Wednesday 4 June
Thursday 5 June
Friday 6 June
Saturday 7 June
Sunday 8 June
Monday 9 June
Tuesday 10 June
Urk to near Elburg
Randmeren, near Elburg to near Spakenburg
near Spakenburg to near Weesp
Vecht, near Weesp to Lounen
Lounen to Utrecht
Utrecht to Gorinchem
Gorinchem to Biesbosch
returns to top of this page
We had a further wander round Urk in the morning and explored the fishing harbour area. There was a large empty open space for parking cars and tour buses here, which gave a good indication of what it must be like in high season. There wasn’t very much to interest us in this end of town – some new restaurants and other shops for tourists but all rather modern. We then did some final stocking up on perishables and retired to the boat.
The pile driver was in action in the Oosthaven planting posts for the new box moorings so we decided to leave and eat en route, rather than listen to the din. But we did like the old part of Urk and it certainly goes on the favourite places list.
We were soon passing under the Ketelbrug which links the polder of Flevoland with the North East polder.
Then we passed by the Groot Slibdepot IJsseloog which translates as the "IJsseloog Large Mud Depot". Large it is, being approximately one mile in diameter and sitting in the middle of the Ketelmeer which is about two miles wide at this point. It seems to be base camp for the numerous dredgers operating hereabouts and it looks as if this is where they take all the dredged silt to dry out before using it in civil engineering works. Waste not want not - how very Dutch to do it with mud!
Then we entered the Vossemeer which is the first of the Randmeren (Peripheral Lakes) sandwiched between the polder of Flevoland and the original coast of the Zuider Zee. These lakes stretch for about fifty miles (Flevoland is quite a big polder!) and vary from a few hundred yards wide at some points, to over two miles wide.
Once through the Roggebotsluis you are into the Randmeren proper and the Flevoland shore loses its dyke like appearance and becomes more like a lake shore with reed beds and sandy beaches. It is very tranquil. There are numerous mooring stages in little lagoons and on islands and we chose one of these not far from Elburg to stay the night. We were the only boat there. It was a very grey oppressive day where the sky and the water seemed one colour. It was hot too and eventually, just as we were about to griddle our supper outside, the heavens opened and we were forced to cook inside again.
Fishing vessels at Urk harbour entrance
Locking through Roggebotsluis
The harbour at Elburg - Starry Night in the background
One of the down sides to lake moorings in the Netherlands in warm weather is the zillions of little black flies that choose to die overnight on your boat in the beads of condensation or rain. Last night was typical and it took a good half hour to make the boat presentable for tourist quay-side scrutiny at Elburg.
Then we set off for the short hop into Elburg’s lovely little harbour. There was plenty of room on the quay-side and we tied up and went for a walk around town and purchased a couple of quite large fresh plaice to griddle for our supper. It was another warm muggy grey day, and as we wandered round it kept raining, on and off. We decided to give the smoked eels a miss this time and had a more traditional lunch on the boat while still in the harbour.
After lunch we set off with the goal of getting fairly close to Spakenburg. On our last trip to Holland we had been recommended to visit this town, which is another old Zuider Zee fishing port like Elburg. We eventually stopped for the night on the small island of De Zegge near Wolderwijd. The island has very sheltered box moorings in a “harbour” in the centre. There is nothing else there. Off season, people moor up alongside.
There were three traditional Dutch sailing boats moored up inside the posts of the boxes and alongside the harbour walls, and we followed their example. Us four boats were the only ones there all night. In high season, with all the boxes filled and the other quay-side moorings taken too, you could probably fit forty or fifty boats in there.
The weather stayed dry and not too windy so we managed to griddle the plaice and they were divine. This is the first time we have managed to griddle so far on the whole trip due to the wind as much as anything else. It blows the gas out!
The De Zegge island in the Randmeren
The lagoon inside De Zegge island - just us and a few sailing boats
Grilled plaice for supper
There was a bumper crop of dead flies all over Starry Night this morning and the only remedy was bucket loads of water to wash them all off. The big news though was the weather; we could see blue sky, fluffy white clouds and the horizon!
We set off at 09:00 for Spakenburg which involved passing through one more lock on the Randmeren – Nijkerksluis. It took till 11:00 to get to Spakenburg. The inner harbour (Oude Haven) is reserved for old style Dutch sailing boats so we stopped on the town moorings on the channel, just five minutes walk from the centre of town.
Spakenburg is a very charming place, and the large number of old wooden sailing boats jammed in the harbour in the centre give it loads of atmosphere. We also saw lots of older ladies in traditional dutch costume, on bikes, in the supermarket, generally about town. We are not sure why, but this is the only place we have seen such a thing. Perhaps it is customary on the first Friday of the month in Spakenburg?
The town itself is very pleasant, mostly devoid of cars, and with plenty of shops and cafes. We really enjoyed this short stop off. We set off again at around 12:30 and had lunch en route, enjoying the sunshine. Our next destination was the marina at Naarden which we knew accepted British credit cards for diesel, and we needed a lot of it! We got to Naarden by 14:00 and filled our tank with 155 litres at the exorbitant price of €1.58 per litre and were on our way again.
Once on our way again, it was under the big Hollandse Motorway and Railway bridge between Flevoland and Amsterdam, and out into the IJmeer. Here we were tempted to turn right and make another circuit of the Markermeer and the IJsselmeer, but after a few minutes of debate reality prevailed, and we turned left instead for Muiden and the river Vecht and ultimately home!
This evening we are moored on piled moorings six feet from the river bank in the Vecht. The farmer has just rounded up his cattle and sheep from the field alongside. It has been a glorious day and it looks as if we may even be treated to a sun-set of sorts.
The jumble of traditional sailing barges in Spakenburg harbour
Muiden castle by the Vecht
All seemed very quiet on waking up - hardly a sound to be heard, no distant whining of internal combustion engines, nothing! Peering out we could see that we were in thick fog with just enough visibility to see the next boat on the moorings, about three boat lengths away, and we could barely make out a sailing boat with its nav lights on groping its way along the river at a snail’s pace.
By the time we were ready to go it was just misty and overcast but you could tell the sun was trying to break through. We wended our way along the river Vecht which is very twisty and passes through lots of small towns and villages as well as open country. Here and there are enormous country houses and fairy tale castles dating back to the 18th and 19th century which had belonged to wealthy Amterdammers – most of them in a French style. It is very pretty.
We stopped for lunch at Vreeland which is a small village straddling the Vecht and with a picture postcard little white double bascule bridge. While we were tying up to wait for the bridge to be opened we got talking to another Dutch couple in boat heading for Utrecht like us. They said the safest moorings in Utrecht were the ones near the Weerdsluis; the moorings on the south side of the centre on Singel Gracht were in a park and were less safe – presumably undesirables a lurking in the undergrowth with Rizla rolling papers at the ready!
Since we were all tied up we decided to stop at Vreeland for lunch and wander round the village. Despite its very small size, Vreeland had a butcher, baker, general store and post office and other shops which all seemed well patronised. We bought some cakes called lekkermijtes which were meringue and coffee cream concoctions and very tasty too. Lekker is an all purpose word applied to food, meaning gourmet, tasty, and anything else along those lines. By now the sun had burned off the mist and it was a hot sunny day.
After lunch we headed on to Loenen which was just two miles and three bridges away. We got one of the last moorings even though we arrived there at about 15:00, as it was turning into a busy boating day – a sunny weekend. We had a good walk around the town which was very pleasant and quiet even though there was a lot of boating activity.
River Vecht scene
Our mooring at Loenen - sunny enough for the sunshade to be erected.
It was misty again first thing this morning but the sun soon burnt it away and we had a glorious hot sunny day. We continued down the Vecht at the statutory 6kph speed limit which is very slow! A sign proclaimed it to be 3.24 knots! However just noodling along at this sedate pace is very relaxing and you get to see much more – and there is plenty to look at on the Vecht.
We passed through Breukelen (which gave its name to Posh and Beck’s kid indirectly via a New York City suburb), and then Maarsen. Just after Maarsen you have the option to by-pass Utrecht on the Amsterdam-Rijnkanal or go through the middle of Utrecht, the latter being our plan. The way into Utrecht involves various lift bridges and a lock.
We arrived at Roodbrug just as the bridge keeper was clocking off for lunch. So we moored up and had ours too. Before he left he switched on some cooling water sprays that showered the bridge continuously with water about six inches above the bridge deck. All this water cascaded off and through the bridge deck to the river below. We had great fun watching the smaller boats that could fit under. As they approached the bridge, their crews would suddenly realised that they were about to get a thorough soaking, and they would grab anything to hand and cower under it and speed through as fast as they could. Presumably without this cooling water on a hot day, the bridge would expand and jam up?
By the time the bridge keeper returned we had been joined by two other boats for the last leg into Utrecht, and on into the Weerdsluis. This lock is very wide with capacity for masses of small boats. There are lots of sluices and controls to work and there seemed to be at least three lock keepers busying about, collecting fees etc. And there were masses of small day boats in the lock. Cruising the canals of Utrecht is a popular Sunday afternoon pass-time. As well as a detailed map of the centre of town, our lock-keeper was very helpful, in providing useful info for tomorrow on the bridge clearances through Utrecht. The numerous fixed bridges all have a clearance of 3.25m but are steeply arched and we wanted to know at what point the 3.25m was measured to – was it the centre? No, it was a height 4m wide thankfully.
We then discovered that the moorings near the Weerdsluis are all boxes with no finger pontoons – ugh! The alongside moorings in our guidebook above the Zandbrug are no longer available. As we pondered this mid stream, the lock keeper shouted out “Mister!” and then gestured to where we could moor alongside between the lock and the “boxes” on the only bit of empty pontoon. Thank you!!
As soon as we were tied up we headed into Utrecht centre just ten minutes walk away. It is an amazing place really alive and buzzing even on a Sunday. Because of flooding, the good burgers of Utrecht many years ago decided to raise the normal street level of the town. So the area alongside the main canal is on two tiers. At canal level are masses of restaurants and cafés, and then on the next level set back somewhat is what you would normally expect – more cafés and normal street life. There are trees everywhere providing shade and lots of really curvy arched brick bridges.
We walked around quite a lot, and visited the huge Domtoren (clock tower), Domkerk and adjacent cloisters. Most surprising was the Nationaal Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement which houses a collection of automatic musical instruments ranging in size from music boxes to full size working dance room organs of the barrel organ type. The guided tour included demonstrations of many of the exhibits. It was entertaining stuff and cool in there in all senses of the word.
Finally we had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant down by the water’s edge on the Oudegracht. Our rijstafel was first class. Maureen is still talking about the fried fish in curry sauce!
Locking into Utrecht - most of the day boats are off camera to the left away from the bigger boats like us. Note the width of the lock chamber.
Some of the dance room organs at the Nationaal Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement. They sound amazing!
The two tier centre of Utrecht and the busy canal side cafes and restaurants - where we had our rijstafel.
We were ready to leave our mooring at 09:00 and just as we cast of our ropes the two German flagged boats moored nearby also cast off, so we made a nice three boat convoy for the passage through the centre of Utrecht; luckily for us they were in the lead.
There are sixteen arched bridges to negotiate through the centre of Utrecht. All have a nominal 3.25m headroom at a 4m width. Starry Night requires 2.9m at a width of 2.5m so in theory there should be plenty of clearance. But some of these bridges are on the skew, others are off to one side with obstructions like large trees to be dealt with on the approach, and one or two are more like tunnels with a curve or kink in the middle, the one under the Stadhuis being a good example. This one also starts off wide lulling you into a false sense of security. Just as your eyes are accustomed to the dark, you realise that there is another smaller arch inside the tunnel threatening your superstructure! Most of the time we had at least a foot of clearance at the corners of the windscreen to the brickwork which is not much when you are going very slowly with hardly any steerage way.
We got through without any trouble (but with enough anxious moments), the sixteen bridges taking about forty minutes to negotiate. Then we had a few lift bridges and a lock to go through, and we were out of Utrecht and crossing the Amsterdam Rijnkanal.
We then passed through Nieuwegein, went across the river Lek and headed onto the Merwede Kanal, still with our German escort. The Merwede Kanal is a commercial barge route and you need to give the sizable barges plenty of clearance. After a short pause for lunch, where lots of mooring ropes were required to combat the effect of passing barge traffic, we arrived at the outskirts of Gorinchem and found the Lingehaven in the centre of town.
We have had a wander round Gorinchem which is very old, and another example of a star fort, but the biggest we have seen. Most of the ramparts and water works are still intact. We walked part of the way round the ramparts where there are a couple of windmills now standing. The full rampart walk is 7km and is for another time!
Tonight there is an important footy match on - Holland vs Italy. The whole population of Gorinchem seems to be dressed in orange apart from the proprietor of a pizza establishment who is bravely wearing Italy's colours. There is a lot of hooting, singing and shouting coming from the local bars and restaurants! Have taken in the red ensign just in case there is trouble for foreigners in the event of a loss! However a recent crescendo suggests that the Netherlands have scored! (Final score 3-0 to Holland).
Following our German escort through the bridges of the Oude Gracht in Utrecht
Yes, we did fit under that bridge in the background!
The ramparts of Gorinchem
This morning we attended to chores and spent a bit more time in Gorinchem. After lunch we locked out of the harbour into the Waal and headed West. The Waal is the main arterial river to Germany becoming the Rhine; at this point it is referred to as the Merwede - all rather confusing). As usual, the river was busy with big barges. After five miles at a blistering pace of well over 8 knots (the river was flowing nicely in our direction) we turned off through the Beisboschsluis onto the Steurgat which leads South to the network of marshy lowlands and river channels known as the Biesbosch. This area is a bit like some of the larger lakes on the Norfolk Broads. None of the navigable channels are marked and you have to read the chart very carefully to figure out where the shallow bits are to avoid going aground. One eye permanently on the depth sounder is essential.
We found a nice mooring which was marked on the map as having only just enough depth for us but in fact had well over 3m of water. The outlook from Starry Night is very pleasant - a wide stretch of water, distant reed beds and willow trees.
Gorinchem town harbour
Copyright © 2008-2009 Mike Hawkridge