Day 8: Bolsward to Sneek

Day 8: Bolsward to Sneek (pronounced Snake or Shnake)

            We awoke to no wind and crystal blue sky with white puffy clouds.  A glorious day, finally.  After breakfast, we walked into town to see the town hall.  We ran into hundreds of walkers and found out that it was some religious holiday which meant that EVERYTHING was closed in Friesland.  I guess we will have to suffice with seeing the outside of the building.

            This did mean that I now had to figure out how to get out of our docking spot.  I had visions of turning and wedging the boat in the canal.  I finally decided to back out of the canal  (about 200yds).  Although a bit nervous, I think I did very well using the bow thrusters and going real slowly.  It helped that most of the boats that were behind us had already left, giving me a bit more leeway.  We finally got into an open area allowing me to rotate the boat and get going in a forward direction.  The trip to Sneek was perfect , with much warmer temps and minimal winds.  Everyone was up on deck for the first time during the trip.  We even had to shed some of our clothing.

            Along the way we saw windmills, beautiful small towns, several shells 2's, 3's, and 8's,  and lots of bridges which we negotiated perfectly.

 Finally, we came to the Waterpoort, or the Water Gate, the entrance to Sneek.  The gate is part of the defensive wall We found an easy spot in front of the Water Gate with shore power (again, heat tonight!).  We started walking around the town, and initially found the place deserted.  We were concerned that nothing would be opened for dinner.  Eventually we made a turn and found the town center with hordes of people sitting and eating at outdoor cafes.  I guess we won't starve tonight.

            As we were walking around, we noted huge black billowing clouds of smoke in the distance, and then heard fire engine after fire engine.  Our first thoughts were that someone left the gas on on the boat and our vessel was in flames.  We began to walk toward the fire and were relieved to find that our boat was no where near the blaze.  The fire brought out the other 33,000 inhabitants of Sneek, and they seemed  then to stay out.  The town became quite crowded.  We eventually walked back to the boat and Dave and I took the bikes out to see how far the train station was  (Molly and Dave had to get there tomorrow) then for an explore of the town. There were some gorgeous boats along the canals, all wooden sailboats, large high end barges.  We also found an Italian restaurant for dinner that Yelp rated very highly. Unfortunately, when the 6 of us got there later in the evening, we were told it was a 90 minute wait without reservations.  This holiday, the Feast of the Ascension,  was really getting annoying.  We were directed to de Walrus by the hostess at the Italian restaurant.  This turned out to be quite good, though a bit noisy. 

          

         

We returned to our boat just at dusk. The reflections of the Waterpoort on the canal were unbelievable, so I ran ahead, grabbed my camera and tripod, and set up for some nice shots of the tower.