Clara-Mae and Ruud arrived mid-morning off the night ferry crossing to the Hook of Holland. After greetings and refreshments, we decided to set off for a little excursion down the Maas to the neighbouring fortified town of Heusden. First under the artistic railway bridge:
There was a bit of a delay at the lock that lets you down to the river, so we decided to tie up immediately afterwards for a spot of lunch:
Ruud piloted us downstream to Heusden, which was certainly attractive at first sight, and subsequently. This is the entrance to the inner harbour:
Up some steps and out onto the main square, with plenty of cafes and bars and plenty of people enjoying them, despite the somewhat doubtful weather: there were a few lights showers in the afternoon.
The harbour was a delight, with Saskia tucked into a corner in the foreground and the windmill slowly turning:
Here's another view, looking back towards the town:
Visit concluded, we set off back to Den Bosch, with a minor detour to top up the fuel tank, which was by now below half. The name of the filling station was curiously appropriate:
We had hoped to stay the night on the harbour-master's private dock, since he had closed his office for the night, but he appeared to chase us away, and kindly British neighbours invited us to raft up to them, which we did.
On our way into town for supper together, we were delighted to find a boat named after the raspberry character whose statue we had seen in Tiel a few days ago. Ruud remembered Flipje as a cartoon character from his childhood in the Netherlands. Good to see the ghostly reflection of the photographer, too:
We found a reasonable place to eat after some false starts: not too bad, though the service was rather slow.
Tomorrow we will set off south, with Antwerp as our next major goal. Lots of people have told us good things about it.
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