The Guests get a break

Map

Yes, this one again, but the only track is the last (lilac – 08/08) one. As you can see, we covered almost as much distance in that one day as we had over the rest of the trip. However, it won G & G an extra day around Amsterdam.

The long haul

Last year, allowing for the detour to Amersfoort, we would have done this trip in three days. This year, we started at 7 am and finished at 4 pm, 88 km further on. Still with six hours of daylight remaining. As we had booked a mooring spot, we were not bothered how long we took. Graham and Ian took turns at the helm, and as there was only one lock, and no bridges to raise, the crew had little to do but relax and chat.

Last year our experience in Amsterdam harbour nearly ended in disaster, so we had some reservations about passing through this commercial hub. In the event, the lock was straightforward as was the cruise through the port area. Not uneventful however, as a huge cruise liner was reversing across our path, and a few minutes later rumbled past us. Still, it was all well under control – lots of room, and at least this time, we knew what we were doing.

We arrived at the Dukra Jachthaven in Zaandam, prepared to pay for a few days R&R, and went to our temporary mooring, rafted up against another converted barge. As this belonged to the Chairman of  ‘DBA – The Barge Association’ and his wife, the Membership Secretary, which serves many of the English-speaking barge owners in Europe, and of which we are members, we were relieved we had had that practice on Harmonie a couple of weeks previously. We landed nicely against Neeltje and later had a great evening with Andy and Caroline where we learnt heaps about the barging lifestyle and the DBA.

We took a quick walk to stretch our legs, and have the obligatory beer. On the way, we stopped off to have a look at the Wilhelmina Sluis, one of the important modern locks built in 1903, which we would use when we left Zaandam on the next leg of our journey. Next to it is a much older, smaller historic lock, still in operation for small craft, and operated in traditional manual fashion by local volunteers.

Amsterdam

Next day, we first moved Catharina to her own mooring, and then off to Amsterdam, just 15 min away by train. Trains are clean, regular, readily available, efficient and cheap in the Netherlands. Wish we had even a fraction of that in Melbourne.

It was a bit of a rush walking around Amsterdam, but we made sure to partake of the Dutch (and Belgian) national dish – frites and mayonnaise.

Beers, light lunch, a trip around the canals on a tourist boat and visit to a museum.

I say ‘to’ rather than ‘through’ because the popular museums in Amsterdam – the Van Gough and Anne Frank museums – have huge queues by early in the afternoon, so you either have to be there early, or book online.

Lisette and Ian settled for a small ‘Cheese Museum’ which was more an excuse to sample some local varieties of cheese, than for educational purposes.

On the way back we picked out a few of the establishments (and the live advertisements in the windows) in the Red Light district, and saw, but did not avail ourselves of, several ‘drink and smoke’ places. Didn’t bother us, just getting a bit old for that stuff.

Footsore, we travelled back to Zaandam, had a huge Argentinian grill meal and returned to Catharina.

Windmills at Zaanse Schans

Next day, the last that G & G had free, we decided to head to Zaanse Schans – just a short distance north of Zaandam. This is a site where a number of Dutch windmills (molen) are preserved in working order, and there are various displays and recreations of traditional Dutch culture of this region. Also a nice museum, which again, we arrived at too late to enter.

It was close enough that it was possible to walk; 30-40 min, but we had been told of a ferry service that ran from just past the lock direct to Zaanse Schans. We hopped aboard and had a nice chat with the skipper who was keen to hear we had an ‘ex-local’ boat. Very laid back, he put Ian at the helm for the last half of the trip.

At its peak there were about eleven hundred molen working in the Zaandam area. It was the first industrial region in Western Europe. The invention of the camshaft allowed the rotary motion of the windmill to be converted to vertical motion of sawing and pounding, and the inventive Dutch found all sorts of way to apply this to mechanise previously manual work. Most important was milling timber, and the construction of ships. But also important was grinding of spices, powders and dyes, the extraction of oils, the processing of cocoa and textiles and a number of other applications.

Here’s a short video of them in operation (taken a few days later)

We toured two molen. “The Kat” which is an original molen, that has always been used for the preparation of dyes – by grinding chalk and other coloured material into fine powers.

The other mill was the Het Jonge Schaap (The Young Sheep). This was a molen used for sawing wood built in 1868 and demolished in 1942, the last of these sawmill type. None of these remain in original condition, but fortunately this mill was recorded in meticulous detail before its demolition and the plans have been used to build an exact, working replica.

Uncharacteristically, the weather in this part of the Netherlands was calm during our visit, and only just able to turn the arms of the molens, but with insufficient power to see them sawing wood. The miller was quite happy to spend time telling us about his mill.

After visiting some other cultural exhibits, having a relaxing beer and a little shopping, we headed back to catch the last ferry. This time, the skipper had Graham at the helm for almost the entire trip back other than mooring at the end. Well practiced on Catharina, Graham handled it easily, and just had fun.

Sadly, the next day, Gillian and Graham had to leave, but will hopefully be back soon – ready for more experiences and sharing the cruising duties.