We were excited to welcome our first family member aboard to enjoy the delights of our Joie de Vivre. Peter even put on a clean shirt and pants and asked me to cut his hair, to celebrate the occasion.

Kampen is another Hanseatic town and we were still on the Ijssel. Our mooring was in the Nieuwe Buitenhaven, right at the entrance, so we could watch the display of passing boats

The haven master in Kampen is a delight. I’m sure you have all heard of Francophiles, people who love France and the French. Well I have meet my first Aussiophile. The haven master not only helped us out with a great mooring, but threw in free power. Yes, I was greeted with ‘G’day mate’ and ‘that’s not a knife’, while Arnold told me that having Australians in port exuded an international flavour.

Olivia arrived late as her flight from Albania was delayed 1 1/2.

We decided to explore the city the next day. Unfortunately being a Sunday the church was closed (a church closed on Sunday, what has the world come to?). The museum was also closed, but this was due to renovation. However, Kampen has 3 intact town gates, a busy square with a large choice of restaurants and a cow sculpture. Every town needs one! The cow sculpture is nothing to do with the local industry, but rather a local legend. It was said that the towns folk decided to control the grass growing on their roofs by hoisting a cow by the neck onto a roof. When this poor beast was halfway to its destination, with its tongue hanging out, they exclaimed ‘look he is so hungry his tongue is hanging out’. Mmmm… or he might have expired!

The harbour is adjacent to the Kampen Cog museum. The Cog was a 20 meter medieval wooden ship mostly used for trade and transport and occasionally for war. In 2012 the remains of one of these ships was discovered in the silt near the city of Kampen.. This was the best preserved 14th century ship ever found in the Netherlands. The busy port of Kampen was home to over 200 of these ships as they were important vehicles used by the Henseatic league. Today there is only one, a replica of the original.

Anticipating that Olivia would enjoy cruising we left the next day, 2 locks, 2 lifting bridges and 30kms to Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a popular tourist destination and as such is populated by a lot of Chinese and Japanese visitors. Known as the Green Venice it was originally a pedestrian precinct with transport conducted on small boats through the narrow canals and under one of the 176 bridges. With the marina adjacent to the town, we bravely hired a small old steel dingy with an electric outboard and navigated through a maze of first time captains. Quite stressful, but after all it was not our boat!

After our boat trip Peter returned to Joie de Vivre while Olivia and I visited the museum located in an original farm house and walked the rest of the town. Giethoorn was home to peat diggers and boat builders who earned a very meagre living. I’m sure they would be astounded to see their town today

All too soon it was time to bid Olivia farewell as she continued onto London on the train

We would continue heading north on Joie de Vivre to Friesland