Cape Town at last

This week started off in Holland and ended in Cape Town. after visiting the historic fortress town of Naarden we continued along the Randmeeren, a ring of lakes that divide the new province of Flevoland from the old coast line of the Zuider Zee. Flevoland was created in 1934 by draining a huge section of the Zuider Zee. We anchored wild in a lagoon inside an island inside a lake and then the next morning visited another very old walled town called Elburg before continuing to Kampen on the River Ijssel where we stayed for the night. It is a lovely old town but alas we had to move on as the clock was now ticking for our flight out of the country. So 4 hours later we arrived in Ossenzijl our home base where we spent the next couple of days cleaning and packing.

Whilst wandering around at the boat yard we stumbled on a recently built boat called Le Fabuleux II. It turned out to be the new boat of the person who had sold us their boat but alas when Wendy met someone going on board, it transpired that he had only used the new boat for just 80 hours before dying of heart failure at the age of 67. Carpe Diem!

On Friday our taxi arrived and took us to Steenwijk station where we caught a train to Schiphol and thence to Frankfurt where our SAA flight took off on time and 12 hours later we touched down in Cape Town where we were met by Colleen and Peter.

In the afternoon we went over to Constantia to look around and do some shopping for the braai (South African BBQ) that was being held for Wendy's Cape Town friends the next day. Food was not as cheap as I thought it might be but I guess it is a global market for many items these days.

In the evening we went to the great V&A (Victoria & Alfred) harbour side complex (like Fisherman's wharf in San Francisco) but much bigger and better. We wandered around and listened to the African singers and then went into Quay Four for a great seafood meal. Two upmarket courses and good wine for two was NZ$85.

On Sunday we drove up to Yzfontein which is an hour north of Cape Town and on the way called into Table View Bay for the classic view of Cape Town over the bay. Then up further north where we hoped to see the annual wildflowers that this part of the coast is famous for. They were there but the best was over unfortunately.

In the evening we had the braai for Wendy and 13 of her old Cape Town friends turned up. We braai'd yellow tail and red meats. Yellow tail is a lovely gamey fish with lots of flavour. We finished off with some lovely chocolate cake that Ros bought over.

This week we are 'doing' Cape Town though the weather forecast is not great. It has been a terrible September for Cape Town. We hope it improves quickly.

Amsterdam and the Ijsselmeer

This week has been a busy one sightseeing in Amsterdam and the Ijsselmeer ports. On Monday we got on our bikes and went everywhere around central Amsterdam. It certainly made covering a lot of ground effortless. We went to the van Gogh Museum and saw all of the masterpieces there including 'The Sunflowers' and Crows over a Wheat field'. It wasn't very crowded which made it more enjoyable. There is a free ferry for cyclists across the River IJ that separated the yacht club where we were staying from the main part of Amsterdam. There a few cars in Amsterdam but thousands of bikes. An energy crisis in the future certainly won't hit the Dutch as much as other countries.


The next day we carried on sightseeing and cycled along the ring canals to Leidesplein where we sat in the sun and shared a lovely pizza and a pitcher of red wine. In the evening we went back to the same area and ate a rijstafel btween us. This is a unique Dutch speciality based upon Indonesian cooking and is a huge number of small dishes all served together with rice, hence the name which means Rice Table.

The weather has been superb all week. An Autumnal high of 1038 h.pa has kept the unsettled weather that we had previously at bay and brought bright clear days, crisp mornings and coolish evenings. A lovely way to finish our European adventure especially as it is forecast to continue well into this coming week.

After Amsterdam we locked through the huge Orangesluizen locks and out onto the Ijsselmeer. The Ijsselmeer is huge and in the middle no land is present. I got out my laptop and navigation program that had charts of the area and without any hesitation the boat leapt orward pushing through the light waves for some 40kms until we spotted Marken Lighthouse in the distance. We were heading for the fishing village of Monickendam.

When we got there there was no room at the inn except for very very expensive marinas. So we decided to have a look at Marken and were glad we did because it it is a wonderful place.
We found a free mooring (at least for 3 days) right in the heart of the most picturesque harbour you could imagine and even managed to get free electricity. So we decided to stay for 3 days as the weather was perfect. Marken was formerly an island in the Zuider Zee but with the great Dutch changes that resukted in the Ijsselmeer it has become connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. Everyday busloads of people trip in and look around. The number of Kiwis, Australians and South Africaners that stop to talk has been amazing. Usually they all start off with the line - " You didn't sail that all the way from NZ did you?"



Then at six o'clock the place quietens down and we and the few other moored boats have the place to ourselves to watch the sun go down over the Ijsselmeer and contemplate life over a glass of wine. Magic!

The day after we arrived we decided to cycle all the way around the island which is easy to do as there is a cycle path on the outside dyke that holds back any storm waters from flooding the low lying fields. Then on Friday we caught the ferry with our bikes to Volendam another very quaint Ijsselmeer fishing village on the coast just south of Edam. We were the only passengers as it was the first trip of the day. We then cycled back the 20km through Monickendam and along the causeway to Marken.

Then alas we had to start heading home to Ossenzijl where we will be leaving the boat for the winter. Its about 120km away. We left Marken on a sea as smooth as a mirror. Not a breath of wind. Our first stop was Naarden which is a beautifully restored medieval town built within star-shaped fortifications.

The next blog will come from South Africa where new internet challenges will no doubt await us. We leave on Friday via Frankfurt for Capetown arriving at 5am on Saturday morning. Can't wait!

Windmills and Clogs

This week started by leaving Gouda for in Alphen a/d Rijn, a short distance North along a busy canal. The next morning was perfect and we bicycled to Avifauna, a lovely bird park which is famous in the area. We saw more toucans than we can ever remember seeing before, and lots of birds or prey. It was very quiet with few visitors. In the afternoon we continue along the Oude Rijn to the lovely Kaag Lakes where we tied up to a landing stage in a remote, peaceful spot surrounded by more birds and the occasional yacht. Unfortunately a thunderstorm struck soon afterwards and the lovely day disappeared very fast and we have had bad weather all week until today, Sunday.

Then onwards along the Haarlemmermeerpolder Ringvaart Canal (what a mouthful). Basically it is a circular canal that surrounds the old Haarlemmer Meer which has been converted into a polder and so is now below sea level. The water that drains in there has to be pumped out into the Ringvaart in order to flow to the sea. In the middle of this polder lies Schiphol Airport so called because it means Ship Hole where many ships perished in turbulent seas in the old Lake (meer). Today it was peaceful with cows grazing, the odd windmill, and more modern pumping stations that replaced the windmills and continuous succession of planes landing and taking off 10 metres below us!

We turned off the Ringvaart and spent the night in one of the most beautiful towns in Holland –

Haarlem. It is the quintessential small Dutch town, but with few tourists, lots of restaurants and outdoor cafes. Lovely churches, narrow alleys and an old world charm that is missing in Amsterdam now as it is overrun with tourists. We found a lovely restaurant that was sort of a mix between Dutch, Japanese and South African and had one of the best meals of our lives, albeit not the cheapest (90 euros for 3 courses and wine). They specialised in Umami or the 5^th taste that is associated with field mushrooms and MSG. For desert we had a Japanese assortment of dishes made from Sesame Seeds incl. Sesame seed ice cream. Lovely!

Then the next day we continued North and past through the Port of Amsterdam and up into the Zaan River where we past the famous Zaan Schans, a group of 5 old windmills and onwards to the best small town in Holland – Alkmaar. The weather was poor but that could not detract from the lovely town, with narrow, carless alleys. Huge cobbled squares and great shops. There was a Culinary festival on while we were there and the town was packed. We stayed two nights and on one of the days we encountered Monument Day. On the second weekend in September all Dutch museums and attractions and town halls etc are FREE. It was a pity we weren’t in Amsterdam to really take advantage of the opportunity but we did visit several places in Alkmaar and saved quite a few euros.

Then today, the weather has improved and under 1038 barometric pressure we sailed serenely down the Nord Hollands Canal to Amsterdam and into the main visitor yachthaven called Sixhaven. It is jam packed with boats from all around the world. In fact so jam packed that it would be impossible to leave if we wanted to. After tieing up we caught the free ferry over the IJ to Central Station where we managed to find some British Sunday newspapers. It was crowded with tourists.

So a few days in Amsterdam with the prospect of good weather for the next few days. Then a few days in the Ijsselmeer before heading Northwards and home.

Down the Hollandse Ijssel to Gouda

This week we have made slow progress up the Ijssel River which flows through some lovely

 countryside from near the Lek River (one of the names of the Dutch Rhine) to Gouda and then to near Rotterdam.  The weather has been grey with frequent showers. In England they say August has been one of the worst since 1912 and that is probably true for Holland as well. Luckily we have been far far to the East for most of the summer.

Our first stop was the lovely old town of Montfoort. We had a great mooring in the heart of the town, just 100m from a large supermarket. We wandered around the town and when got back there was a knock on the window and a lady introduced herself to us as Petra. She was intrigued to see a NZ boat in the town as she had never seen one before. Her daughter lives in Wanganui and she and her husband spend 6 months every year there and have applied for permanent residence in NZ. She invited us over to dinner the following night. And then by a strange coincidence later that day a man stopped to chat with us and said his 3 kids had been born in NZ and he had spent may years there in Papakura and would we like to see his photos of the snapper he has caught.

The next day we watched alot of BBC TV in the afternoon and around 5pm we were picked up and driven to their lovely house on the outskirts of Montfoort. We had a lovely 3 course fish dinner and whilst we were on our main she received a text from NZers who were due to stay with them the following night asking if it was alright if they came that day as the weather was not great and they couldn't find anywhere suitable to stay.  Soon John Newton and his partner Lauren arrived. John is (or was?) the TV One reporter for Wanganui. He seemed familiar, and they had just been on a hire boat on the Canal du Midi for a week with 6 others.

Next day we continued down the Ijssel for 10km to another even more lovely village called Oudewater. 

The weekly market was on that day and we wandered around looking at the cheese stalls, and even tried the local speciality of Stroop Waffle which is two large thin waffles 'glued' together with a lovely caramel syrup.  Both Montfoort and Oudewater have lovely churches with a carillion of bells on the hour.

Next day we arrived in the centre of Gouda and tied up. Gouda is a lovel ancient old Dutch town famous for its cheese.

 We wandered around the old streets, saw the windmills and had a lovely meal out at Brunel Restaurant.  We could walk everywhere and the town centre is only 5 mins walk away, with its beautiful Stadhuis (town hall) and cathedral.

Yesterday we went for a very long bike ride to  the  Reeuwijk Lakes which we circumnavigated admiring the beautifully manicured thatched houses along the shore. The sun came out for the rest of the day (but sadly disappeared for today) and it was like a chocolate box scene around every corner.

It has been raining today so we have stayed on board watching Scrapheap Challenge on BBC2 (except for a long walk in a brief respite to get the Sunday Times). We have free electricity and water in Gouda and mooring is very cheap at just 4 euros per night.

This week we head to Amsterdam and the forecast is a bit more cheery than last week (or so we hope)