Day 9: Back to Woudsend

Day 9:Back to Woudsend

We awoke to the finest morning yet, bright blue skies, warm temps, and NO wind.  Sadly, we had to say adieu to 1/3 of our crew.  Molly and Dave left  right after breakfast to catch a train from Sneek back to Amsterdam.  Nice to be able to walk to the train staiton. 

            The stalwart remaining foursome fired up the engine and began our trip back to Woudsend, the Le Boat base. the weather was perfect for travelling by barge on the canals.  We did had only one minor blood pressure elevating time when we had to idle for an eternity waiting for a bridge to open.  The canal was very narrow here and there were large work boats docked on either side.  I was sure we were going to smack into something.  Finally the bridge opened, Marty caught the wooden shoe and deposited a euro, and we were again on our way.  Our friend, Milt, would have loved this part of the trip.  There were loads of waterfowl that we could see and more that we could hear, even over the engine noises.  As we approached Woudsend, we ran into (not literally) loads of sailboats heading out to the Heegemeer, the large lake we crossed at the start of our jouney.  At times, it appeared that the sailboats were sailing on land, an optical illusion due to the narrow crisscrossing canals and the flatness of the terrain.

                                                                Coming into Woudsend from the north was very picturesque with 2 windmills, the clock tower, tons of sailboats, and the drawbridge.










When we reached the base, I was thrilled to have plenty of room to dock.  I had visions of having to back the boat into a tight docking spot and spoiling a great day.  But, since most of their boats were out, we looked like pros.  Jeri stood in for Dave perfectly, Marty continued his excellent deck hand maneuvers, and Toby didn't fall overboard, so all in all, pretty all right.

            It was still pretty early, so we decided to take our bikes into town and explore.  As we passed the flour windmill, we noted its door open, and an open sign on it (thank goodness for the Dutch copying our language).  We parked our bikes and went inside.  The miller and his apprentice were inside grinding wheat and we were able to climb up into the windmill and watch the process.  Don't tell Dave and Molly, but we all thought this may have been the highlight of the trip!

After a thousand (not figuratively) pictures, we climbed back down and went next door to a small bake shop run by the miller's wife.  We thought about bringing home a few sacks of flour for Brendan, but the 50kg bags were too big for a baggage.  

We bought some cookies instead. Back on the bikes, we explored the town, winding in an out of small streets dead-ended in canals.  We then found a major bike path that went on forever.  We could have ridden back to Sneek  easily. Jeri was even considering a cycling vacation here.  The weather started to turn at this point, and it looked like we would be in for some rain, so we decided to head back to town.  In the town center along the major canal we found the other windmill used for sawing wood.

Nearby, there were loads of small sailboats docked.  I found out that this was a sailing school in the summer and boats for hire in fall and spring.  All the boats had a long wooden pole (about 10-12 ft long) lashed to one of the stays.  It had a knob on one end and what looked like the end of a shuffleboard stick at the other.  I confirmed my conjecture that this was a Dutch motor with a kid that was working on the boats.  The canals are so shallow that the pole is used when the wind is not on your side.

          




We started back to the boat just as the first rain drops fell, and were quite damp by the time we returned.  We spent the rest of the time until dinner, checking out with the base manager (no glitches), packing and straightening up the boat, and drinking and eating our remaining wine, cheese and crackers.  We walked back into town for dinner, and fortunately, the rain held off.










We decided to have our last dinner in Friesland at 't Ponkje, which translated from Friesian means the offertory bag (like a collection plate).  The restaurant is in a tiny old church from the 1600's.  It was converted to a restaurant about 50 years ago.  Much of the original appointments were maintained as part of the restaurant like the choir stall is now the bar, and the organ loft, additional seating in a balcony.  The food and service were great, and we tried some Friesian delicacies liked smoke eel (yes, even Marty had it and liked it!).  In all of Friesland, at dinner, there are three dishes  served family style with the main course, a potato, a salad of shredded cabbage like coleslaw, and a vegetable, here we had chicory dish that was delicious.  They had pretty hand painted plates with scenes of Woudsend on them sitting on the table and Marty couldn't resist a purchase.  We were tempted, but were holding out for a possible piece of Delft pottery, and thought we would have too much additional weight.

            The walk back was dry and the temps were pleasant, and it was nice to walk off some of the dinner.  The final night's scrabble game started very well for the Cohens, but after a 60 point deficit, the Kurtzs took off the gloves and came back with yet another win in their column. We celebrated by finishing our strawberries and whipped cream with a kind of strawberry shortcake made from the cookies we bought from the miller, the liqueur we bought in Sneek, and the strwaberries and whipped cream.  The game took longer than anticipated and we didn't get to sleep until midnight.