Karen’s Travel Blog

Journeys on water and land

netherlands

  • Making our way south

    After all the excitement of Sail Amsterdam, it was time to take stock and plan our trip back to Brugge. We left our port in Waterguezen and returned to Sixhaven (where we usually stay in Amsterdam). A walk into town showed a much quieter city than the one we had experienced the previous week. There Read more

  • North Holland Den Helder to Amsterdam and 2 Museums!

    With a love for all things nautical you will not be surprised that we visited the Navy Museum in Den Helder. We climbed through the Submarine Tonijn, launched in 1965 and decommissioned in 1991, had lunch on the ramming ship Schorpioen and were nearly blown away in the radar dome to the HLNMS de Ruyter. Read more

  • The Hanseatic towns of the Ijssel

    The Ijssel is a distributary of the Rhine that flows in a northerly direction eventually discharging into the IJsselmeer. We had travelled on this river in 2022, but at that time we motored against the flow, upstream in a north south direction. There was a drought and the river was low with not much traffic. Read more

  • From The towns of South Holland to Towns and rivers of Gelderland

    Leaving Gouda we took the Hollandse Ijssel, heading east. This section is a meandering narrow waterway, 32kms in length with 11 opening bridges. Although we were aiming for the town of Ijsselstein, we made a stop at the historical village of Oudewater. Little is known about the origins of Oudewater, though it did hold a Read more

  • A farewell cruise

    Since 2022 we have spent some time cruising with James, Julie and Colin on their boat Mimosa. Sadly all good things have to end. With James and Julie having now sold their boat we decided to head south from Amsterdam with them back to Haarlem, Leiden and Gouda. This was our last fling and the Read more

  • Amsterdam for 2 weeks, Museums, Gardens and Friends

    Yes the bad weather did persist, but I did manage to make a few forays into the city of Amsterdam. With my trusty museum card in hand(best 75 euros I have ever spent!) we (that’s Peter and I) visited a number of sights. Next on the list were the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk. Read more

  • Zeeland and beyond

    Now it’s time for a little geography lesson. The Netherlands (which literally translates to “lower countries”) is a collection of 12 provinces or states. Two of these provinces are South Holland and North Holland, so when people refer to Holland they are technically only talking about these two provinces. So we left Yerske in Zeeland Read more

  • We’re off, our 2025 adventure begins

    It was cool bright morning as we cast off lines and left our winter port in Coupure. With a couple of stowaways on board (James and Colin) we set out to Ghent , a 5 hour cruise down the Oostend Ghent canal After our hectic pace last year the idea this year is to take Read more

  • The Netherlands, Where the Rhine becomes the Waal

    Day 1 Wesel to Lake Bijland 51 kms Day 2 Lake Bijland to Zaltbommel 72 kms I looked back at our days travelling on the Marne au Rhin canal, where we we lucky to cover 10 kms in a day. 72 kms seems an impossibly long journey, but with no locks and about 5 kms Read more