Day 10 - Kaag, Island

Friday 12^th June 2015 – Kaag Island, Kagerplassen

A hot sunny day, and shorts being the rig of the day.

Marina

 

Millionaires' Row

Heemstede marina is an amazing place, beautifully kept and at the end of a millionaires row of houses, along a tributary off the main canal and off the beaten track.  

A night stop costing 8 euros, unbelievable.

Being from an engineering background my guides books told me visit the Cruquius Museum.

Cruquius Museum

Without enclosure and drainage, more than half of the area of present day Netherlands would be flooded with every high tide, every wet season, or permanently.  The struggle for the country’s survival has largely determined its appearance and left numerous marks on it.

In the triangle between the cities of Amsterdam, Haarlem and Lieden the 45,000 acres (football pitches) Haarlemmermeer polder demonstrates an extraordinary step in the scale of land drainage.

The reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer by means of steam marked a breakthrough of the industrial revolution of the Netherlands.  ‘De Cruquius’ commissioned in 1849. Pumped Lake Haarlem empty in 3 years and three months with two identical steam-pumping stations.

Entrance

The Cruquius was decommissioned in 1932, it was adopted as a museum to save it from demolition.  The museum opened in 1936, making it one of the first technical museums in the world.

Architectural Marvel

 

How it works

The Cruquius houses the world’s largest steam engine: its main cylinder has a diameter of 3.66 meters.

The engine room, unchanged since 1849, is a miracle of Victorian technology.

The principle of the machinery is based on Cornish pumping used to pump water out of deep mines.

I arrived at the museum at 10.00 and looked to be the first visitor and I was given my own personnel guide, who took me through all of the exhibits.  Although all of the boilers have been removed, some of the other machinery he was able to operate on air.

Steam Engine

When he operated the main machinery with the crosshead held up by the huge piston rod, onto the crosshead were also attached the eight levers which operated the pumps outside, I was in my element.

I was in awe of those engineers, who designed and built this enormous, functional machine which achieved everything asked of it and to see it working was great.

Theehuis Cafe

After leaving the museum, I went into the next door café situated alongside the canal and sat in the warm sunshine, drinking iced tea and reading about what I had just seen.

A twenty minute walk back to the marina, along the canal and past a very big sports complex which had twelve hockey pitches, numerous tennis courts and large indoor gymnasium, sponsored by the ABN-Ambro bank and not one football pitch to be seen.

I told the haven master my next stop was going to be the Keukenhof Gardens, famous for its tulips.

He told me it was closed at the end of season in mid-May, so change of plans and he informed, we would have to leave now, to catch the railway bridge opening at Sassenheim at 15.09.

We were back on the Ringvaart, the main canal at 13.15 heading south and passed through another four bridges, motoring above the tulip fields of Keukenhof near the town of Lisse.  There was no flower colour in the fields, so the information I had received was not a disappointment.

Spoorbrug

We were in time to see the railway Spoorbrug closing at 15.10, at Sassenheim and moved onto a lay-by berth, as the next opening was not until after the rush hour.

At the lay-by, I got my banjo out of its case for the first time this trip and had a half hour practice.

While having a cup of soup, the bridge started to open, a quick dash through at 19.50 and finished the soup at a lay –by on the other side.

Early, I had called the Fissertje marina for a berth for the night, which is situated on Kaag Island in a lake called Kagerplassen.

With my local chart and fading light, I managed to go into wrong marina, Spikerboor haven, quickly out of there and found our marina with stern mooring in our box at 21.15.

Marina restaurant

The marina restaurant ‘Benjamin’ looked after us with a meal of prawns and chips which were expensive, as was the marina fees but we were on an island.

Back on board for nightcaps of Baileys, while listening to sea shanties.  Another eventful day but the weather was changing, the wind increasing and temperature dropping.