This is us moored in a park in the centre of Leeuwarden in Northern Holland. There is a tower here, built in the 15th century which was to be part of a church but it leaned so far over during construction that they had to stop, we climed to the top and believe me, it does lean but it was a great view.

The next place we stopped was Grou.

Hows this for a mobile home.

We were in convoy going thru a series of bridges where the bridge keeper had to close the road, raise the bridge, when we were all thru, lower the bridge, open the road, get on his bike, cycle to the next bridge, close the road, open the bridge let us all thru lower the bridge open the road etc. etc. etc. At the last bridge he would lower a wooden clog from a fishing pole to collect any tolls due.

This is Dokkum which was lovely, but the weather was perfect for us to move on. so we continued to Lauwersoog and from there into the North Sea to do an overnight passage to Cuxhaven in Germany, where we went to bed for half the day we were soooooo tired.

From there we did the short trip up the Elbe to Brunsbuttel to go through into the Kiel canal. It took 1.5 days to transit the canal, stopping overnight at anchor in a very secluded anchorage. We are now in Kiel and have been busy re-stocking the boat's supplies and other maintenance jobs but will be moving on tomorrow.

This is in the Kiel canal, a transporter bridge. A railway bridge with a foot passanger carriage slung underneath from cables taking people accross the canal. The passenger carriage looks very Victorian.

Sue dodging shipping in the Kiel canal.

Well the Jazz Festival is over now so we have moved on. We are exploring some of the other towns and harbours around the inland seas of the Netherlands, The Markermeer and The Ijsselmeer. As you can see from the photos, all very pretty and we have been exploring on our bikes.

Volendam was so 'twee' a bit like toy town, we almost expected to see 'Noddy' or 'Postman Pat' walking down the street!

Noddy lives here!!

You can't see from the photo but clockwork horses ride around the tower under the clock when it strikes the hour.

This is Monnickendam.

Leylstad is a relatively new town created from land reclaimed in the 1950's which means the old ports from the Zuiderzee are 30 miles inland. However, we did see some beautiful old square riggers sailing here today.

We're still waiting for the weather to warm up and then we'll decide what to do next.

After Middelburg we travelled thru the inland waterways to Willemstad, a very pretty town with a working windmill, where we had our first go at mooring in what is know as a 'box berth'. this involves driving the boat between two posts and trying not to ram the quay! which we managed without denting the boat.

After Willemstad we continued passing thru towns such as Gouda (where the cheese comes from) and Haarlem (where the 'globe trotters don't come from) and then into the Nordzee canal leading to Amsterdam where we had to dodge massive tankers, barges and even a cruise liner. From there we passed thru the main locks into the Markermeer where we found a quiet sot to anchor for the night.

the next day we had a short 25 mile hop to Enkhuizen where we intend to stay for a few days to rest up and enjoy the Jass Festival.