Willemstad, on the Hollands Diepe

July 3, 2019

This is Willemstad, a neat small town with a brick clad windmill, as well as a lovely old houses. l. There was an army of large vessels on this beautiful day.   Below you will see a traditional sailing barge, not particularly large but lovingly restored. 

In the morning following our arrival we were looking for a place for our guests to try an uitsmijter, a hearty Dutch breakfast.  Nothing was open, the only sign of life being those headed for work by bike, bus or car, and a man walking his dog.  I asked him if there were any cafes open.  “Nay,” he said.  Realizing we were tourists, he explained that the town was a major naval port until the 1950’s.  This explains the octagonal shape and the bunkers.   They built the large bunkers in the middle of the 19th century, so my speculation that they were part of Hitler’s WWII defense system was wrong. 

The brick clad windmill still works, grinding wheat, I think he said. 

From Willemstad we back tracked about 5 km then headed north to Oud-Beijerland on the Spui River.  It’s narrow entrance on the Spui River is a bit of a challenge as the current is about 3 km per hour, so the boat crabs towards the entrance.  You have to straighten out at the last moment, once the river releases its grip.   It was lunch time, so we found a lovely place on the harbor.  On the menu:  mustard soup.  Sounds odd, I know, but the cream, onions, garlic and leeks make the mustard just a tangy addition.  We all loved it!  Salmon with various lettuces on dark bread, fries (the Dutch can’t have a meal without them), thin slices of smoked tuna.  Not a English menu in sight, the waitress had limited English, so the chef came to the table to help where our restaurant Dutch was inadequate. 

We were unable to stay the night to participate in the many activities, including loud music (playing reggeton, one of my least favorite), so we decided to try for Delft, the home of the famous ceramics.  This took us through Rotterdam harbor, one of the busiest in the world.  Huge ships and lots of them, so we dodged where we had to and otherwise stuck to the shore until we had to cross to go north.  Our preferred route took us further to the west than the one we ended with.  After entering the lock, the lock master told us a bridge was down along the way, so we had to back out of the lock.  Boats do not do well going backwards, but we managed.  Then we had to scoot across the waterway, head a few kilometers towards the center of Rotterdam, then make our way across yet again.  The small lock’s bridge was just tall enough for us to pass beneath, otherwise we’d have had to wait for several hours for it to open, as it was rush hour.  Once through we passed through one very low bridge, then found a nice marina on starboard side.  And there we rest.