We are revisiting a few places from our 2018 cruise, and we have hired a new Aussie crew, Uschi and Stephen, to accompany us on our way to North Friesland.

Austin and I were in Sneek a few days before their arrival and were lucky to get a mooring right in front of the Waterpoort.

In the 15th century, the waterpoort used to be one of several gates of the fortified city. It also housed the often large families of the gatekeepers. Now, the Waterpoort is the emblem of Sneek and attracts more foreigners than keeping them out. Its clock, as the legend goes, was always set 5 minutes ahead to give locals an extra chance to enter the city before they were locked out for the night.

Like many places in Friesland, Sneek fell victim to “poldering”. Polders are low-lying land reclaimed from the sea by embankments or dykes. The former coastal town now lies in between big lakes, which are ideal for sailing. The local fishermen soon realised that their eel boats, called Skutsjes, were ideally suited for racing and could earn more money in races than they previously did with fishing. Sneek, pronounced “snake”, has waterways jutting out in every direction and has become the boating metropolis of Friesland. 

The Sheepvaarts Museum in the local tourist office is definitely worth visiting. It has a great display of boats and boating history.

Besides producing some of the best sportspeople, Sneek has several other local success stories. One of them is of the brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeyer, who started selling their textiles as travelling salesmen to wealthy farmers' wives. In 1841, they opened the very first Textile shop, "C & A,” a chain that still has 1300 branches in 17 European countries.

There is little choice for car hire in a small town like Sneek. A mid-sized Peugeot was the best we could do to pick up Uschi and Stephen from Utrecht. The weather was overcast but dry enough to take a stroll through Utrecht's centre and have one of the enormous Dutch sandwiches while sitting by the Oude Gracht (the Old Canal). 

Just before cramming our new crew into their small cabin on Lodi, we detoured to Castle De Haar to show them how the rich and famous lived in the Netherlands. Built in the late 19th century by Dutch master architect P.J. H. Cuypers and restored in 1892, the castle and its gardens are pretty stunning. The first owner's grandson, Baron Etienne van Zuylen, had the yearning and ideas for restoring the Gothic castle but didn’t have the funds for it. Wisely, though, he had married Hélène de Rothschild, who financed the 20-year re-built from the family Rothschild wealth. The castle has 200 rooms and 30 bathrooms. In 2000, the family eventually passed the ownership to the Foundation of the De Haar Castle reserving their right, to spend one month a year in the castle.

Early the next morning with everyone on board in Sneek and the hire car returned, our first job was to fill up with water and use the pump-out at the pontoon reserved for these purposes. This was made quite difficult by a barge, that had wrongly been moored there.

But we soon realised that Uschi and Stephen were sea-worthy and great deckhands. Having successfully completed these boat-keeping chores, we went off in the direction of Bolsward. The weather wasn’t the greatest and the meers (lakes) were a little choppy. Just before turning off to Bolsward, we were told of a faulty bridge and so had to bypass the town and head straight to Workum. Crossing another “Meer”, Stephen took over the helm like a pro and we arrived just after lunchtime. The weather had fined up enough to walk into the historic centre. 

We visited the late- gothic St. Gertrudis Church which impresses with its plain interior and also houses an array of old biers, each one dedicated to a certain trade. One is even for carrying the coffins of children.

Uschi and Stephen also liked the Jopie Huisman Museum. Jopie was a rag and bone man turned artist. He tells the stories of his life and paintings via an audio-tour. His paintings are mostly of discarded items he collected as a rag and bone man. Apart from his love of the rural land around Workum, he got his inspiration from Vincent van Gogh who, like himself, identified, loved and respected the underdog. Jopie stipulated that his art is, and should never be, for sale. Being a modest man, he was thrilled that his growing fame resulted in the museum. Jopie wanted his paintings to just be there so that the ordinary people could feel an emotionally connection to his art.

Thus culturally enriched, I have to admit, that we indulged in yet another coffee and apple cake! Well we couldn’t very well refuse Uschi and Stephen’s invitation!?

The following day, we moved on to Joure, pronouncing something like “Jow-rrray”, another small Dutch town.

The claim to fame of Joure is that Dowe Egberts created his tobacco, coffee, tea, and confectionery empire here.

The name might not ring a bell for Australians, but if you ever rolled your cigarettes with “Drum”, drank “Harris” or “Moccona” coffee, it originated at one time from this Dutch company. The birthhouse of the Netherlands's favourite coffee maker now houses the ticket and tourist office, an oldtime lolly shop and a café, while the former factory in the back is a museum of the company’s development. It all started with Egbert Dowe selling coffee and tea off a wooden cart to later producing and selling innovative ground coffee, tea- and coffee bags, etc on the international market. The visit also includes several other cottages containing the old metalworks: a copper smith, silver smith, clock maker and old printing press.

Back on the boat, Uschi, Stephen and I made a cuppa with our own, home-made teabags, thanks to the museum. We quite enjoyed the Dowe Egberts Roobibos and Forest Fruit teas, although the bags leaked some tea leaves and had wrongly attached labels. I guess, hand-made doesn’t have to be perfect, although Stephen reckoned, that his was!

Tomorrow we will cruise to the Frisian capital, Leeuwarden, which is sadly the last stretch with our Aussie crew. The weather forecast doesn’t look good, but we are crossing our fingers!