Castles in Holland

We woke at the usual time, to blessed silence from the barge across the harbour inhabited by high-spirited teenagers on some kind of summer camp. They were quite shrill last night, especially showing off when a drone came over:

Rather spooky actually. Is this the future? Or maybe they were interested in our plutocratic neighbour:

Anyway, off we set to explore the town, which is quite small. Several cafés, many clothes shops, a few food shops. We appreciated this lady taking her family to wherever:

Then it was time to head for the castle, which opens at 11 – like so many things in the Netherlands. We had to wait for several yachts to pass through the lifting bridge to get out of the harbour – the other side of the coin:

The castle, originally built in the 14^th century, but subsequently destroyed and rebuilt in the 16^th, is quite impressive, situated at the mouth of the harbour:

While we were waiting for it to open we saw the summer camp kids labouring to raise the mizzen on their barge – they eventually managed it, hangovers presumably cast aside:

The castle was fun, though not massively exciting. A high point, bizarrely, was an exhibition of lingerie – ladies’ undergarments – from the middle ages to the present day:

That was certainly original. I cannot think of seeing anything like it. This poor fellow in the gaol cell was obviously overcome by the excitement:

So we returned to the boat and headed back up the canals – the locks to get out of the harbour worked very smoothly in our favour. We lunched on the way, finding a mooring with a flat quayside for us to set up table and chairs in the sun (yes sun, they do sometimes have it in Holland). Then we tackled the low bridge, and it had another go at the masthead light, which now looks distinctly sad and battered. But now we are moored up on a grassy bank at Kolhorn, deck chairs out and enjoying yet more sunshine.

Tomorrow should be Alkmaar and the cheese fair on Friday.