On Monday the 2nd of September we reluctantly left ‘our’ city at 10:09AM. After cruising the Catharijnesingel, the Vaartse Rijn and tackling the Noordersluis, we entered the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal, reportedly the busiest canal in the entire world – some 100.000 boats annually use the canal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam%E2%80%93Rhine_Canal – better, more informative, in Dutch). The canal can be very choppy, so we made sure that nothing inside our little boat would fall over and/or break. As you can see we were lucky.

The male half of our crew grew up near De Meern, nowadays being a part of the city of Utrecht. This bridge was crossed numberless times in the past, of course later on together with the female half. We have been underneath before, but never seen it from this perspective.

All types of vessels are cruising the ARK. Here we are overtaken by OceanDiva’s ‘Futura’ (https://www.oceandiva.eu/en/ships/the-futura), a futuristic looking vessel indeed.

After having been on the ARK for an ample hour we reached calmer waters, being the river Vecht. The one in the province of Utrecht, by the way, there’s another Vecht in the province of Overijssel. We stopped at 12:37PM and moored upstream of Maarssen centre.

Our view to the opposite side. A first one of all the beauties to follow.

The next day, Tuesday the 3rd, we tackled two bridges, crossed Maarssen’s centre and spotted a nice place to moor at the edge of Maarssen’s built-up area. After some 40 minutes we called it a day and switched off the engine.

Meanwhile we know that (almost?) every town alongside the river is provided with ancient buildings, houses and views. That is accentuated by signs like this one, on its top saying ‘Vroeger en Nu’ wandeling (then and now walks). In this case the similarity between then and now was striking. An old picture postcard, unfortunately without a date, is reproduced on the sign. The historic centre of Maarssen (and a lot more) was saved in the 19th and 20th century by digging the Merwede-, respectively Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal.

A typical Vecht-feature is the use of roof-tiles for bank protection.

Just a randomly taken picture of one of the lovely, picturesque, views as seen along the river.

When nearing Breukelen there’s the Nijenrode-castle. On its premises the Nyenrode Business University is to be found (https://www.nyenrode.nl/en/home). Apologies for the poor quality of the picture. The traffic on the river demanded most of our attention.

Breukelen’s centre was reached after leaving Maarssen less than an hour earlier. A short cruise indeed – and not the last one! We could just squeeze in, causing a worrying neighbour to follow our actions with ‘argus eyes’. The name Brooklyn derives from Breukelen. This information for the ones who didn’t know yet.

Admittedly a bit dark picture, but it shows our view across the river when being in Breukelen of another manor, built in the glorious past by a rich merchant. Nowadays it’s got plastic flowers on the balcony!! Imagine that! The main issue, however, is without doubt the master walking his dog.

‘Bye Breukelen’ we said the next morning, Wednesday the 5th of September 2019 at 9:29AM. This is a picture, reflecting the view one has when cruising this pretty river.

Loenen aan de Vecht (there’s another Loenen, since 1818(!) part of Apeldoorn) welcomed us at 10:15AM. What more than ‘we found a lovely spot in lovely surroundings’ can we say?

Not visible with the last picture is another impressive building, named ‘Vegtlust’. We were moored more or less opposite of it. The sharp ‘g’ and ‘ch’ both sound about the same in Dutch – at least above, what is called in The Netherlands, ‘the big rivers’ (Rijn, Waal, Maas). Vegtlust/Vechtlust literally translated is fighting spirit. But in this case lust it is rather meant as a liking of (or passion for) the river Vecht. Like used in, for instance, ‘wanderlust’.

After two nights (we partly stayed for the dog; he could walk free next to the mooring space) we again set sail in northerly direction at 7:56AM. But at first we needed 2 hours(!) to top up our water supply. So we started in earnest at 10:07 and moored up in Vreeland 48 minutes later. There’s just one place we fit in – and that’s the one shown here. Lucky us!

Our position as seen from the double bascule-bridge with the bridge-chains in the foreground.

The bridge in Vreeland is very, very, photogenic, isn’t it? For a picture of all Vecht-bridges, see https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_oeververbindingen_over_de_Utrechtse_Vecht.

This Sunday-morning, the 8th of September 2019, Vreeland was left behind at 12:26PM. We ended up on a rural stretch of the river, part of Nederhorst den Berg and brought the engine to (temporary) rest at 1:04PM. Short but nice. It’s an utterly charming, though pretty busy, little river.