Haarlem was left with an almost bleeding heart on Monday the 12th of July at 11:30AM. What, ‘almost bleeding’?? Yes, dear follower, Haarlem is really among the top destinations – next to Utrecht, Alkmaar and Leeuwarden, to name but a few. As planned before, we stopped at 12:05PM, still inside Haarlem, but not its bustling centre. This area, we understood, is named Zuiderhout. We were moored next to the (free!) ferry, thus able to make a picture from the opposite bank.

When walking the dog we noticed this ultimately sad example of a supporter of the national football team of our country. Or should it be a former supporter. Nooooo, we support our team through thick and thin of course.

Haarlem-Zuiderhout was not what we hoped it to be. So we left the next morning at 10:00AM in good spirits in Leiden’s direction. Before arriving there from Haarlem, one has to cross the Kagerplassen, a lake system caused by peat excavation in the past. On our map we had seen several mooring spots inside the lakes. We choose one at the south side of the biggest nameless(?) island with a view onto the lake-part called ‘’’t Joppe”. As the wind was strong and we moored windward it took us some time, and pins, and extra ropes, before this difficult task was executed around 1:25PM. The result was extremely satisfying, especially for the dog, who could run freely around. When walking the dog we noticed a sign informing us, among other things, that only ships up to 15 metres are allowed to moor there - and a mooring fee was due. Since we were the only one there (the ship in the distance is at anchor) we didn’t worry too much because what difference does three metres make when you’re the only one? Well, we grossly miscalculated because when, around 8:30PM(!!) an accomplished ‘hauptfeldwebel’ visited us (travelling by boat), refused to discuss anything and sent us packing. At that time!! (‘Do you know of any mooring possibility for us?’ ‘No’. He just shrugged his shoulders all the time and looked at us with fish eyes and a full moon face.) Yes, we suffered slightly from homicidal tendencies and left around 9:00PM. It already started darkening.

A bit desperate we cruised towards the south of the lake-system, into Warmond to be precise. After some 20 minutes we passed a marina ‘Cieco’, with an information board on which we detected the harbour master's telephone number. We called him and he answered immediately. Under his guidance by telephone he directed us into a box. Phew! The result is visible by this picture. The next day he charged us a reasonable fee (‘you’ve had your bad luck already sufficiently’). Bless him!

On Wednesday the 14th of July we left Cieco-marina at 12:23PM and re-entered the Kagerplassen. Some 25 minutes later we left the lake-system to enter the waterway Zijl. No longer were sailing-boats, who are quite often a nuisance (‘where on earth are you going??’) because buoyancy is missing, capable of causing disorder. We were able to moor inside Leiden’s municipal port – along the Havenkade (‘Harbour-quay’). The engine stopped 1:26PM – and is quiet ever since. More about Leiden, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden.

The Rembrandtbrug and mill ‘De Put’.