Dutch towns.

Two Dutch towns:  Woudsend and Sneek.

A very large church - St. Martin's - with its unexplained wooden sidekick - in the center of Sneek.

Grand Cafe occupies a corner between the main road and the canal in Woudsend.

Netherlands towns were surprising to me.  From the village of Woudsend to the big city of Amsterdam, they were old-fashioned, even historic, but modern as well.  I certainly did not expect to see people in wooden shoes, women in white bonnets, men in blue balloon-leg pants, like some illustration from a child's storybook.  But I also did not expect to see everyone using cell phones, bike-riders not wearing helmets or spandex, absolutely up-to-date public transportation.  And the canals - - tiny canal connecting a farm with a larger canal, where in Virginia there'd be a long farm lane out to the main road.  And big canals full of heavily laden barges, some even carrying shipping containers stacked three deep.

So here are some photos of two of them, from the little village of Woudsend to the town of Sneek.  First, Woudsen, where we picked up the boat but were thwarted by bad weather and had to spend the first night here.

Yes! a windmill!  it appears to be part of a boat club now.

Hmm.  Interesting use of a wooden shoe.

A row of tiny houses was typical of the center of the village of Woudsend.

We visited a pastry shop looking for apple tart for my birthday.



Dinner will arrive in just a moment.



The main road through Woudsend crosses on a liftbridge over the canal.

The red and white gate is opening and the cyclists are preparing to cross.  I think the only hills in this area of Netherlands are those at liftbridges.

An example of the beautiful new modern buses that run throughout Friesland.

On a very windy afternoon, I have a lesson in driving the boat.

Then on to the town of Sneek, in Friesland, big enough to have trains stop here but there's no train station.  There is, however, a very lovely "ship museum" that celebrates Friesland shipping from the "Golden Age" to the present.

This structure is the ancient "Waterpoort" - an important landmark in the town of Sneek.

Our boat is moored, and Pat and Barbara study the chart.

School is out, and the middle-schoolers enjoyed the afternoon warmth before mounting their bikes for home.

Of course we found an ice cream store!

Most canal-side houses had two windows usually uncurtained, and ornamented with a pair of vases or candlesticks or plants - - completely visible to passers-by.

Two fishermen next to our boat seem to have caught little tiny fish only.

Fifteen grey-haired men swiftly rowed past.



Some of the interesting old buildings in the center of Sneek.



A very blurry rising full  moon over Sneek.

This is a small boat typical of the fishing fleet in this part of Friesland.

The Ship Museum had entire walls from "Golden Age" homes installed as display cases and doorways.  This is an especially delicately painted example.

A beautiful tall case clock in an 18th century room.



An ice sled - put your children in it, strap on your skates, and take off pushing?

Four Days on a Boat in Friesland

September 11 is the day we arrived . . . Pat, Barbara, Laura, and me.  Our first day/night in Netherlands was in Sneek (pronounced Snake), an old city in Friesland, whose "Waterpoort" is pictured above.  Like thousands of old European cities, there is a very compact center built around an old church, and the city center was nearly ringed by a canal.  In this city we were introduced to mustard soup (actually a thin soup with bacon and green onions flavored lightly with mustard).  We spent the night here because Woudsend, where we were to pick up the boat, has no hotel.  We taxied to Woudsend and found that our vessel, rented from LeBoat, was not ready.  So we wandered through Woudsend for a little while.  And we saw a working windmill, between houses on a quiet street.  It didn't appear to be milling anything - perhaps it was used to generate electricity?

Is that a windmilll in the middle of the town?

That windmill's blades were slowly turning, even without canvas sails unfurled.

LeBoat rentals are found all over western  Europe, and this marina was new, large, and spic-and-span.  Maybe the boat was not ready because it was the end of the season  - we never found out why we had to wait several hours.  When we finally went aboard for an introduction to operating the boat, the wind had developed to such an extent that it was very difficult to control the boat.

Patrick was our patient instructor, especially patient with my steering ability (or lack).

We decided to stay in the marina overnight and leave on Tuesday.  I was determined to master the art of steering so I took the boat out of the marina and down the canal . . . hadn't gone far when a very loud horn sounded - - a great green dredging barge was advancing on my rear.  So I spun the wheel to the right, ended up making a U-turn into the reeds, but avoided being run down. 

The flat green countryside supported farms as far as the horizon.  Reeds like these saved us from being overrun by the barge.

And eventually we cruised away from the town and into the very flat and very green countryside.  The wind continued to be troublesome, but we made it to our destination, Sneek.  Not so sure where to tie up, we did so at the first bollards we saw.  Quais in these towns are marked with "no parking" signs.  The best place to tie up is between the big red "P" where there are also electrical outlets.  We didn't know that, so we parked legally but spent the night using our battery. 

Our little boat was called "Tamaris", moored here in Sneek.

In the morning, the assistant harbourmaster came along to collect "rent" (based on the boat's length) and pointed out that just a short way down the quai we'd have electricity. 



The assistant harbormaster gave Pat a receipt for the "rent" and showed us where to moor with electricity..

 That day was very rainy and still windy so we elected to stay in the town and be sightseers.  Sneek has a great maritime museum; it's well organized, very new, and spreads into 5 or 6 buildings. 

 A very small fishing boat, typical, I'm told.

A child's sled/sleigh for winter's icy canals.

And also a miniature train museum in the former train station with very helpful volunteers.  Wonderful constructions of towns, farms, crossings, freight yards, complete with inch-tall figures.  One great construction had mountains - which Netherlands definitely lacks.  The volunteer guide said it was based on "those mountains in Switzerland" . . . "Alps?" we asked? 

The boat had two cabins, a galley, a lounge, two heads, and could be driven from inside or out. Outside was easier - because you have better sight lines.  Our meals were generally breakfast and lunch on the boat, dinner in town.   We'd stocked up on essential items (coffee, butter, cheese, bread, raisin buns, cereal, wine, beer, etc) while stuck in Woudsend.   Also wine and pastries for my birthday celebration.

birthday dessert.

Those weather-related delays meant that we had one last day for cruising, so off we went down through the town, under the lift-bridges, into a very wide channel with large dredging barges and some heavily laden barges, sailboats large and small, green & red channel markers, islands perfect for temporary mooring, and back to Woudsend.    Below are several photographs from that final day.


Waiting for the bridge tender to lift the bridge.

Passing through a fairly crowded town.



This sculpture marks the entrance to the newest aqueduct.

I wondered about the paddle-like things on the side of the boat - the boat's flatbottomed, so on windy days, they are lowered to provide leverage to the keel-less boat.



Pat at the helm.

Passing a dredger in an intersection of wide canals.

Sailboat with students passing us as we moored for lunch.

Our vessel, moored for lunch.  We were amused to see sails on the horizon with no evidence of a canal other than a green line of  reeds or trees.