Only in Holland (or perhaps Oregon soon)

Ethan caught up with this delivery van yesterday morning on his way to buy croissants:

No indication of whether the baker was incorporating any of these products in the bread. Certainly no untoward behaviour by members of the party was noted.

Today was a dramatic contrast to yesterday, when there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Today there was hardly a sky but for cloud: fifty shades of grey, Diana decided:

But we ploughed on through rain and storm, figuring that the Dutch are fair-weather sailors. For the first two, very wet, hours, we were alone on the river, then as the day improved towards lunchtime, a few more boats appeared. Ethan took a nice pic of Saskia approaching a mooring, crew at the ready:

We skirted the town of Alphen where a terrible accident happened yesterday: two large cranes hoisting a section  of a new lifting bridge into position - a bridge we went under a few days ago - collapsed and crashed into a row of houses. Dozens injured. The BBC has the story.

We passed a container port, and while we were having lunch, a container barge passed us. We followed him downstream, and admired his technique for ducking under bridges with his hydraulic wheelhouse – lowered and then raised again:

We passed vast numbers of glass houses along the way, and read that there are something like 25 square miles of glasshouses in Holland, and that they are exporting their new, low-energy, sustainable glasshouse technology all over the world. 

Once docked in Gouda, we set off to see the sights: Leslie was reminded of Mutt and Jeff:

But she and Ethan took in the stained glass, while Diana and I visited the more mundane surroundings of the supermarket, all getting together again at a suitable bar outside the cheese museum. Apparently it used to be the oldest hotel in Holland – now just a restaurant.

And on our way back to the boat we finally caught the carillon, with the little puppet figures emerging to the sound of the bells.