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| Utrecht. A youth outside a coffee shop - looks like he celebrated the Queen's birthday in style! |
Overcast, hazy sunshine later. 12.2° C. The bridges didn’t
open until 9.00.a.m. so we started off at 9.00 a.m. and found that some
hireboats did the same, one set off from the far side of the Oranjebrug as the
bridge behind us, Zuiderbrug, opened to let another one through. Suddenly we
had a convoy of four boats! It was Koningennedag, a holiday for the Queen’s
birthday. There was rubbish everywhere in the city centre - the celebrating
must have started the previous night from the looks of it!
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| Rosy negotiating the bends in Utrecht |
Empty plastic beer
glasses littered the quays in front of lots of cafés and restaurants. Bags of
rubbish floated by in the canal. I got the cameras out. Rosy went first. The
Dom (cathedral) was playing a carillon (a lovely tune on the bells) as we went
past. We hovered in the middle of the basin above Weerdsluis. The keeper had
just lifted the manually operated paddles to fill the big lock. We were
surrounded by tourists as there was a flea market all along the banks at the
junction with the Stadtsbuiten Gracht and both sides of the lock chamber.
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| Decorations and rubbish - Utrecht |
We
went into the chamber first, followed by Rosy then the two hireboats. The
keeper’s assistant came and collected 2,85€ each, sluisgeld, (lock fees). The
liftbridges over the Vecht below the lock were all high enough for us to get
underneath, but the keeper had to open them for the two hireboats behind us.
One keeper came to check we were OK to get under the lowest bridge - it was OK
just! Past the floating wooden sheds - the red light district of Utrecht! They
now extended both sides of the road bridge and there were lots more houseboats
than we remembered from the last time we were here.
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| Guess where the peepee from that toilet goes?? |
The backs of the sheds
which face onto the canal have no windows, apparently the scantily clad “ladies”
sit waiting for “business” in the windows that face on to the road. Just before
the road bridge, bearing the name J.M. de Muinck Keizerbrug, between the
houseboats we passed a large boat on an end on slip and an expert with torch
and hammer who gave us a cheery wave as we passed. Camera out again as we
passed the windmills at Oude Zuilen which had been specially decorated for the
holiday and were both turning merrily in the brisk breeze. At Maarsenbroek
water intakes were the only remains of a large factory which had been
completely demolished. The canal was busy in Maarsen. The first bridge fooled
us, it looked like a swing bridge but was in fact an hydraulic lift bridge with
no counterbalance. It was worked automatically from a cabin alongside. Round
the bend to the second bridge, which was an old style liftbridge and there were
people everywhere, a constant stream of them walking across the bridge. The
keeper arrived and eventually stopped the crowd as he lowered the barriers. A
large cruiser was sitting with his bows under the road deck.
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| Being followed by hireboats |
The keeper let
traffic through from that side first and a whole string of cruisers followed
him, while we were hovering alongside a row of moored day boats and more
hireboats. The light changed to green for us to go, but two more dayboats came
through side-by-side, festooned with orange balloons. I have the video to prove
it! Had lunch on the way into Breuklen.
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| Weerdsluis Utrecht with cathedral in background |
There were several large cruisers and
some small day boats moored between them, leaving some short gaps but none big
enough for us until the skipper off a large cruiser, called Sailor, came and
sorted them out so that we could get into the bank (which was extremely kind of
him) and Rosy came alongside us. As soon as we’d got our ropes sorted out, a
day boat which had reluctantly backed up for us to get in, untied and went off
downriver! We moved the boat back down the quay into the space he’d just
vacated to give the boats in front more room. I helped Mike to unload the moped
off the roof, which was starting to get hot in the sunshine, and he went off to
collect the car from in front of the flats in Utrecht.
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| Utrecht's floating red light district |
He came back past the
red light houseboats, which he said were very fancy from the front nothing like
the rough unpainted side that faces passing boats. There was plenty of space on
the car park when he got back with the car.
Hooray, at last, photos from the day!!
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