operation.

We spent the weekend doing some useful / important stuff: We finished the photo book of this year's trip, which can now be sent to the printers in London as soon as we have good, reliable Internet. We can then collect the finished product when we are in the UK at the end of the month. And we did some 'boat stuff', maintenance and touching up some paintwork. The hull is filthy after the German canals and that still needs a good clean!

Today was the annual 'Picnic in the Park' event. Of course if you're Dutch, you go on your bike:

It was not far for us, so we walked.
Families having a proper picnic on their blankets, a band with 'traditional' Dutch music, canoes on the lake for which everyone queued up without pushing and shoving, it was all really nice family entertainment.

It's the second time we have been here, and we just like it: small enough to have a 'village atmosphere' but big enough to have enough 'going on'.
Tomorrow, the lock operates between 9 and 10 am, we'll be on our way, off to Zwolle then.