PART 1
Having been given the green light by their employers to work aboard their boat, Liz and David struck the perfect work/life balance by taking an extended cruise of their favourite Dutch haunts
Let’s do something different,” said my husband David. “Let’s ask our bosses if we can go and work abroad for three months. And let’s spend it cruising around Holland in our boat.” It sounded like a fun adventure, so I agreed.
That was back in 2015. At the time, Juneau, our 34ft Dutch steel cruiser built by Jetten, was still based on the non-tidal Thames so we shipped her over to Holland on a transporter and relocated her to Jachthaven Stenhuis in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam. Stenhuis is a lovely, family run marina, and they took great care of Juneau for us throughout our big Dutch adventure.
Fast forward a few years and we decided to undertake another extended Dutch cruise. The idea started with a plan to visit Maastricht in the far south and rapidly developed into a 700-mile loop around most of the country.
Having spent quite a bit of time in Holland as a couple we were keen to share our Dutch experience with our nearest and dearest, so the trip commenced with a visit from some of our family. With them safely on board, we set off on the first leg from Aalsmeer to Weesp via Amsterdam.
Our route commenced on the Ringvaart, a loop canal dug to drain the Haarlemmermeer Polder. In the centre of the reclaimed polder is Schiphol airport. The Ringvaart passes alongside Schiphol, which is pretty evident as you can virtually look pilots in the eye as they come in to land!
Once off the Ringvaart, across the Nieuwe Meer and through a lock, we were onto the Schinkel canal which provides a route along the west side of Amsterdam. This is a lovely cruise through the outskirts of the city. As you approach Amsterdam, particularly on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the canals are teeming with small boats full of locals having fun on the water, often accompanied by loud music and the clink of beer bottles.
The route has many low, opening bridges, all of which require a bridge keeper to operate them. Some of these even have tram tracks and overhead power lines that tilt up out of the way with them, leaving a sea of bicycles on each side waiting for you to pass through.
All went fine until the last bridge on our route, where there was no sign of any bridge keeper. Luckily, if we strip the canopy off Juneau and remove the windscreen we can just about squeeze under these low bridges, most of which have a clearance of around 2.5m. In this case we had no option so off it all came. Thankfully, on this occasion it wa
