Our youngest grandson was with us in Harlingen for 5 nights. As a matter of (luxury) compensation we were able to use his mother’s, our daughter’s, car. When shopping together, our grandson and the dog waited patiently for us while seated in the car-boot.

In view of Easter we bought ourselves an ‘Feest-Stol’ from the well-known AH-chain. On the box one’s informed about the quality of its contents by the word ‘excellent’. It was. Raisins, currants, hazelnuts, almond paste and a lose little bag containing icing sugar – it was all inside the box. (And the bread, of course.)

The painters started the job by thoroughly grinding the surface of both roof and gunnel. As a result both surfaces became better to clean, read: smoother. Not one-hundred percent smooth though, so its still rather safe to walk on top of both surfaces when the circumstances are wet/slippery. After that the bad spots were treated with stuff to fill them up.

Two painters doing the long awaited repainting-job. As you’ll notice this is the roof. The gunnel-part is already finished.

This is what it looks like after finishing the job as agreed beforehand. They did the horizontal parts, we have to do the rest ourselves. The colour for the roof is a custom-made one. Fortunately they provided us with what they called an ‘emergency package’, one litre of the specific colour included. The dark blue is a RAL-colour. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAL_colors#RAL_5010. ‘Ours’ is 5010: Gentian blue.

We had to leave on Friday the 26th of April, because a German tourist-boat from Berlin, named ‘Fitzgerald’, was put back in the water and supposed to be on the spot where we had been for over a fortnight. So we said goodbye to everyone and left around 2:00PM.

Before we left we noticed a tiny solar powered boat. Sponsored by SRF too! We only knew of solar powered vehicles that do a contest in Australia’s outback. Well, there’s obviously more than that!

After a short cruise, one hour exactly, we moored at Franeker/Frjentjer. Because we have been there before there’s no picture of the mooring-spot. It would be a bit repetitive, wouldn’t it? Anyway, the next day it was King’s Day. It’s a tradition in The Netherlands that anybody is allowed to sell surplus stuff – or even perform an act of some sort (for a small fee, of course). This ‘mood-picture’ illustrates what it looked like in Franeker/Frjentjer. Rather busy, not too busy.

This morning, on Sunday the 28th of April 2019, we left Franeker/Frjantsjer at 1:25PM. As you’ll notice we are more relaxed than we happened to be in the past. On the way in the direction of Leewarden/Ljouwert the bridge at Dronrijp/Dronryp is no longer tp be found – demolished. A new one will be there in the foreseeable future, say next year. For the time being a ferry-boat is in use. This boat does not, repeat not, cruise from one canal-bank to the other and vise-versa. It is just a sort of temporary bridge; traffic can enter from both sides as if it is a road. The ferry moves out of the way when a boat, us for instance, wants to pass. Clever!

At 4:35PM, a bit over 3 hours after our departure time, we moored at Hempens. That town is situated south of Leeuwarden/Ljouwert. The two are separated only by the Van Harinxmakanaal. We have been here before, so here’s the view from inside our little ship, the port-side to be precise.

The weather improved a bit later on. Here’s the view around 8:00PM. Better. A lot better.

After arrival we ignited our solid fuel stove. Together with a drink – a glass of port in this case- one feels really privileged.