Northern Holland

No Smoking- a sign to respect!
When we entered the port of Medemblik from the Ijsselmeer, we were returning to North Holland, last visited much earlier in our trip when we visited Amsterdam. Growing up, We had always thought this whole country was called "Holland". In fact a road map David bought in the mid- 80s when he was last here is called "Holland" but includes the whole of what we now know as the Netherlands. So perhaps somewhere in the last 20 years we have become a bit more precise in our terminology, becasue The Netherlands is far more than "Holland".

The old
and the new

Passing quickly through the pretty town of Medemblik we were pleased to be again, though briefly, on a system with manned locks and chatty lock- keepers. We stopped the first night in a quiet place which still wanted a fairly large amount to stop there because it was on a waterway with few stops. Then we came to a town called "Winkel", in Dutch, "shop"- but never a shop to be found, at least where we were. Next day we stopped in a holiday area full of lakes and opposite a thriving camping complex at de Woude. With the temperature over 30 degrees we decided to explore, so pumped up our inflatable kayak for the first time. It was a great success.

The next step after a very difficult day of slow bridges we ended up in Haarlem, the capital of North Holland (even though Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands also lies in this Province). When we arrived we were feeling a bit negative because of our tough and frustrating journey there through the many lifting bridges and sometimes ridiculous delays because the bridge keeper was not interested in his job, but we were rapidly converted by this most attractive city centred on the Spaarne river.

The waterfront and the area behind it has been preserved. Of particular interest was a restored 18th century windmill where a guided tour explained many of the ins and outs of windmills, including the protocol for the placement of the sails. One position was that of mourning, which had been used by windmills throughout the Netherlands the previous day, a Day of National Mourning for the victims of the recent Malaysian Airlines disaster.

The second remarkable museum was Teyler's Museum, the first in the Netherlands, endowed by a wealthy local man to promote Science and the Arts. It presents items from throughout the time it has been operating, very futuristic when first installed but now museum pieces rather than advanced scientific displays. There is also a great collection of coins and a small collection of art work on display.

 A battery of Leyden Jar cells. David learned of them at school/university but had never seen one

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Model windmill (Molen) with the sails set for JOY
You can buy all sorts of things in the Netherlands