Thursday doors.

Its Thursday again and one of my favorites days as I get to participate in Norms Thursday door challange and this week I have a blend of old doors for you from the East Indian trading company located in Hoorn, Netherlands. This is history when it is the best.Enjoy.

These are their warehouses locate din town. 1606 is the year on these buildings.

The buildings here below are the east Indian company warehouses down in the inner harbor. So many small icons, decorations and signs on the house. Notice how many small doors all over the fasade.  One is from 1606 and one house from 1618.

Regatta time

It was time for Regatta this weekend for Laser in Hoorn and it was a busy marina. As we are waiting on a spare part to arrive we have a great spot in the marina and it was so fun to see the sailors prepare and set sail out on the lake, they are really skill full I must say even though i still think it looks funny when grown up men and women are in these small boats as this was something we used to do as kid to learn how to sail. But it is fun and I understand why they do it. People from all over Europe was here to try and take the trophy. Let the best man or woman win! 🙂

 

Thursday doors

I am following a blog Georgimoon and I really like the post there and we share an interest as we are both live aboard. One of the returning posts is The Thursday doors post and I always find the extra fun to see whats this weeks door. I decided to join in and try and give you some Dutch doors so here my first one.

picture is taken in Urk, Flevoland. Its a typical Dutch doors used traditionally as  barn for animals, this has the traditionally colors these Dutch doors have, but they come in many different.

Kings Day

Today its Kings Day in the Netherlands and all over its Orange. we take it easy with the boat and its the first time we are not in Amsterdam celebrating and its no dingy weather as it is cold and windy. This is how Amsterdam looks on Kings day 🙂

Koningsdag or King’s Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom og Netherlands. Celebrated on 27 April (26 April if the 27th is a Sunday), the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander.

 

Up until 2013, when Queen Beatrix abdicated and was succeeded by her son Willem-Alexander, the holiday was known as Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day and was celebrated on 30 April.

The holiday was initially observed on 31 August 1885 as Prinsessedag or Princess’s Day, the fifth birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, heir to the Dutch throne. On her accession in November 1890 the holiday acquired the name Koninginnedag, first celebrated on 31 August 1891. In September 1948, Wilhelmina’s daughter Juliana ascended to the throne and the holiday was moved to Queen Juliana’s birthday, 30 April. The holiday was celebrated on this date from 1949.

Juliana’s daughter, Beatrix, retained the celebration on 30 April after she ascended the throne in 1980, though her birthday was on 31 January. Beatrix altered her mother’s custom of receiving a floral parade at Soestdijk Palace, in Baarn instead choosing to visit different Dutch towns each year and join in the festivities with her children.

What is going on?

Its no secret in today’s society that there are people that work on a daily basis with controlling the weather. the government in US has had HAARP for years and that’s scary stuff. I posted not long ago a post about CLOUDS and for years I have been thinking that they do not look the same as they done before. They look fake some times and just does not make sense with how it suppose to be. I cannot explain it but there is something strange going on. If you know more than I do about the weather please give me some comments so we all can learn whats going on.

Its end of April and its snowing, sunshine, hale and storms back and forward for days. A few days ago we went to our friends camping and took a stroll with the dogs and it was beautiful and okay weather when passing the horses and looking at the flowers blooming, now I have no clue what has happened?

New meetings

In the boat world you meet a lot of different people and I love that. people you never would talk to otherwise you hang around with and have the same interest, boats.

You have the stressed vacation sailor, the old couple that been out for decades, the young boys and girls with loud music and the rentals….. Yesterday was no exception when we met a German couple that were adorable. My German is crap and my understanding is so and so and their English was the same as my German, so a mix of German, English , Dutch and the body language we had a nice chat and a coffee. 🙂

After that we left the harbor and tied up outside one old classic boat called a Skutsje. Two gentlemen form the little club was very friendly and invited us in and we sat down for a while and got some history about the boat and how the life was on board 100 years ago when a family live there with as much as 10 children! these were old school bulk carrier for inland water use and especially canals ways and shallow waters. It was like a tiny cabin and one of the cutest boats I ever seen inside. There are 14 clubs that owns one each of these and every year they have a big sailing competition where they sail from town to town.

Canal ways

There are canal ways like no other where in the world in The Netherlands. We are discovering new ways every time. We are going to explore Friesland for a while now. Friesland is a province in the  north of the Netherlands with Leeuwarden as capital. It wa s a lovely summer day today and so warm and nice, the very first real summer day of the year. Jackets are off! 🙂

Gaudi of Urk

It was a different morning walk with Melvin this morning. Going through the alleys of Urk we met Geert Weerstand a local artist, a real Urker that has a gallery and a workshop in Urk where he makes art of glass on nature stone. It was beautiful and what a lovely man, he invited us with all his heart and gave us a exclusive tour of the workshop and the gallery. Geert mentioned that he was a bog fan of van Gogh and showed us  a gallery dedicated to va Gogh. Very beautiful and nothing I ever seen before. Geert is called locally ” Gaudi van Urk” Gaudi of Urk. If you ever come here make sure you take a look at the gallery, its truly an inspiration and so is Geert. Thank you Geert for your wonderful hospitality. We be back soon again. See an interview with Gaudi of Urk HERE. Its unfortunately only in Dutch and no subtitles but in the video you get to see his artwork and the beautiful Urk.

Easter sailing and a force 8

We decided to go sailing for some days when the weather allowed on Saturday. The sun was up, wind from the back and the current with us, we did 9 knots and it was great. We decided to go to Urk, a old island in the lake of Ijsselmeer and we are still here in writing moment due to a force 8. It came in yesterday and it has not stopped since, it picked up today and the boat was rocking in the marina. Everyone was up checking fenders and the ropes. We lay great as always when the husband always ties for storm. Urk is a lovely fishing village that use to be a island back in the days, now its connected o the mainland but you can feel its been a island really. The view out on Ijsselmeer is breathtaking sometimes. Its a very christian and during Easter they dress up nice and go to church, some even up to 4 times a day! So many churches around here. You still see some in traditional Urker clothing. The season has not started yet but some boats are out but Urk is dead quiet, in the summer its blooming with pubs, restaurants and ice cream stores that are open.

 

 

A look back

When looking back on 2015 I must say it was a interesting year. One thing that happened was that SAIL Amsterdam occurred, it does that every 5th years so its a little special, and not so little, thousands of boats in the canals of Amsterdam from small dingys to square riggers trying to make way through the water. It was truly madness but indeed fantastic.

From all over the world the big ships came in through the locks of Ijmuiden and sailed into Amsterdam in a convoy. For one time in my life I got the feeling that this is exactly how they used to do back in the days, trading ships from all over the world entered Amsterdam by ship and tied up to the high quays… Two Swedish ships, one of them from Stockholm stoled my heart extra as The National anthem came on and the flag rise. It was indeed beautiful and with our boat on the summer spot in Sixhaven we had front row all week.

Champagne, oysters , BBQ, friends and laughter filled that week in August with something truly unforgettable. I wanted to share some pics from SAIL Amsterdam as I get a bit powered up here this last night in Kampen as we set off for Amsterdam tomorrow. The season is about to start! It was really about time as I felt like I started to grow into the pontoon. Just called the bridges to get them opened for tomorrow as you have to order them 12 hours before this time a year. Its gonna feel good to get out there again.