June 2025 – Part 2 (16th to 30th)
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Our second day in Leidschendam was even more relaxed, with a walk over to a large dog park for Nicki and the doggos, and more maintenance on the boat for me. Later on we took a walk over to a local Kringloop-winkel to have a nose around and drop off some of our no-longer-wanted bits and pieces, and for once we didn’t buy anything to replace it all! On the way we took a few pics of things that caught our attention, and found a little of the local history.
Alongside the Leidschendam sluis there was an impressive sculpture designed to honour the pioneers of the town, which was once a dam on the Vliet river – named The Dam Guardians, the artwork comprised of three men in various poses, each with a specific symbolism.
The standing figure rests on a large hammer, symbolizing the struggle and labour of the pioneers, and the dog on his shoulder stands for loyalty and transience. The silent crouched figure with the large stone on his head symbolizes the first stone in the Vliet river for the construction of the dam. The pointing man with a boat on his arm represents shipping.
Three statues of dogs in the Damplein shopping area also caught our eye. Each dog is placed in a different section of the square and placed as if they are ‘running’ through. In this way, they radiate both dynamism and homeliness.
On their backs they carry elements such as a house, a twilight lamp and a backpack, but we can’t find any actual reason why!
From Leidschendam we moved on to Voorburg, luckily catching the last mooring space at the Kerkbrug public quay.
Our plan had been to stop in Delft, to await the arrival of Amy and Tom, stop for a day or two, and then travel into Den Haag for another few days, then onto a mooring not too far from a beach area, and then back to Leiden where they were to leave us. However, at Voorburg we met a fellow boater, Rick, who over a few drinks informed us that with the NATO summit taking place in Delft over the coming week, all bridges and locks would be closed for security purposes, which meant that we wouldn’t be able to travel beyond Delft in the short-term! This meant a speedy re-think of our plans such that we would move on the next day (20th) straight to Delft and remain there until things went back to normal.
I duly made a quick call to the Delft harbour office and pre-booked space for the following few days, and by 11am the next day we were settled into Delft harbour, awaiting the arrival of Amy and Tom later that evening.
They were due into the railway station around 10.40pm and as it was only a 5-10 minute walk away, we wandered over with Pip to meet them; Casper stayed behind as he was asleep and it seemed a shame to wake him. That night was a little unsettled, what with plenty of noise from a nearby floating bar restaurant, revellers spilling onto the streets, and people jumping into the water next to our boat, not to mention our own creaking ropes!
In the morning we all walked into the town centre to do some sightseeing and grab coffee and a snack, coming across a busy street market spread over several canals as we wandered.
The next day we all took a train into Den Haag and ambled around the town for a few hours, all very pleasant and not too full of tourists which is what we had expected.
Closer to the town centre we came across a beautiful building – The Sting, a clothing store – decorated in coloured tiles and with a glass dome, it is completely different in shape and facade than most other buildings
In the town centre was The Binnenhof Viewpoint where, from a height of 28 metres, it was possible to have a 360-degree view of the town stretching from the Binnenhof to the modern urban developments.
Amy, Tom and I climbed up to the top whilst Nicki ducked out to look after the dogs (she’s not a great fan of heights, plus the dogs weren’t allowed up there).
From the viewing platform you could also see a special dune landscape planted on the roof of a nearby building, showcasing a piece of nature in The Hague’s city centre.
On our second night with our guests, Nicki and I woke around midnight to the sound of fire and police vehicles racing around, which after some time we realised had stopped almost outside of our mooring! Apparently there had been a fire in an apartment in one of the older properties over the road, and 80+ people had been evacuated from their homes. Oh, and the late night swimmers were on the pontoon again close to Amy and Tom’s room, so although they weren’t aware of the sirens etc they had their own disturbance going on.
Although Amy and Tom were with us for nine days, they were actually ‘working from home’ for three of them, so Nicki and I left the dogs in their care whilst we took a train into Rotterdam for a couple of hours to do some sightseeing. As it turned out we got off at Rotterdam Blaak to see the ‘cube’ houses, which were “homes based on a concept of living as an urban roof in high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level; its main purpose being to optimize the space inside”.
They looked very strange and it was quite hard to get our heads round the idea of their practicalities, but as they’d been in place for over 40 years, they must work well. At the rear of these funny houses was a small harbour, so of course we had to take a picture.
Very close to the station we also came across the Markthal, a 40 metre high structure formed by construction of privately-developed apartments arranged into a large arch, within which is a beautifully decorated ceiling covering a series of individual food/street markets.
The following day we again left the dogs with Amy and Tom to return for another visit to Rotterdam, this time to find and explore the Giant’s Mirror Building – a stunning bowl-shaped art depot for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuninge, boasting a mirrored exterior and a rooftop sculpture garden, and containing Rotterdam’s most important art gallery with a six-storey storage facility to house over 125,000 paintings, sculptures and objects, and a pathway zigzagging up through all six storeys, leading from a lobby and cafe on the ground floor towards exhibition galleries and a restaurant at the top. These spaces open out to a rooftop sculpture garden.
HOWEVER …. as it turned out, this spectacular building was mostly shielded from view by security fencing panels along with a large police presence. We had chosen the day when the partners of the visiting NATO dignitaries were having their very own private tour and the public were not allowed anywhere near them! Ah well, we managed some good photos as we walked around the lovely gardens, and it was very nice being out in the sunshine. Externally the building was absolutely stunning, very beautiful with all the reflections from it’s surroundings and was definitely worth the effort of getting there.
During their stay with us, Amy and Tom had pushed us to get into the water, and we had some great moments out with the paddle board, in the inflatable or just swimming around.
Pip absolutely loved all the excitement and is proving to be a real fan of water and sitting on the paddleboard with her ball, waiting for someone to throw it so that she could jump off and swim after it … again and again and again.
Seven days after arriving in Delft we headed off (27th June) to visit the seaside town of Katwijk aan Zee, stopping alongside a long grassy bank which belonged to the municipal marina slightly further ahead, separated from cycle lanes and roads, and with nice walks along the riverbank into the town centre and to a lovely sandy beach. (In reality dogs weren’t allowed on the beach but we took a couple of trips down there with them anyway, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.). Walking back through the town behind some apartments we came across several marching bands, all practising for their part in the day’s “musical epicentre of the world of Dutch Marching Bands” in Katwijk – later on they would all be marching through the streets with a tattoo on the beach in the evening (“Taptoe at the Beach 2025”). Unfortunately the tattoo was a ticketed affair and totally sold out, so we weren’t able to see it. However, we were lucky enough to catch a little of the flavour of the event early on.
A short walk from our mooring, and just one kilometre in from the North Sea at the mouth of the Oude Rijn at Katwijk, there is something called the Limes Bubble Barrier, a strategically located pollution defence intended to capture as much plastic as possible before it enters the North sea. (Although this solution is located in Katwijk it reaches further than that as plastic from the entire upstream region can be stopped here.)
Across the width of the river air is pumped through a tube on the bottom of the Oude Rijn, creating an air bubble screen. The air bubbles, along with the natural flow of the Oude Rijn, ensure that plastic waste ends up in a collection system on the quay, and from there it is disposed of elsewhere. Amazingly, since it’s inception in 2018 until July 2023, research showed that around 959kg of dried (plastic) waste had been collected in Katwijk alone, which equates to roughly 185,876 pieces!
(It is estimated that every year, between 4.8 and 12.7 billion kilos of plastic ends up in the oceans worldwide, with two-thirds of this plastic coming from rivers and canals.) In 2019 a similar bubble barrier had been placed in Amsterdam at one of the outlets of its canals in the IJ river.
Amy and Tom were now on their final few days with us, during which they spent time on a couple of cycles rides and visits to the beach and town, and some paddleboarding with Pip. Finally though on the Sunday it was time for them to leave us, and they caught a bus into Leiden for a couple more hours of sightseeing there before heading to the airport and home. Nicki and I carried on with the water play for the next couple, much to Pip’s delight. We putt Casper on a long lead and popped him into the water, so he spent quite a while trying to get back to the boat and had a good old swim in the process. Not sure how much he enjoyed it, but as he usually whines at being left on the boat while we’re in the water, we decided to give it a go.
After a very pleasant, very hot four night stay in Katwijk, it was time for Nicki and I to carry on with our cruising, and we set off on 1st July for more adventures.
