Dutch Holiday on Sabine

[trambo]

 

 

Dutch Hols5 005.JPG

A bit like Wrenbury. Only bigger!   You really are wetting my appetite for a trip to Holland. Just got to convince misery guts. :

[Hockham Admiral]

About halfway along we came to this old wind-pump which reminded me of those near How Hill. The wind had dropped and it was turning into another beautiful day. I can't stop thinking of how similar to the Broads are the waterways of Friesland...without the traffic! 

 

 

We were now in a 6kph section of the river but had to up it to keep up with a yacht which powered past us towards the next bridge. The bridges seem to give priority to yachts but I was told that it's because they see the stick a while ahead of the boat.

 

 

He then accelerated even faster to overtake a cruiser and we gave up trying to follow and came back to the legal limit!

 

 

After another few miles we came to our first riverside pub we had seen so far. And NO, we didn't stop! The public moorings alongside were the usual immaculate ones we have grown to expect. Only one cruiser tied up outside and the sun was over the yardarm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Will the real Hockham Admiral please come forward it would seem that he has been replaced by a doppelganger!!!

Passed a pub indeed

Sorry John it had to be said.

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

Alan, Hi.... as we would say over here "Lazer Op!" 

[ranworthbreeze]

Thanks John!!

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

Well if you know what it means then I apologise, Mate!

Laptop now down to 12% so I've got to go and don't know when I'll get 230V to charge it or WIFI to communicate..

Ah well, one more Heine to finish the night off!  

[littlesprite]

I was going to leave this thread and read it in one go, it looked like it was getting very long so I've given in and just finished what is a very good read. I have never considered a Dutch boating holiday but that could change. 

[loribear]

hi john just read your story, it sounds great,reading about the large barges reminded me of one time when we had gone on our hols with dad when i was a youngster, & we were going on the trent up to cromwell lock, & Dad had a hangover & got his head down in the front cabin & left me to drive & i came across these two big barges full of gravel going at some speed & the tide was down & i was in the middle of these barges when all of sudden the boat went down & i felt a large thud,because they'd taken all the water away from us we hit the bottom of the river & came to a near stop & it just about threw my dad out of the bunk, we managed to pull in to a bank & my dad wound the prop shaft up, it was something called a zdrive prop shaft, & we found that we'd lost part of a blade off of the prop, & my dad was not a happy bunny, we managed to crawl so far up then got a tow the rest of the way up to the lock, anyway, looking forwards to reading more of your story,lori

[mbird]

Alan, Hi.... as we would say over here "Lazer Op!" 

I now know a profanity in Dutch!

[Hockham Admiral]

So much to tell and so many pics to share! Unfortunately I'm only on my tablet tonight.

I'll try to write it all up later in word and then add the pics tomorrow when we get to Sneek (pronounced snake).

Li'l Sprite, sorry you became impatient!

Lori, what a tale! How old were you then?

[loribear]

hi john i was only about 14 years old, & it terrified me, & my dad was fuming, ive heard him swear so much, apart from when i nearly sunk us, & that Was at cromwell lock too, i think that locks jinxt, what happened was, my dad went up the long ladder to the top just outside the lock, & left me holding the ropes but we'd been waiting awhile for the other boat to come out, & i decided to tie the rope to the ladder rung, but when the water came out of the lock it rose at the other side & my dad saw what i'd done & shouted at me to undo the ropes as we were starting to list & the was coming up to the ropes, so i was frantically trying to undo the ropes, it was very worrying, but i did'nt know ,i was only young,:-(. it was one of my worst pet hates that lock, & quite a few hire companies lost their boats over that weir too lori

[Hockham Admiral]

 Last post and we’d just missed out on a pub-stop (Thanks, Alan!). We were just coming up to the outskirts of Leeuwarden and here’s a pic of just that. I can’t but not think you might be somewhere on The Broads!

 

 

 

Then we passed by a sign that several of our members couldn’t have resisted a quick visit to! I must ask someone what it means! I do know that ‘de’ is ‘the’!

‘De’ and ‘Het’ are the two Dutch words for ‘the’, and although there are generalities in their use the Dutch say that you really have to learn them individually… which I guess is OK if you’re born here! I just remember that ‘de’ is always used with plurals and ‘het’ with diminutives. To use the adjective ‘little’ you just add ‘je’ to the end of a word; then it’s always ‘het’. Probably best that you just learn to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’…………….

 

 

 

 

We soon came to another pretty little bridge whose lights immediately changed to red/green. Most of these smaller bridges are radio controlled from a central centre. They  are really how we should go about it, especially when you think about the bridges in Gt Yarmouth. Here in Holland they would have traffic cctv’s at the Haven Bridge and radio control it from the Breydon Bridge; so simple really.

 

 

 

Next we saw one of several small peeps/bicycle ferries which surround some of the towns over here. They are virtually a floating platform for a few peeps and their bikes and seem to work to order pretty much like the Reedham Ferry does.

 

 

 

We arrived in Leeuwarden at13.15 and were lucky to find a prime mooring right in the centre of town. Here was the only place we’ve been so far which had a much lower bank than all the others. This meant a step down of about 3ft and justified us bringing our collapsible stool! We were also outside the shower/toilet facilities and nearby were a leccy post and wheelie-bins. The paying kiosk was automated and even though the screen was in Dutch, German, French or English I still couldn’t work it out. I was quite relieved when a Dutch family were also baffled! When at last I did get to use it we paid about £10 for the 24hrs. Not too bad in the centre of a large town, I think.

 

We then spent a pleasant few hours wandering around the centre of this lovely old town and sampled a brew in one of the hotels. Yes, hotels! Bars don’t seem to open until the evening and then stay open until the last one standing falls out! So lunchtime is just that; mostly a light meal and usually a soft drink with it, as far as we saw others. Most of the customers were sat outside the hotels at pavement tables watching the world go by, as one does.. We did make note of a couple of likely looking bars for the evening’s entertainment!

 

 

Mary-Jane enjoyed the views with a glass of Rose!

 

 

 

An old (skippered) hire-boat passed us by; we’d seen it moored in Dokkum the previous day and they gave us a wave as they passed by.

 

 

 

Thursday was a washout and we stayed another day in Leeuwarden. Not a total waste as we managed to find another bank who accepted Visa Debit cards. (So far, ABM Hambro and Ing had). We also found a handy Albert Heijn mini-supermarket. They are the Dutch equivalent of Tesco or Sainsbury and are in most nearly all towns, as are Aldi and Lidl. So we were able to top-up on the basics you always seem to need; milk, bread, beer and wine, not necessarily in that order! !

 

I did get the chance, in the early evening when it had cleared up, to wander around looking at boats. Invariably the Dutch crews were polite and only too happy to talk in English to a visitor. If I’d taken up every invite to a glass we’d probably still be there! Anyway I spoke with the owners of these two tugs… one had come from Prague! They seem to renovate anything that floats and use it as a holiday or permanent home. It really is a ‘must-do’ holiday to come over here and the tales you hear are truly fascinating and some even heroic!

 

 

 

Friday dawned bright and clear and it had been our intention to head for Grau but I was unhappy with the domestic battery bank and Warten was just a small diversion off our route. The ‘fridge had been shutting down about two hours after we either stopped the engine or the 230V leccy ran out. (This was serious as we then had neither ice nor cold wine/beers). To my mind that meant battery problems and so it later proved. Yes, I could have telephoned them but I doubted my ability to make them understand the problem.

 

The bridges don’t start to work until 09.00 and so it was then that we slipped our mooring and slowly cruised down to the first one behind a Dutch Yacht.

 

 

 

As we followed the circular canal-system around Leeuwarden we saw many live-a-boards and here’s one which might make Jill envious! ‘Tornado’ might be in need of a coat of paint but she did look substantial and I reckon you could quite literally go anywhere in her (if you could afford the fuel!).

 

 

 

Lori mentioned big Dutch barges and we thought we’d seen a few big ones…. until this giant appeared under the bridge ahead. He quite literally had only a foot or so each side to miss the bridge! We’ve seen bigger on the main rivers of Europe but not on the Dutch waterway system where there are even more peeps let loose with a small boat than back at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I’ve said, most boats over here are privately owned but that doesn’t always signify common sense, or seamanship, on behalf of the owners! Just before one bridge we were overtaken by a small (about 60ft) converted barge with a family onboard. The bow-wake and wash were not only impressive but caused us lots of rolling for about 10 minutes afterwards with the returning waves bouncing backwards and forwards off the edges of the canal. Probably 50% or so of the boats we’ve seen so far have had a slightly cavalier approach to speed limits and so far we’ve not seen any signs of the river police. Ah yes, I’ve found that useful Dutch word which I could neither spell nor pronounce, it’s ‘Gedogen’ and you pronounce the g’s as though you’re coughing up something nasty!

 

 

 

Our final adventure was then to cross an aqueduct… it really IS strange looking DOWN on traffic as you motor along! Then it was a gentle 4mph burble back to Warten to get Sabine some needed TLC.

 

 

 

We arrived back at Warten at 11.00 and I explained the problem to Anna, who said that if I’d telephoned from anywhere in Holland then Sytze would have come out in his van and fixed it personally. That’s good to know for future reference! When Sytze came onboard he agreed that there was a battery problem and went off to Grau to buy another two. I also asked if there was a switch for the immersion heater which had been eating up leccy! He said not but showed me the panel on the control consul, which I could remove, and the plug to pull out to disconnect the heater. Gedogen!   

We took the opportunity to take the car for a drive around and fill up on basic stores for the next two weeks. We then drove into Grau to look around and decided to give it a miss tomorrow (Saturday) and go directly to Sneek for the weekend.

 

When we returned to Warten the entire cabin floor was up and the engine bay revealed… Wow, now that’s an engine bay! So roomy that you can walk around the engine and everything is easily accessible for maintenance. The two new batteries were enormous, like those big lorry ones with two terminals at one end. Of the old ones there was one at 12.7V and the other at 10.2V… we had the culprit!

Sytze then proceeded to start cutting a 1.5ins hole in the side of the wheel-consul and wired a switch in for the immersion heater. Brill!

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello John & Mary-Jane,

 

Myself and many forum members have been enjoying  your holiday with you.

A few are even thinking about following your example.

 

Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into these blogs.

 

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

Thank you Alan, fortunately I have plenty of it (spare time!).

 

I write the narrative in 'Word' while correlating with 'My Pictures'; you are correct, it does take a wee bit of time! I use 'Word' as in past long posts I've either made a mistake and deleted an hour or more's work or in the previous version of the NBN it's just disappeared!  

 

It's not a pleasant morning here in Sneek and I'm just about to start on yesterday's voyage. Stand by later today!

[trambo]

Hi John great story and pictures as always. Always thought the part of Holland you are in was a little more conservative than say Amsterdam or Den Hagge. I also note that you say de is always plural in Dutch. So I was rather shoked by the sign. Does it mean you get two .....s? 

 

Fred

[Maxwellian]

Thanks Alan, really enjoyed the tale and pictures.

[Hockham Admiral]

 Gosh, I'm really not too pleased. I've just spent over two hours and when I went to "Preview" all it said was that it couldn't display this page.... probably wifi-comp problem.
I might try again tonight, sorry peeps...    

[Hockham Admiral]

At least I've got the narrative saved in 'Word' but the 23 pics I downloaded and then had to edit into my blog are gooooooooooorn!     two guns  

[ranworthbreeze]

Sorry to hear that John, computers great when working but can be very unforgiving.

I look forward to your post when you have amassed all of your information.

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

Here we go again but I'm only going to do it bit by bit!

 

 

Saturday morning arrived dark, overcast and windy but we slipped our mooring  just before 09.00 to get the first bridge opening. The Brug Meister duly obliged, dangled his clog, (!?@) and wished us ‘Goede Morgen’!

 

Just down the river we saw possibly the Dutch equivalent of Harvey Eastwood:

 

 

Along the Princess Margaret canal again, in the opposite direction, enroute Sneek, we passed by another couple of typical Dutch yachts:

 

 

 

 

As some have shown interest in the amount of barge traffic I’ll say that I was very surprised by the amount we passed/passed us on a Saturday morning! Our old friend ‘Noraly’ appeared, again well-laden, heading North, possibly to Groningen. She was the first of many, and the two who overtook us whilst one was overtaking the other caused quite a bit of rock ‘n roll!  I’ve shown a few below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hockham Admiral]

About half way along we came to a railway bridge (shades of Somerleyton and Reedham). As you can see there’s a video notice board which counts down to the opening…… to the second!

 

 

I then noticed a lock ahead… now that I hadn’t bargained for in Friesland… fortunately for us it was permanently open!

 

 

 

Sytze had printed us off a Google map of Sneek with the route to the most favoured mooring spot in the town highlighted, although we were not optimistic of finding a free spot on a Saturday morning. As we approached the centre we were following a yacht and a cruiser to the three bridges we had to wait for…. everyone of them opened as we approached! So could our luck continue?

We passed through the final bridge and saw just one vacant slot around which 2 or 3 other boats were milling, undecided whether they could get in. I was on the upper deck and could see that we might just, so I went for it and next you can see us squeezed in tight!

 

 

Now this is a truly lovely mooring just off the town centre and the bridge is the busiest I’ve ever seen! I reckon he must open very nearly every 5 minutes over the weekend!

 

 

 

After a pot of tea and a light snack we set off to wander around the town but were waylaid by this attraction!

 

 

 

 

[Hockham Admiral]

We eventually spent the afternoon onboard with a glass of chilled vino each watching the many and varied boats go by and some of their antics. The sun came out and the wind dropped; with a view like this it was an idyllic way to pass the rest of the day! We were also lucky enough to see this beautifully renovated steam powered boat which I thought Clive might like the look of! If you look carefully you may see it says ‘STOOMBOAT ALD FRYSLAN’.

 

 

I would have love to get aboard to look at the engine as what I could see was impressive and looked immaculate. The Dutch are fine engineers!

 

 

 She accelerated very quickly and the steam fog-horn was a delight to hear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ebbtide]

hi john i was only about 14 years old, & it terrified me, & my dad was fuming, ive heard him swear so much, apart from when i nearly sunk us, & that Was at cromwell lock too, i think that locks jinxt, what happened was, my dad went up the long ladder to the top just outside the lock, & left me holding the ropes but we'd been waiting awhile for the other boat to come out, & i decided to tie the rope to the ladder rung, but when the water came out of the lock it rose at the other side & my dad saw what i'd done & shouted at me to undo the ropes as we were starting to list & the was coming up to the ropes, so i was frantically trying to undo the ropes, it was very worrying, but i did'nt know ,i was only young,:-(. it was one of my worst pet hates that lock, & quite a few hire companies lost their boats over that weir too lori

 

I know it well Lori. Some have also lost their lives over that weir. Two interesting little stories. The last barge traffic has just finished on the Trent alas!

 

Maurice

[loribear]

 

 

hi Maurice, yes I also have heard of people losing their lives, there was one time that I heard about some young cadets losing their lives on there, apparently they were drunk & decided to try to jump the weir, but were drowned, very sad indeed.          lori  

[loribear]

  hi john it sounds like you are really enjoying your hols, it's a really lovely boat, lovely colour too, would.nt mind one like that over here lol, I love all your piccies, they're brilliant, can't believe the size of that barge coming through that bridge, very tight indeed,   what's the speciality over there john with food ? & what's your favourite ?  lori