Possibly the only Dutch beer I previously could have named!
While you might think that the green bottle or can bearing the trademark red star and brand name "Heineken since 1873" is the genuine article, the reality is that unless you are in the Netherlands, it has probably been brewed "to the original recipe" just down the road! It is a ubiquitous and perfectly drinkable beer, however on our cruise through the Netherlands, I have endevoured to seek out the truly local brews, of which there are many!
Family and craft breweries are alive and well in the Netherlands.
each with their own name on unique glasses, here are just a few.
I have found a very palatable brew which turns up in some supermarkets from the offshore island of Texel, named Skuumkoppe. Possibly I was attracted by the lighthouse on the label or being told that the name means white cresting waves. The family brewery was founded in 1999.
In Haarlem I was introduced to 'Jopen', a genuinely local craft beer from a 1501 recipe which was re-discovered in the city archives and is being brewed once again in Haarlem, which at one time boasted more breweries than Amsterdam.
Haarlem in 1800, the waterfront today is little changed.
Enough about beer. This post is a bit of a round up of pics through August and our 2024 round trip
A delightfully quiet island mooring on Alkmaardermeer.
The North sea on a calm day. Zandvoort is only a few minutes train ride from Haarlem.
Just behind the sand dunes is the Formula 1 race track.
Ex Warehouses, now smart apartments at Zaandijk,
on our way North to Alkmaar
'Windmill land', a working mill museum on route to Alkmaar
The Harbourmaster's office Alkmaar. Not a bad place to work!
With family guests now aboard we managed to break free from Haarlem and head north to Alkmaar. There we turned right onto the quiet, less travelled Alkmaar-Kolhorn waterway where there were several low bridges, requiring our canopy and mast to be lowered, reviving a routine which we had not used since leaving France. Kolhorn was once a thriving fishing port on the shores of the tidal Zuiderzee but now lies far inland like a time capsule. From here, we had the uncanny experience of locking down a further 5 meters to the original sea bed and navigating the long straight cuts across reclaimed land to the new coastline at Medemblik.
Atop the deep lock at Medemblik, we wait for the vintage train to pass.
There is something about steam trains: the whistles, puffing and clanking, the smell of coal smoke, steam, and hot oil, that I cannot resist. At Medemblik I got a brief fix.
This vintage chuff-chuff runs from Medemblik to Hoorn in the summer months
There is also a steam tram which pulls a string of vintage carriages,
lovingly restored, with lots of shiny brass bits.
In the yacht harbour at Medemblik, just across the pontoon from us and tucked in between two long term moored boats, there was a floating grebe nest. We were able to watch as two chicks hatched and quickly climbed up onto one of the parent's backs, to be promptly fed with live fish.
Across the Netherlands we find memorials to the aircraft and crews that did not make it home from wartime raids into Germany. This one is on the shoreline near Medemblik.
Just one of many similar memorials.
This one marking three aircraft that never made it home.
Choosing a calm day, we crossed the IJsselmeer to Friesland and familiar waters once more, our round trip cruise almost complete.
September already ! The evenings are getting shorter.
To finish with one of our favourite quiet mooring spots, Vijfhuizen,
just a bus ride from Schiphol airport.
