July-6-2012 map coordinates: 52o01’24.53”N 4o51’50.70E
and 52O02”43.75”N5o01”07.26”E
We stayed in Gouda a
lot longer than we expected to. Last
year was a struggle to manage power.
This year we had shorepower and it was a lot more relaxing. Also, Rob and his wife Jeannette invited us
to dinner at their home and it was just a lot easier to stay put. The dinner was really lovely. Jeannette is a wonderful cook, and it’s
possibly the best meal we’ve had in the Netherlands. We always enjoy their company. We also were in town for the flea market that
week where I found my major souvenir for this trip, more on that later. Even Bill enjoyed the market!!
Then we were off to
Oudewater, the witch city. So far we are
pretty much retracing part of the route from last year, but we do know what to
expect. Oudewater is a lovely, peaceful
mooring.
Free too. We really like it there, the only problem is no electrical hookups. After three days, and hot (well, warm, it is the Netherlands) weather, the ice we’d made to carry over the fridge was all gone and everything was warm. It was interesting to realize again how each place we stop has its own personality. In Oudewater, folks pull up to a mooring and in about 5 minutes they’re settled in like it was home.
In one case, there was a couple who pulled in in front of us on a rather small boat. Within 5 minutes they’d tied up, taken off most of their clothes, and set up a little patio area for themselves on the grassy bank next to their boat. It included the two adults, 3 dogs, one very large bird cage with one rather small parrot, two lawn chairs, a small cocktail table, beer and wine, a large plate full of nibbles and a varied selection of reading material. School has just let out for the summer, and turns out the local teens prefer the area for swimming. Every afternoon, groups would show up and strip down on the banks near the drawbridge and start throwing each other in. Lots of kids out again in rubber boats, some can’t be much more than 8-10 years old, spending the whole day on their own with their friends running back and forth on this little river. Amazing.
Free too. We really like it there, the only problem is no electrical hookups. After three days, and hot (well, warm, it is the Netherlands) weather, the ice we’d made to carry over the fridge was all gone and everything was warm. It was interesting to realize again how each place we stop has its own personality. In Oudewater, folks pull up to a mooring and in about 5 minutes they’re settled in like it was home.
In one case, there was a couple who pulled in in front of us on a rather small boat. Within 5 minutes they’d tied up, taken off most of their clothes, and set up a little patio area for themselves on the grassy bank next to their boat. It included the two adults, 3 dogs, one very large bird cage with one rather small parrot, two lawn chairs, a small cocktail table, beer and wine, a large plate full of nibbles and a varied selection of reading material. School has just let out for the summer, and turns out the local teens prefer the area for swimming. Every afternoon, groups would show up and strip down on the banks near the drawbridge and start throwing each other in. Lots of kids out again in rubber boats, some can’t be much more than 8-10 years old, spending the whole day on their own with their friends running back and forth on this little river. Amazing.
Our major problem
with “culture shock”, if you can call it that, is that we’re still on our US
mental schedule. That puts us a bit out
of synch. The dutch sleep in late, we’re
up early. When we’re ready for bed, they’re
just starting to party (and boy do they do that well!!). And we’re always feeling a bit lost if we don’t
have something that needs to be done. Bill has been doing a lot of painting.
If we were to take nothing else from this whole exercise in the end, I hope we finally learn how to relax. There are many things I admire about the Dutch, and their ability to just live well with a good deal less pressure than we have seems central to it all.
If we were to take nothing else from this whole exercise in the end, I hope we finally learn how to relax. There are many things I admire about the Dutch, and their ability to just live well with a good deal less pressure than we have seems central to it all.
Anyway, from there
we’ve moved on to the Marnemoende marina, just outside of Ijsselstein and
Nieuwegein. No food here, except at the
rather upscale restaurant (which always seems to be booked full anyway), but
everything else. For us, it’s
electricity, showers and laundry. The
weather reports have been calling for thunderstorms and lots of rain for the
last week, but this was the first we’d seen of it. Even then, it was only for a few minutes, and
otherwise yesterday was gorgeous again.
Today is starting out foggy and with low overcast clouds. All we have to do is get the laundry back to
the boat dry, so this is just fine. Almost
a nice change from the sun we’ve had so much of this year.
Sorry we haven’t had
so much about the typical tourist churches/museums/quaint cities stuff so
far. We pretty much covered that
information last year, but soon we’ll be striking out in new directions so will
include more then. Next week we’re
either heading toward Arnhem near the German border, or Gorinchem (pronounced
Horkum, go figure) in the south. We’ll
make that decision at our next stop.
And now for a pop
quiz: at the Gouda flea market, I
stumbled on a little device I’ve been coveting for years but never really
thought I'd find.
Can you guess what it
is, and can anyone figure out how in the world I’m going to get all that cast iron back to the
States?????
Till next time, tot
ziens . . . .
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