Musings on a Wet Maasbracht Sunday

One advantage for us of being in the Netherlands is that most of the movies shown in the theaters are in English, with Dutch subtitles, i.e., pretty much everything is equivalent to the hard-to-find French VO (Version Originale). We discovered that there is a multiplex in the town of Echt, about 3.5 miles from us, so on this rainy afternoon we are borrowing a car from the shipyard owner and are planning to see the new "Top Gun" sequel. Had it been sunny, we'd be able to get there with a 20-minute bicycle ride, but we'll save that for another day. 

Our salon refit is essentially done. We're waiting for a few new furnishings to be delivered--bar stools, rug, ottoman--but the only unfinished "work" is the installation of a couple of wall outlets and staining two small floor boards. And we need to repaint the walls, but that is a project for us to complete at the end of the cruising season. What follows are several pictures of what we ended up with. We still have some paper on the floor for protection, as we are expecting a welder to be going into our engine room this week to work on our fuel tank issues.

L

Lest anyone think Lon has just been sitting around during this time, he tackled a smaller boat painting project--making our steel tender beautiful again.

Today Maasbracht celebrated its "Spring Market." Vendors stretched along several of the main roads into and through downtown. The market had just opened when we started our walk at around 11 a.m., but the crowds were growing by the time we wandered back to the boat 30 minutes later. I suppose the Dutch have to disregard less-than-optimal weather or they'd never do anything!

There were lots of food vendors and clothing vendors, a few
places to buy fresh produce, and a variety of miscellaneous products.
Some of the local residents had set up "Sunday garage sale" displays

A few rides for the children in the Markt

A local, very enthusiastic, drum corps (no bugles!)

Our one purchase of the morning was strawberry
tartlets from the local bakery 

Tomorrow we will be visited by Lon's youngest sister Sarah Bazey and her husband Joe. They have been travelling in Germany for over a week, and are stopping by to see us on their way back to Amsterdam to catch their flight home. They'll spend one night on the boat and we are so looking forward to hosting them!

Progress Report

We'd hoped that all work on the boat would be finished by the end of May so that we could begin cruising in June, but we're not optimistic that we'll meet that goal. The logistics of coordinating all of the necessary tradesmen is one issue, but we've also had some unexpected "surprises" (never a good thing!) that have resulted in items being added to "to do" lists.

On the plus side, work on the galley/salon has been proceeding at a good clip and we're very pleased with the results so far. 

Our corner settee, finished except for the cushions

Lots of lovely storage

An overview of the galley. The plumbing needs to be hooked up
and the countertop installation finished

One small portion of the countertop has been put in place.
Relief--no grout!

The carpenter tells us that the work will be finished this week. (If we're lucky, maybe even today.)

Installation has started on the solar panels, but that--and a few other electrical projects (bow thruster, aft locker light, upgraded flybridge controls)--remain "works in progress" for one reason or another. However, we do now have additional, and badly-needed, electrical outlets installed in the salon, and the unanticipated failure of one of our battery chargers ($$$) has been dealt with.

A recent, and unwelcome "surprise", was the need to deal with our engine diesel fuel. It appeared to contain significant quantities of water that wouldn't clear up despite the diligent use of fuel filters designed to separate out water. It was highly recommended that we empty the fuel tank, have the tank cleaned, evaluate the fuel, and refill the tank--possibly with our "cleaned up" fuel or with fresh fuel. We also need to have welds on the tank checked and possibly reinforced in some areas.

The "glamour" of boating that no one ever
talks about--pumping out the fuel tank by
running a hose from the engine room
to a collection receptacle on shore

The pump-out is complete and the tank cleaning half done; we're hoping to have the remainder of the necessary tasks completed by the end of the week. Then comes the fun of putting a good quantity of diesel into our 2500 liter tank ($$$$).

Possibly the most significant obstacle to being done by the end of May is the exterior painting. No progress has been made on that front in the last 10 or 11 days. The biggest problem there was that too many workmen have been going in and out of the boat, making it difficult for the painters to complete the unfinished areas and allowing the paint time to cure. So they beat a strategic retreat and won't return until foot traffic lessens--weather permitting, of course (and, unfortunately, we seem to be entering a more unsettled weather pattern.) 

Oh, yes, it's also holiday season, so this Thursday is the Dutch national holiday of Ascension Day, and no work of any kind will be getting done.

If we were more comfortable that work would get done in our absence we would probably have left for another week of travel somewhere. That kind of approach to work delays in Maasbracht had been our tentative plan before we arrived in Europe. Instead, we are more comfortable sticking close to "home" to keep an eye on things.

With no operational galley, we've been going out
to eat on a regular basis. The small, unassuming
Cafe t' Wiel (The Wheel Cafe) has become a 
lunchtime favorite. Friendly staff and the best
soups! Sadly, they are closing their doors for good
at the end of June

Dinners out have included meeting new friends

Sunday the 21st was a beautiful day, so we decided to put our new bikes through their paces and see how a 40-km roundtrip worked for us. We headed south to Sittard, a town first mentioned in the mid-10th century, but suspected to have been founded a few centuries earlier. Sittard is situated on the German border, and like Roermond, was occupied by the Germans in WWII. However, unlike Roermond, it was largely spared destruction. It has a small historic city center with a number of impressive old churches, an attractive market square (Markt), and a few half-timbered houses. Probably because it was a Sunday, the tourist office was closed--as were most of the shops--so we gave up on the idea of trying to do any kind of historic walking tour and settled for oblivious meandering, simply to try to get a feel for the town.

We passed this WWII Dutch casemate (think "bunker") on 
our way to Sittard

Sittard skyline

St. Peter's Church (14th C and later)

Stopping for refreshment in one of the cafes that
lined the market square

The Sittard Markt had many cafes and restaurants around its
perimeter and people were out enjoying the day

The electric assist made the 40 kilometer
 distance easy.

Here's hoping that the next report will include the news that most tasks are done. 

Finally . . . Progress!

Pick your cliché: It's "darkest before the dawn", but "hope springs eternal" and it's now either "the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end" in our quest to complete some maintenance and improvement projects on C.A.R.I.B. III. Since the last posting there has been progress--the exterior painting is about 90% done; electrical work is maybe 75-80% there, and most significantly, the interior refit has started.

The photo below shows what the boat salon has been like since we purchased her in 2018.

There is lots to like about what we had--lightness and brightness, spaciousness, beautiful wood floors, decent cabinetry. It was only as we began to live aboard and cruise for months at a time that the many downsides of the existing layout became evident--no efficient work triangle in the galley; very little countertop space for food prep; a table that always got in the way of the floor access hatch to the engine room; ceramic tile countertop grout that could not be cleaned and seemed to trap every bread crumb that came into contact with it; a futon that could not function to pull the living space together into a cozy whole. So, our inspection-exterior paint-electrical and mechanical repairs project became larger with the addition of a salon/galley refit.

What we want to do: Make the galley U-shaped; remove the table
and install new countertops with a breakfast bar; remove the futon and 
add a built-in L-shaped couch 

 Last Wednesday the "fun" finally began.

Cabinetry has been torn out, countertops and ceramic tile
are gone. Existing cabinetry will be maintained where possible.

A slimmer radiator will have to be installed to 
accommodate a new built-in couch

Poor Frank. Not quite the "luxury" cruise he had no doubt been hoping for when he booked his trip, but he was a good sport about the mess and disruption.

We escaped the mess when possible, but work seems to move along faster when we're here, and we wanted to be available for questions, so our outings were kept relatively short. Nevertheless, we took Frank to a couple of places that we enjoyed when we were in Maasbracht last fall--the white town of Thorn and the city of Maastricht (both described in more detail in blog postings from September 2021).

Frank and Lon walk a quiet path
in Thorn

A streetscape in Thorn. Much quieter on a weekday
than it was on the Sunday we visited in September 2021

In Maastricht we just meandered through the old part of town and stopped for a leisurely lunch. What was fascinating to discover on this visit, however, were some amazing churches that were no longer being used as churches, but had been repurposed in interesting ways.

Example 1 is the former 15th century monastery (Kruisherenklooster) and its associated Gothic church, which is now a 5-star hotel called the Kruisherenhotel. The building complex is one of the few fully preserved monasteries in the Netherlands. The monastic order of crusaders (crosiers) in Maastricht was founded in 1438, and the monastery buildings and the church were constructed during the remainder of the 1400's and into the 1500's. The fortunes of the monastic order and its buildings waxed and waned (mostly waned) throughout the subsequent centuries. The physical location on the then-fringes of Maastricht subjected the buildings to damage during numerous sieges of Maastricht over the years. The post-Revolutionary French occupied Maastricht in the late 1700's and, continuing with the same anti-religious fervor that was affecting many churches in France, decreed in 1796 that the monastic order must be dissolved. The buildings were subsequently given over to military purposes, and served as an ammunition warehouse and barracks, among other things. During one period in the 20th century the buildings housed an agricultural research station. After temporary service as a parish church in the late 1980's while the Basilica of Sint Servatius was undergoing restoration, the building complex was sold by the city of Maastricht to the hotel development group that created the hotel that exists today.

The 60 hotel rooms are in the monastery portion of the complex
(one wing seen at left) 

An interesting copper-lined entry to the church, which now
houses the reception area and hotel restaurant

Example 2 is another former monastic church, the Dominicanenkerk. This church was consecrated in the late 13th century as monastery church for the order of preachers, the Dominicans. Like "Example 1", the order escaped dissolution in the Protestant Reformation only to be dissolved by the French. The church was briefly a parish church, then served in a variety of roles over the years, from city warehouse to school to exhibition hall to concert hall to bicycle shed. After archeological investigations in 2005 and 2006, the church was transformed into a bookstore. Fun fact: In July 2015, CNN put the bookstore in seventh place on the list of the eighteen "coolest bookshops." I have to agree--it was interesting and beautiful and definitely "cool".

Overview on lower floor

Vanity of vanities: you die thinking your tomb
is in a place of honor, but now the stone is 
under the feet of people browsing leaflets

The bookstore's cafe is where the altar
would have originally sat

And after all of that, Frank was successful in locating "nettle" cheese at the outdoor market in Maastricht. That alone made the outing worthwhile!

Frank left us to our mess on May 13. We were busy that day with workers on the boat, but used a beautiful and warm weekend for some R&R. On Saturday we retrieved a new purchase we'd made earlier in the week, and that we'd been thinking about since our cruise last summer-foldable e-bikes. We'd found that regular bikes were too large to stow aboard easily, and depending solely upon our own "pedal power" placed too many limits both on our range and our ability to traverse the hillier terrain we'd encountered along the Meuse/Maas. The bikes are rather heavy, but they will work well for us. We put them through their paces during a trip to nearby Roermond on a summery Sunday.

Using my new e-bike on our Sunday trip
to Roermond. The tires are small, but
the gearing makes it pedal like a full-size bike.
And the electric assist makes travel a breeze!

Sunday seems to be garage sale day. We saw lots of them in the residential
 areas we biked through on our way to Roermond

Our route took us by the National Remembrance Park Roermond. It contains the National East Indies monument 1945-1962, which commemorates more than 6200 Dutch servicemen who died in either the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) or New Guinea. The park also has a monument to civilians who died during that same period, and the National Monument to Peacekeeping Operations, which recognizes Dutch servicemen who died in missions since the start of the Korean War.

The Dutch East Indies Memorial. The metal columns bear the 
names of the servicemen who died

Part of the peacekeeping monument; names of the dead are
inscribed on tablets 

Roermond was an historically important commercial and religious center for which town rights were granted in the 13th century. It's geographical location means that it has changed hands numerous times throughout the years. Most recently it was occupied by Germany from 1940-1945, and by the time it was liberated, 90% of all buildings were either damaged or destroyed. In 1992, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred in the vicinity of Roermond, causing damage to many older historical buildings in the Netherlands and adjacent Germany and Belgium. We are happy to say that on this beautiful day we could not sense any earthquakes.

In the restored St. Christoffel Cathedral (dating from 1410),
Lon does his best to make me look angelic 

Sightseeing is thirsty work. We took advantage of one of
the many cafes around the Munsterplein (the square adjacent
to the Munsterkerk). A talented brass group was playing
music in the nearby bandstand

The center city has this small area of covered shopping in
addition to its vibrant street-level shopping. Across
the river is a large outlet mall (which we did not visit)

The Markt, or market square. The tower of St. Christoffel Cathedral
is visible

The Munsterkerk, a 13th century church
that belonged to a Cistercian Abbey of that period.
It is now part of the Dutch Reformed Church

These days, Roermond is a lively center for water activities due to the numerous lakes in its vicinity. Boats and bikes and beachgoers were out in force on the summer-like Sunday. Tomorrow it's back to more boat-centered activity--and hopefully more measurable progress on the "to do" list.

Finally, two updates: 1) Lon is now 4 weeks into his recovery from his shoulder injury. He's doing pretty well, but still has occasional pain and his range-of-motion and strength still needs improvement. So, he still needs to be careful and we both need to remain patient while he continues to heal; and 2) I have found that our French bank card--which has "tap" capability--works in some Dutch stores and machines that our American Visa credit card does not. So--yay!!--one headache at least partially solved.

Cousinly Camaraderie

Over the past week or so we've had the pleasure of playing tour guide and host to Frank Cedar of Ottawa, Canada. Frank is a second cousin of Lon's and is the genealogist extraordinaire for the Wojtowicz side of the family. The research he's undertaken has resulted in the discovery of many, many first and second cousins--and friendships with unrelated Wojtowicz's like Wanda in Jaroslaw--in eastern Poland and western Ukraine. In 2016 we traveled to those areas with Frank and he introduced us to many of those wonderful people. In 2019 Frank had hoped to join us on C.A.R.I.B. III as we were cruising the Rhon au Rhin Canal in eastern France, but had to cancel his trip at the last minute. We'd hoped to be able to cruise with him in the Netherlands this year, but the delays we're experiencing with our boat projects have taken cruising out of the equation. Frank has traveled widely, but had never made it to the Netherlands, so as his plane ticket to the Netherlands was booked, we thought to spend some time playing tour guide for him.

After our "Amble in Amsterdam" on the day of Frank's arrival, we spent the next few days based in the city of Haarlem, which is less than 20 miles west of Amsterdam. 

We had only a brief opportunity to visit with our Haarlem friends
before they left on their holiday and left us in charge of their home.
Here Lon visits with Joost, Rosa, and Suze.

We were also left in charge of their elderly cat James. He was 
quite a talker, but we couldn't always be sure what he wanted. 
Must have been the Dutch accent . . . 

Haarlem is in the center of the Netherlands' flower growing district. It has a vibrant central city, laid out in a maze of cobblestoned streets and medieval architecture, but is much smaller and more laid back than Amsterdam. We've been to Haarlem several times over the years and never seem to tire of it. 

We spent a couple of hours Tuesday morning (5/3) at the 
Teylers Museum, an art, natural history, and science museum
established in 1778 after a bequest by Pieter Teyler. It was the first
museum in the Netherlands.

These green alleyways are quintessential
Haarlem

Lon and Frank stopped to talk to a resident who was
grooming her appreciative cat outside her home

Frank took several hours one day to pay a visit to the Keukenhof Gardens, one of the world's largest flower gardens. It is typically open from late March to mid-May and contains amazing beds of flowers from the spring-flowering bulbs for which the Netherlands is so famous. It's located near the small town of Lisse, which is just a little to the south of Haarlem. Lon and I had visited Keukenhof a couple of decades earlier, so we gave it a pass this year and spent our day strolling in Haarlem.

A commercial barge making the turn to pass through one of
the many moveable bridges in Haarlem. The windmill in the 
background is the Molen de Adriaan, a 2002 rebuild of a 1779
windmill that burned down in 1932.

Bicycles are everywhere, and they needed to be 
adapted to carry a family's small children

We were in Haarlem for an important Dutch holiday on May 5, Bevrijdingsdag, or Liberation Day. It celebrates the day the Germans surrendered to the Canadian army in the Netherlands. Although it's a national holiday that's celebrated annually, it's a public holiday (meaning everyone gets the day off) only every five years. The annual celebrations in the larger towns typically take the form of free music festivals. The day before, May 4, is Remembrance Day, when wreathes are laid at memorials to commemorate the dead, and the entire country observes 2 minutes of silence at 8 p.m. (We were in a bar/restaurant that evening. The proprietors turned on the television coverage of the ceremonies in Amsterdam, stopped all service at 8 p.m., and the restaurant went quiet; it was quite moving.) 

Flags displayed on homes was a common sight

Haarlem was one of 14 celebration sites in the country on May 5 and held its music festival in a city park just a couple of blocks from where we were staying. After two years where the festivals were cancelled due to Covid, the Dutch were more than ready to get out and celebrate.

The crowd streams toward the park in Haarlem

Lunch by the canal to build our strength before we investigate
the festival

The memorial and historical side of Liberation Day

This was the portion of the park set aside for children's activities. Although crowded, it was
much more sedate than the areas around the music stages in the other area of the park

On Friday, May 6, we boarded a train and headed north toward the town of Heerhugowaart, where we were going to stay for 2 nights in the home of Ebe and Carla De Jong, the parents of our Haarlem friend Yolanda and guests of ours--twice--on C.A.R.I.B. III. On the way, however, we stopped for a few hours in the town of Alkmaar, which is essentially adjacent to Heerhugowaart. The first mentions of Alkmaar are in the 10th century. Its claim to fame nowadays is as the "cheese city." Cheeses have been weighed in Alkmaar since the mid-1300's, and a cheese market first took place in 1622. What draws the tourists in droves on Fridays is the re-creation of the cheese markets. Yes, it was a little nuts with all the people in the center of town, but when one could get away and wander the old streets, it was possible to see what an attractive city it is.

"Say Cheese Say Alkmaar" With these sidewalk
inserts one is directed to the sites on the
 Alkmaar walking tour

Fun Fact: Apologies to residents of Wisconsin, but the people of Alkmaar appear to have been the original "cheese heads." During a Spanish siege of the city in the 1570's, the people of Alkmaar wore "helmets" on their heads as they defended themselves on the city ramparts. The "helmets" were the cheese molds in which cheeses were pressed, hence the citizens were called cheese heads.

Volunteers re-enacting the job of members of the cheese carrier guild. The
color of the hat identified the warehousing company that employed the carrier

Ah, tourism. The crowd was not unexpected, but we didn't hang
around the demonstration for very long

The weighing house, which dates back to around
1390, and was originally a guesthouse that
welcomed poor travelers and sick people

An Alkmaar park. If it's spring, there must be tulips

We had a wonderful time visiting with Carla and Ebe.

Carla and Frank chatting on the back patio

The weather cooperated wonderfully as well, so on Saturday we were able to take a short train ride to the town of Hoorn, a thriving port during the Dutch Golden Age of the late 1500's to late 1600's and a headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. These days Hoorn is still a port, but basically for pleasure boating and tourism, and the water that it abuts is now enclosed and called the Ijsselmeer.

An old sailing boat in Hoorn's harbor

Hoorn's harbor, a defensive tower from 1532 is seen left-center

Lunchtime on a restaurant barge/patio on a Hoorn canal

The restaurant labelled the doors to the toilets
in this way. Everyone needs to decide for themselves
which is the ladies room and which is the gents.

On May 8 Frank returned with us to Maasbracht so that, even if cruising was out of the question, he could have a bit of a liveaboard experience. We were disappointed to find that work on the boat had not progressed much when we were gone. Over these next days we will mix sightseeing with Frank with efforts to move boat projects along.