We spent the last days of April and first part of May in the "Standing Mast Canal System" from Harlingen to Delfzijl.
The minimum depth maintained is 2 meters, we draw 1.9 meters, so we entered with great trepidation. We got stuck once, when we had to move over for a barge, but backed off without assistance.
May is a busy month in Holland. First, is King's Day, celebrating the
House of Orange. the Royal Family. Guess what the overwhelming color
was?
The second was the liberation of Holland by the Canadians in WWII.
Pictures in Storefront windows, flags and flowers everywhere. We
skipped the main celebration in Leeuwarden as we were behind schedule
due to weather and repairs.
In the countryside we passed interesting bird houses, passenger ferry and combined house/barn dwellings.
The provincial capital of Leeuwarden was our main stop, due to a broken alternator bracket. On the plus side we enjoyed free moorage right next to the Aldi and Lidl stores. It took a few days to find a machine shop that could make a new bracket, primarily as I was inputting "alternator" in the search engine, not "dynamo" as they are called in Holland. The server in our favorite coffee shop set me straight. Once found the shop made a new bracket in about 3 hours for a modest $120 CDN. In fact we spent more in taxi fare going around the city to try and find the right machine shop.
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| The main canal in Leeuwarden. |
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| The park where the Canadians camped after liberating Leeuwarden. |
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| Leaning tower. |
After Leeuwarden our next town was Dokkum. A great little town with very good facilities for boaters.
Next we went through Groningen. Narrow canals, with 90 degree turns, single file, one way traffic, with countless bridges, very tense.
Our last stop in Holland is Delfzijl on the Em River, bordering on Germany. A well planned, pleasant industrial port, but has little to offer in the way of tourist amenities.
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| Industrial Art. |
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| Sandra cozies up to one of the locals. |
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| Cool playground equipment. |
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| Hotel and bath houses on the river. |
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| View from the marina. |
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