2006 Back to Roanne
Home Budgeting Construction Options Travels Buying and Selling
Site Map
When the wheelhouse was damaged we searched in vain for a carpenter near Haarlem.  Nobody could touch it for a month so we called an old friend, the fellow who did much of the carpentry work during our fit-out in Harlingen.  Robert-Jan Feith was able to accommodate our repairs as soon as we could get to his shop.  We tied up behind his home-and-former-tugboat and spent 10 days touring Friesland and the Wadden islands while Rob-Jan completed the repairs.  At the end of his work you couldn't tell where the house had been damaged - a tribute to his skills.

After our adventure crossing the Ijsselmeer Barb wasn't too keen on repeating the trip.  We decided to head down the canals bordering the eastern side of the lake, through Lemmer, Emmeloord, turned east toward Zwolle and then followed the canal to the Ketelmeer.  There we crossed a small section of wide water to a canal on the eastern side of reclaimed Flevoland.  This was quite uneventful, certainly compared to our earlier adventures, but we did get stopped by the water police who gave the captain a breathalizer test.  Upon successful completion of this exam I was awarded the key-chain fob "BOB" which is the dutch equivalent of designated driver.

We navigated around Amsterdam and headed south the way we had come; through Haarlem, Alphen am Rhin (where l'Escapade was built), then to Gouda and down to Rotterdam.  From there the trip was a pleasant cruise through Holland, Belgium and France, with one diversion up the Marne to Epernay to enjoy champagne tastings and tours of the vinyards.
Contact Us
Links
2003 Holland
2003 Belgium
2003 France
2003 Christmas
Cheese Page
le Fin d'Hiver
2004 Midi
2004 Bourgogne
Social Scene
2005 Alsace
Champagne & Burgundy
2006 Holland
2006 Return
Katie
Now the Ijsselmeer doesn't look that  forbidding.  Certainly this Spitz looks right at home.
On our way north from Zaandam we passed through these lovely Dutch towns with classic architecture and gorgeous floral arrangements.  Fab!
This isn't time-lapse photography but a neat three part bridge at the entrance to Leeuwarden.
It was a comfort to enter the harbor at Makum, which began a lovely cruise through tiny canals en route to Sneek.
On the edges of the Sneekmeer you can find free moorage along these well prepared walkways.
We visited Amsterdam including this old Protestant enclave dating back to the 17th century.
The town in Vlieland, one of the Wadden islands, is typically dutch, full of strolling tourists, but must be desolate in the winter months.
Cat on a hot tin bike!  On the end of the island  we spotted this feline reclining on a BMW look-alike.
Bruce and Janet provided the unexpected music when we moored beside them in a lake at t' Leuken, off the Maas river in southern Holland.  They are restoring a very traditional Peniche which they keep in the Rotterdam ship museaum during the winter months. 
We stopped for the night in Zeewold on the south coast of Flevoland.  A great moorage in an uncharacteristicly ultra-modern dutch village
This fortified chateau/castle guards the entrance to Muiden on the south coast of the Ijsselmeer.
So that's about it.  Our adventure is ending and we are moving back to Vancouver.  It has been better than our best dreams.  Drop us a line anytime.  Au revoir!
We found a nice mooring at the junction of the Somme and San Quenten canals.  The outline of trenches still remain from WWI.  The biting flies must have been hell on the soldiers even then. We had a great tour of the vinyards, in English, provided by Natalie who you can contact through the Epernay Tourist Office.