Eliot's Travels

Our route led us to the lovely little village of Kalenberg. To get here we traveled up the larger canal - Kalenbergergracht - where we saw lots of big (and expensive) pleasure craft - both yachts and barges. Most of the houses in the town, expecially the older ones, had these beautiful thatched roofs that curved on the top and around the dormers. Some roofs had tile ridges, some thatch was mossed over, and many roofs had fancy weathervanes with lions and other creatures. We saw lots of houses Te Huur (for rent); this would be a fun spot to vacation. It's hard to get to via car and perfect for a boating adventure. I had taken lots of pictures of the roofs and fancy gardens. The canal was very crowded with big boats, so John wasn't able to take pictures of the houses (plus I was) - he was busy steering.

We brought our canoes up on land and stopped at the nice cafe De Rietlanden for drinks and ice cream. It was hot, when we weren't in the shade of the bos (forest). We sat outside under their manicured canopy trees and watched the traffic go by on the big canal. The cafe had a whole of box of heavily used trucks to play with, so the boys were happy. Miles didn't want to leave.

A statue of a reed farmer/harvester
A house on the canal with garden and patio

This lifting bridge was busy letting tall boats through, including this big party boat. The bridge operator would drop down a wooden shoe to get tips from the boat captains. Clever!

Canoeing is hard work, so we decided to cut the route a little short, though we still had 3-4 km to go. Heading back in the late afternoon, we kind of had the place to ourselves. There were significantly fewer boats and only two or three electric boats on the way back. It was quite peaceful and we saw some great birds along the way - a heron, two hawks, more ducks (of course). The light was perfect on the water and it was much cooler. We figured that we paddled about 7-8 km - a fine day's work. Miles even got another nap on the way back!

posted by Whitney @ 8:11 PM