Sunday 14th June 2015 –
Nieuwe Meer – Day 12
In
‘Kempers’, Princesspaviljeon, two year old marina, sorted out a few jobs which
needed attention. Repaired chart table,
which had parted company with one of the hinges; water leak in engine
compartment, traced to engine cooling water pump seals.
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| Princesspaviljeon Marina |
A walk into
Leimuiden, for the lunch time opening of the supermarket, re-stocked stores.
The marina
facilities, best so far, immaculate, with the novelty of standing in front of
the urinal, on the top of it, a screen would come to life, showing a video of
posh yachts sailing by.
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| Jack's next project |
Next to the
main buildings in the marina were lots of motor cruisers up for sale.
We
strolled around looking like potential buyers, unfortunately, they were out of
our price bracket, but we can only dream.
At 15.00 we
left the marina, it was still overcast and the wind increasing as we crossed
the Westeinderplassen (lake) and heading for the Ringvaart (canal) after
passing through the reed beds at Wilde Gat.
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| Beautiful Location |
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| Pretty Church |
On through
the town of Aalsmeer, with its beautiful buildings and residencies, picture
book along the canal.
Tributaries’
running from it, with every kind of boat parked up against the houses or the
gardens.
Jack was on a mission, to try
and find a garden which was not in an immaculate condition.
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| Aalsmaeer Der Brug |
At 16.30, we
were through our first bridge, the Aaalsmeer Der Brug
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| Schipol Airport |
Twenty
minutes later, we were passing the infamous Schipol airport, this vast area is built
on reclaimed land.
From the picture you
may notice, the control tower and landing lights, ‘Selene’ is passing-by on the
canal, which is above the runways.
In
fact, the runways are 6 metres below sea level, if the dykes were breached, a
jumbo jet would be underwater, with just the tail section visible.
At 17.15,
through the Bosrandbrug, it is at this end of the airport, where you are
passing the vast maintenance area, with the enormous hangers and main offices
of the various airlines.
At 17.30, we
were on yet another lay-by, alongside the Dutch yacht ‘Windocs’, the marvellous
couple, gave us wonderful information on the next sections of the canal, lake
and bridge openings for the night convoy into Amsterdam.
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| A9 Highway double Bridge |
At 18.30, we
were off again passing through the next bridge complex, which consisted of a
swing and double on which the A9 highway ran, we had come across this A9
highway on our way to Haarlem.
Once clear,
it is a clear run up to the Niuwe Meer (lake) in which, I was surprised to see
in parts, a depth of 20 metres.
At
19.15, we were alongside a waiting quay, for the rest of the evening.
Ashore by
20.00 and a walk along underneath the next bridges, lock and part of the canal
which was to be our next challenge. We
arrived in Slotervaart an area of south Amsterdam, it was very quiet, on this
Sunday evening, but we found a restaurant open called ‘Tastoe’.
Here, we had a very
nice meal of French onion soup, gambas and chips. We ate while watching the trams go trundling
by, and told the journey would take 15 minutes to Amsterdam Central Station, it
would take us a lot longer.
On the way
back, we confirmed with the lock keeper the time for the night convoy, on board
for 23.00, after a busy day, it was going to get a wee bit more exciting.
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