We entered the province of Overijssel and, after having found a nice mooring-spot at Zwartsluis, we switched off our engine at 1:40PM. A long period of self-supportingcame to an end here: we could connect to shore-power and were able to realize a water-intake as well. Zwartsluis is supposed to be a nice and interesting little town. We did, however, not achieve a lot more than relaxing, visiting a tempting adjacent situated outside café and doing some shopping.

Zwartsluis was left behind (we’ll be back!) on the 24th at 9:17AM – yes, the same time as two days earlier, our logbook of course doesn’t lie. At 10:00AM we even negotiated a lock between the Mepperlerdiep and the Beukersgracht. It took us exactly 10 minutes to descent some 2,4 meters – according to the map, that is, we think it was less, who cares? We crossed the Belter Weide (a lake) and entered the canal Beukers-Steenwijk. There we stopped after a cruise of just 8 minutes short of two hours in the highly popular village of Giethoorn. To our astonishment there’s ample room for mooring on the canal, even equipped with sophisticated shore-power that can be (de)activated on internet, see www.aanuit.net. Very convenient.

A former farm, “’t Olde Maat Uus”, named after Hendrik Maat, the last owner (dialect, Olde (oude) = old, Uus (huis) = house) is almost completely refurbished and now Giethoorn’s very, very interesting museum.

Life was lived inside the kitchen, the only heated room. This picture (yes, a sub-standard one, we regret it) shows the stove for heating and cooking and the easy chair, next to his pipe rack, both for the ‘paterfamilias’.

As from the first of May, after the yearly spring-cleaning (‘grote schoonmaak’) was done, the cooking and eating was done inside this (freestanding) bakehouse (‘stookhok’) (boiler room?), instead of inside the kitchen. That way the house remained clean.

Enough about the really intriguing museum now. Next to the museum was a stork’s nest, which is not all that unusual, but this one contained three stork’s-chicken. All three of them are looking (staring?) towards the north, most likely because they can see one of their parents foraging in a meadow at a distance of about a kilometer onto which they have an unobstructed view. We have indeed seen a parent in that meadow, so their behavior was completely plausible.

We turned our back on Giethoorn on Friday the 26th of May. A price of € 20,00 a day, electricity not included, is not what we want all too often. Departure time 1:09PM, enjoying nods of approval -our female half that is- from the crowd on the bank. Well crowd, several gongoozlers anyway. The weather is gorgeous already for an entire week offering us the opportunity to make this picture of a load of sailing-addicts on the Beulaker Weide – as you’ll understand a lake, only navigable for us when we follow the path of red and green buoys; the rest is too shallow.

And this is us, moored since last Friday 2:05PM on the Beukersgracht, after an exhausting cruise of 56 minutes from Giethoorn. We discovered the name of the place, being Belt-Schutsloot. One’s never too old to learn! There’s even a snack-bar situated on the opposite side of the road the picture was taken from. To call it bliss is an exaggeration; it does come in handy though. Sometimes. Oh, the name of the snack-bar? De Snelle Hap (‘The Quick Bite’ or ‘The Fast Mouthful’).