Angles on Dordrecht

We sit here on our second day in Dordrecht listening to the cacophonous sound of the Grote Kerk's bells calling the Calvinist faithful to the 5pm service, while the rain storms sweep across with shots of sun inbetween. The lovely weather of the last week has let us down for a day, hence we are still here rather than on our way south as originally planned. The good weather is rumoured  (sorry, forecast) to return during tomorrow when we shall progress down river and into the open water of Hollands Diep to Willemstad.

Dordrecht is beautiful wherever you go. Yesterday we went to lots of places after getting up early and doing two lots of washing. We're in the town marina which is perhaps 300m from the centre yet it is very peaceful ... despite constant comings and goings of infeasibly large motorboats through the small bridged entrance. 

It seems the city, oldest in the Netherlands, is built on clay and many of the buildings have an alarming lean to them. The church tower was planned to be an impressive height but when they built it they changed their minds and stopped halfway. 

Our first port of call yesterday was the

Het Hof, an old building which has been relentlessly  modernised and which boasts the most expensive and all encompassing interactivity museum we have ever seen. It includes a lavish feature film with real actors which tells the story of the start of the Netherlands at the time of William of Orange. We were the only people watching, in August, in a museum which must have cost a million.

The point of the film was to show a crucial meeting at Dordrecht which changed the course of Dutch history. The museum is a tad bombastic - all about Dordrecht and its place as a trading and shipping hub from the 1400s onwards. 

Our Combikaart museum ticket also allowed us to visit an art museum (again relentlessly modernised) which offered a lot of so-so local artists and a single Rembrandt. 

Streets are all cobbled, blocked and bricked. There is no tarmac. It's gracious, on a larger scale than chocolate-box Gouda and with few tourists. Most streets are very quiet.

Each day we've had lunch onboard as it's not cheap eating out. Last night we went to a very small and very slow fish restaurant close by. The wait was worthwhile, for oysters gratinated with various Dutch cheeses, fried sole and delicious swordfish. 

We hit the shops to buy food and also looked in a few antique shops for a coal scuttle for home. We spotted an oak barrel with brass hoops which would work a treat. The surly dealer wanted 60 euros. We retired horrified.

Later the same day,  different shop, similar barrel ...15 euros! Result. It's been stowed in a locker.

Today we had a much later start as the rain hammered down. L went to church ...to the Grote Kerk very close to the boat. It was a mistake. 2 hours of Calvinist Dutch service, no english translation and not an idea what was going on! Impressive building though.

Talked to another British yacht, very rare to see one. They are doing same route as us but opposite direction. Have had similar frustrations with waiting for locks ... oh good!

Went to third museum on combi, large house of rich collector, for once not modernised but as when he died in 1921. Combi ticket supposed to be only one day, we played the innocent, thought it was w/e, how could we do three in one day, smile ... and the nice lady let us in. Very enjoyable. Refused the siren call of their cafe and scampered back to the boat. 

Later the weather improved and we had a stroll around old streets and waterfront, almost deserted. Perhaps it is the end of holidays here for the Dutch and they are back to work tomorrow - poor them. 

Half way notes

In time and miles we're about halfway. How to summarise the trip so far? 

Certainly successful in that last year we airily said "we'll go to Amsterdam and see some canals" without much idea of what was involved and needed. Then with minimal planning, a lot of it as we go along, we've made it work. Only today did we try to buy a chart for the Delta area because it is not covered by Staandemastroute or by Imray Netherlands charts (that we bought online in UK the week we left). The one Chandlers in town was open and he did have one copy of exactly what we needed. 

One downside was the 26 hour crossing, in that we asked ourselves "why do we do this" at 2am when approaching unidentifiable lights. And yet it is great experience and nothing bad happened. Another downside is the many mooring manoeuvres every day due to bridges and locks, and the small marinas. Our lovely strong seaboat is difficult to control at close quarters. And yet all we have is a couple of scrapes and some embarrassing memories, both of which can be polished away. Plus plenty of boat handling experience for the future. The language had also been a struggle; although they almost all speak English, the key navigation and information books are resolutely in Dutch only. And bridge timing info differs between 2 books and a website. Thank goodness for Google Translate! 

One could conclude from this that sailing out to sea during daylight is the way to minimise stress, and that's true if you are away from shipping lanes, shallow waters and vicious tides. Oh, that's why the Med is so popular! Ah but we don't like it that hot. Hard to please or what? There is another angle to reducing boat stress, and that's to stop doing entirely new things and places, and go where we have gone before while we still remember the tricks and rules for getting in and out. 

Of course we're glad we came and we're looking forward to more open water as we make our way home. 

The longest twenty miles

Today it took seven hours to go twenty miles. Even the slowest marathon runner would have outpaced us. 

As we left our mooring in Kattensingel in Gouda, a heron was scouting for breakfast just feet away. (see picture)  He nabbed a small fish effortlessly. We had already put away porridge.

To cut a long story short,  it was a day full of frustrations. It took an hour to get through the two tiny bridges and a lock only (a few hundred yards apart) which formed the entrance to Kattensingel. Slow wasn't the word.

As the waterway became more tidal and wider, (and more industrial) lo and behold we had tide against us. We had almost forgotten what that feels like...  Eventually it was 3.5 knots against us,  plus a stiff headwind too. Waves and all. It rained.

There was a large lifting bridge at one point where we had read it would open at 10 to and 20 past the hour. It was open at ten to. We rushed toward it. A loudspeaker boomed ' English sailboat go behind the other sailboats'. They were lined up at a waiting pontoon  waiting for 20 past. But how were  we to know? The Dutch expect you to know.

Later we arrived at a major bridge that we read would open at 1415. We were 35 mins early and looked for a place to tie up and wait. There was none! It was ridiculous. A total of nine yachts had been hanging around with engines on, idling in stiff tide and wind, waiting for the damn bridge. Sirena didn't find it easy to hold station thanks to her long keel. At last we got through. 

Finally we approached our goal, Dordrecht. The spires of the city looked pretty as the rain began again. We entered a small bridge into a city centre marina, tied up in a tricky berth only to have the harbour master whistling at us telling us we couldn't stay there as it was reserved for a long barge. Earlier we had been told we couldn't reserve a place! So we had to turn around in a small space using bow thruster and go into another berth, scraping on a pole as we arrived.

Both of us were hot, cross and frustrated. That wore off when we went for a short walk around the streets of the harbour area. It is on a bigger scale than Gouda and more graceful and imposing. However we fear the 67 bells of the Grote Kerk's magnificent carillion might just keep us awake tonight. 

Cheesy Gouda

Up early for once and a 12 minute trudge to the facilities in a restaurant alongside a different canal to where we are moored.

After our usual porridge and filter coffee breakfast on board we sallied forth and bought a few things in Hema (think Dutch Ikea) ... and had a second breakfast. Thence to the famous traditional cheese market held every Thu outside the Town Hall on the Markt. Supposedly farmers are actually selling to traders with a hand clapping routine, but actually it is all a pantomime for the tourists. Cheesy in all respects. 

On to St John's church, the longest church in the Netherlands with enormous stained glass windows. Architecturally spectacular yet somewhat soulless. Then through pretty back streets to the Museum Harbour containing various elderly Dutch barges. Back to the market to buy some fish for our dinner then back to the boat for lunch and a rest. Except L the indefatigable went off on a retail jaunt and N pottered about the boat. 

We feel we have done all the essentials of Gouda so tomorrow morning we continue south towards Dordrecht. We may stop on the way depending on progress. Btw another day of perfect weather. 

Trees and cheese

We are sitting in the cockpit with the sound of leaves rattling pleasantly, shaded from hot sun by a glade of trees on the canal bank. This is the centre of Gouda, a medieval city famous for its round yellow cheeses. We are only 5 minutes from the Markt square.

We got here after a 2 and half hour sprint through more lifting bridges - including an infamous rail bridge. It opens infrequently and 3 different sources gave us 3 sets of timings for opening. We assumed if we didn't get there by 1015 we would have to wait another 3 hours for the sod to open, tied up at an unprepossessing edge of canal.

We thought we'd just missed it as we came steaming toward it at 1022. Much cursing. But hang on. There was a magic green over red signal and a display said it opened at 1027. Our timing turned out to be immaculate. Who knew.

Once through, there were more bridges, a lock (where the drop was a mere 11cm) and increasingly small bridges in ever narrower and shallower canals. Until at last we popped out into the Kattensingel a wide waterway fringed with trees in the centre of Gouda. We moored up alongside in time for lunch.

Then a short stroll to the Markt where an antiques and curio market was in progress,

coffee, ice cream and a trip around the glorious medieval town hall complete with ornate ceilings, which is now used for weddings. We sat in the wedding chairs to rest our hot feet. There's a lot more still to see.

Pottering through the Polder

JH De Brasem where we stayed last night was indeed an excellent find. We were given instructions by telephone then met on the pontoon with lines caught and a gift of a jar of gherkins. JH stands for Jacht Haven which means yacht marina. The other type of establishment is WV which means something like yacht club - a more basic affair. All of them are much cheaper than the city and coastal marinas, €15 per night instead of €25-30.

We slept shockingly late and finally got underway after 1200, the fresh breeze nicely blowing us off the pontoon and turning us in the small space to exit the very narrow gap. 

It's another steaming hot day, we're thankful for the breeze. We progressed southwards across the Braasemermere (which is open water mostly very shallow - we followed a buoyed channel) down the Woudwetering and Heimanswetering (canals again now) and through Alphen aan der Rign. A very pretty town from what we could see as we stopped, hovered, jilled and then hurried through 8 bridges. Sometimes we tied up, never waiting more than 10 mins. Once an enormous commercial barge appeared from behind and then drifted alarmingly close as we waited for the magical change of lights from red to red-green which means about to open. We had to assume he knew what he was doing although between him and the jetty even our solid Nicholson would have been crushed into (fibreglass) matchsticks. 

We are truly in polder land now (first pic), puttering along 3-5m above the surrounding land which is beautifully cultivated. Even the classic windmills to hand (guess the pic). We decided we did not have the energy for Gouda today, mooring might be tricky, so we executed plan B. Turning off the main canal into a side canal called Otwegwetering we tied up and telephoned a number given to us by the WV we're heading for. Five mins later a woman appears on a bicycle and hand winds the little bridge up with much smiling and waving (pic). 500m further on is the alongside berthing at WV De Gouwe also confusingly known as JH Boskoop. An elderly gentleman advised us against squeezing into a small gap and directed us to a larger slot with a green collar around the bollard which means available to visitors. 

I should say that at the entrance to the side canal we had 0.0 under the keel and all the way up it is only 0.4m. Outside the main canals (where we usually have 2m or more) is not for the faint-hearted re grounding. 

That aside this is sleepy heaven in the countryside. No-one about, perfectly adequate facilities, floating holiday houses on the opposite bank. A motorboat arrived, a friendly Austrian family - unusual to see Austrians in boats. As the sun begins to dip and the heat eases we prepare a small chicken curry aboard and anticipate G&T or Scotch to toast the sunset. 

Canal heaven

We awoke, groggy after 5 hours sleep, in the delightful sunny backwater which might be peaceful if not for the 6 lanes of motorway bridge and railway bridge nearby. We had breakfast and tried to pay. No said the harbour master. Don't worry we'll see you again.

We motored to the next massive bridge close to Schiphol airport, which only opens at 0530 and 1230. They closed the A9 motorway just for us this lunchtime, so we could motor under its giant bridge shadow trying not to dwell on the tonnes of metal propped high above us.

Through the twelve mile journey we saw countless lovely neat Dutch houses, many with their own private mooring on the canal. Cue fantasies about keeping Sirena moored by the front lawn. 

The sun was hot and white clouds moved across deep blue skies. Happy people cycled by the canals, children played in gardens, Dutch barges passed us. It was a glorious stereotype of everything you expect to see in the Netherlands. It made us smile.

There were more bridges which we dealt with easily by following a huge barge which got every bridge opened promptly. 

Near the airport we had the most shocking sight of the day. An Emirates jumbo coming in to land passed just 200 feet over our heads. You could see every rivet. 

The canal finally broadened into Braasememere lake and we tied up at a friendly small marina near some German boats. Now we can catch up on sleep and maybe dream of a little Dutch paradise.