Witching hour

Sorry to go on about the weather, but it really was very cold and wet when we set off this morning, although it did clear up later in the day.  After the first bridge, we had to go through a rare lock to get to the Hollandsche Ijssel river, where we are now. Naturally it rained in the lock, but we were able to use our favourite grappling hook to hang on, holding the rope from inside the wheel-house.

Oddities along the river included a Venetian gondola, which we passed too quickly to photograph well:

Some of the lifting bridges collect a fee, by dangling a mini clog on the end of a fishing pole as you pass through:

The rate was 4.50 Euro, which seemed quite steep, but on the other hand almost everything here in Holland has been completely free, so we shouldn’t grumble.

We stopped in late morning at the little town of Oudewater, which is mainly famous as being the place where women accused of being witches, or who wanted to avoid such accusation, could get themselves weighed and certified as being of normal weight for their build. The point being that it was believed that witches had to be unnaturally light to fly around on broomsticks, and Oudewater was rare in having the reputation for honest weighing.

We walked into town and located the little museum, where the original scales are to be found: you can get yourself weighed and certified even today!

And upstairs, where there was quite a harrowing audio-visual, there was also a photo of the late Queen Juliana on the scales:

Once again we bought fried fish at a mobile stall in the square, and carried it back to the boat for an early lunch. Very delicious it was too. After that we headed on, towards the next town, Montfoort, which is where we are now moored up for the night, having done a biggish shop at a convenient supermarket close by, and also visited a wine shop. Along the river there was more evidence of storm damage, including this fallen tree.

And to conclude, more pix of Saskia. The galley - note the Nespresso machine, though unfortunately it only works when we are plugged into shore power. Also the washing machine and fridge.:

And the larder (newly replenished):