Second time around

Where do we end up, but back in "Volendam" It is a beautiful day and everyone is out to visit this touristic village.
However we are assigned a place on the outside dock in the harbor. We overlook the "Markermeer" and are spared the hectic overcrowded inner harbor.

Departing Zwartsluis

We leave "Zwartsluis" but not until we have visited "Noah's Ark" the brain child of Johan Hubers from "Broek op lange dijk" in Holland. It took 16 months to build the 70 meter long x 9.5 meter wide, x 13 meter high structure. This because this is the max. size that can sail in Holland waters. However the real size is considered 14 times larger according to Hubers. He is working on a new "ark" of this size in Dortrecht. Our trip will take us through Dortrecht, so we will keep our eyes peeled, and blog it when we see it.


We traveled through the "ijsselmeer" and the "Markumermeer" further west to meet up with the "staande Mast" route the ("Mast up") route which goes from north to south through Holland. As it is a nice week-end day we encounter lots of sail boats.

The view from our window

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We are docked just along side of a canal about one KM out of town. Very quiet and very peaceful.
Even though we are in a very quiet spot we have WIFI connection right on the boat, and Mother is CHATTING with daughter!!!
Modern technology!!!!!!

Stork

Judging by the many stork's we see everywhere, we think there will be a population explosion in Holland!!!

Orchids

Today we biked aprox. 25 km to a very large orchid farm (greenhouses) in Luttelgeest.
I never knew there were 35000 different kinds of Orchid's species. this place had 2000 of them. Besides orchids they had every kind of tropical plants imaginable, like this gorgeous "bird of paradise"

Kalenberg

Just a pretty picture along the waterway in "Kalenberg"

One more "riet" story

This is how the "riet" bundles are transported to the ware house where it is resorted and re-bundled. It is sorted by tall, and shorter reeds. The installers need shorter reeds as they near the top of the roof, that is why it is sorted by taller, and shorter reeds. also it is bundled in bundles of aprox. 35 cm diameter so it is easier to handle. The bundles have to be tossed up on the roof so they can not be to big (heavy)
We learned all about this on one of our biking tours around the area and saw a reed farmer busy in the field. We were told that the product grows naturally. They don't have to seed,fertilize or do anything else to it. It is harvested each year. It grows on a bog which floats on top of the water. This bog gets thicker each year. When it gets to thick the reed quality becomes less, and after several years they have to bring in backho, and slice some of this bog off.
Very interesting indeed!