Keeping the water out.

 'Netherlands',  literally meaning 'Lower Countries'. With more than a quarter of their country below sea level, the Dutch peoples have been pumping the water out for centuries. At the same time the Rhine and Maas rivers have been bringing much needed extra land in the form of silt from across western Europe and depositing it in a vast delta known as Zeeland 

This pumping 'Kagermill', built 1683 ,has been faithfully restored. 

When we can, 'Antiope' finds quiet remote mooring spots, here at Keverhaven. 

The land beyond the waterway is several meters lower.

Hard to resist taking pictures as we pass.

By shovel and wind, they have also created land from where there was formerly sea. These pieces of new land are known as 'Polders''. Windmills are a feature of the landscape fringing the waterways, and with a more or less constant westerly wind, their job was to pump the soggy land dry via thousands of kilometers of drainage channels. Over the last century the task has been taken over by diesel and electric pumping stations. 

The Adriaan mill in Haarlem still in use, 

built high to get clean wind over the town. 

Restorations we have seen, use authentic wooden gearing

Although now, of the thousands of windmills that once existed, a good many remain in working order lovingly preserved and restored and commonly adapted as residences. In addition to the pumping mills,  the grinding mills are still a focal point in towns and cities, often in full working order as tourist attractions.

Our voyaging this season has been a deliberate dawdle, heading slowly towards the Western regions of Noord Holland. We stayed put for a few delightful days in Haarlem, getting to know the city which is only a bus ride from Amsterdam, with all the charm but fewer tourists.

After sunset from our mooring spot in the centre of Haarlem. 

The Stadhuis in Haarlem dates back to 1370 

The Organ in St Bavo's church, Haarlem has 5068 pipes,

 and was played by G.F.Handel and also in 1766 by Mozart  at the age of 10 

The sole surviving Haarlem town gateway, 

to the once walled city, The Amsterdamse Poort 

MH17 memorial, with 298 trees, one for each of those aboard that flight 

Just a short distance from Haarlem is the sleepy village-like town of Vijfhuisen where we are currently moored on a quiet, less traveled waterway. In the distance we can hear the rumble of jets at Schiphol, and it is here that a memorial and forest has been created to Malaysian flight MH17, which, having taken off from Schiphol was shot down by a Russian missile over Ukraine ten years ago. Our visit to the memorial made more poignant having met another cruising couple here, James and Carol aboard their boat Paddington V.  They had close relatives, a family of 4, lost on that flight. Last week there was a formal 10 year anniversary commemoration, attended by the Dutch King and Queen and ambassadors of the many nationalities who were aboard that aircraft.  

 

Bridges

 As I write, the longest day is passed, and summer has finally kicked in with our solar panels nudging 14volts. We are moored on an island in what would have been the tidal Zuider Zee, before the big dyke enclosed the sea in 1932. We can look out across a wide navigable channel to Flevoland, the vast man made province created in the 1950/60s by enclosing and draining the seas.   

An idyllic island mooring for the night

So why do I write about bridges? Well throughout our European cruising, hundreds have dutifully and promptly lifted to allow our passage. There are close to 900 lifting bridges in the Netherlands alone and they all function on demand! If not, they certainly get fixed quickly. There is engineering and artistic flair in both new and old.

 In 1888 Vincent Van Gogh painted this bridge at Arles and it was probably ancient even then. This classic but oh so simple balance beam bridge is commonplace on the European waterways to this day. 

  
                   

                                                       The 'Bridge at Arles' 1888 

The same structure at Arles close to a century later!

This new Auckland bridge however remains inoperative (picture by Marika Khabazi)

I read from afar, with incredulity, that the Viaduct bridge, the one and only lift bridge in Auckland which merely carries  a walkway over a navigable waterway, after only 2 decades of use, remains broken and probably cannot be fixed for a further six months. 

Footbridge Zierikzee, built 1800s and still working

      

Old but classic functional footbridge Zwolle  built 1820

Original build 1892, fully restored in 2023

Same simple principle, but a more modern version

along the 'turfe route'

Small, scenic and beautifully balanced

I am no engineer, but I cannot help thinking that balance beams would be a simple fix for the Viaduct bridge!!

Meanwhile back aboard Antiope, we come across some massively engineered structures and the just plain quirky! 

This railway lift bridge is obliged to open for any craft with a standing mast

A Meccano set on the Brussels canal, Belgium

The bascule bridge is in Middleburg, just elegant.

OK, let's just lift a whole slice of road  

Or roll it up!

On demand, the right of passage remains with waterborne craft

Over the next few days we will continue southwards to Amersfoort, where we will have guests joining us aboard.

Thanks for reading and do comment if the mood takes you.

Cheers. Charles and Annie. 

Off Grid and Stork spotting

 This week we have the longest day, and by rights it should be high summer. Not so this year, with cold, wet weather persisting across much of northern Europe. Aboard Antiope, however, we have managed to stay cosy with no pressure to travel far. Having explored the Overijssel province last season, we have returned to some of our 'off grid' mooring spots to sit out the wet days. 

Pinned is the Weerribben National Park area

10 pm on a rare clear evening, and almost the longest day 

at time of writing. See blue spot on map

One of our favourite off grid moorings, close to Zwolle

Guests joined us for a few days and despite the weather, we were able to cruise slowly through the Weerribben National Park and do a bit of stork spotting during nesting time. The locals around here encourage the storks by creating nesting sites, even on roofs and on pole structures in their gardens. 

These pics taken by our guest aboard, Gerhard Klaus 

We did venture out onto the Ijssel river, making the passage up-stream from Kampen towards Zwolle. The rainfall in the upper reaches of the Rhine had topped the banks here and caused the strongest current we have yet encountered in the Netherlands. Slow going upstream, but a fast passage back down again a few days later.

Fast flowing current on the Ijssel

The Ijssel in flood

A familiar sight recently from our cosy cabin window!

Ouch!! Was it something I said? 

Sutton Hoo

 At 'Sutton Hoo' or South Hill in Saxon English is the site of one of the most dramatic archiological finds in England. 

1939 The outline of the Sutton Hoo ship is revealed. 

 One of my earliest memories of boating with my father is of his tale of a great ship buried on top of a hill overlooking the town of Woodbridge on the river Deben. This was where we had sailed to on one summer weekend when I was probably 6 or 7 years old. Mystery still surrounded the then relatively recent find and, which at that time, was on private land. Ever since, I have wanted to climb the hill and see it for myself.

What remains today of the hilltop 'Dig' site,  

This Iron sculpture has been created to the same scale as the vessel.  

The site is now managed by the National Trust and is open to the public. Research has determined that it was very probably a voyaging Saxon vessel which has been ceremonially dragged to the top of the hill and buried along with the body of Raedwald the Saxon ruler of East Anglia. He was buried with a hoarde of gold, silver and all the trappings of wealth, at sometime around 625 AD. Nothing remained of the ship's timbers except her iron fastenings and the burial treasures, however her outline was clearly defined against the compacted soil. 

The fragmented remains of the Saxon helmet

A reconstruction of that same helmet

Any visit to the British Museum is an experience in itself

                                       

                                                       An ornate silver dish and two spoons, 

                                                    still immaculate after 1400 years buried 

Items that were found in the ship have been identified as middle eastern.

The find has recently been dramatised with the film 'The Dig' portraying the somewhat amateur but determined excavation by a certain Basil Browne in 1939 which was just prior to war breaking out with Germany. My fascination with the story had to extend further with a visit to the British musuem in London to see the treasures themselves on display. I can now tick off another bucket list item.

Any visit to the British Museum is an experience in itself.

Since our UK visit, we have returned to Antiope in the Netherlands and she is afloat once more. It is great to be able to unpack properly at last. 

A big day. Our summer home is relaunched

Having found a peaceful mooring, we are back in the slow lane