May 2025 – Part 1 (1st to15th)
May started off nice and sunny, and still happy in our prime position in Weesp harbour, we decided to stay a few more days in this charming town. With no real plan in mind, we managed slow, relaxed days with just a few smaller jobs accomplished.
2nd May saw me taking a train back to Groningen for the day – we needed to re-apply for permission to use our temporary residential address, so this seemed like the simplest (if not costliest) option to get the paperwork signed and delivered. Everything went fairly smoothly, and several hours later I was back on Shensi, fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
Our move into the town harbour had worked well, and we decided to stay for a few more days before departing on the following Monday (5th May) which turned out to be a national holiday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands on 5th May 1945 (aka Dutch Liberation Day). On the Sunday, I came across several Stolpersteines each with a rose laid next to it to honour those who never returned home. Very poignant.
Finally we made the decision to move on – Weesp is a lovely place to stay and technically it’s just a permitted three night stopover but rule changes for 2025 had enabled us to squeeze in several more days and, especially good for us, at no charge! So on the 5th May we untied and moved off onto the Vecht on a much cooler albeit dry day, in the direction of Utrecht (although we were not intending to reach there for a few days).
After just an hour’s cruise we stopped at a long stretch of mooring at the edge of a little village called Nederhorst den Berg, fairly close to a road, and decided to stay here for the permitted three nights plus an extra one because we could – we really did take our cruising easy this year, no rushing everywhere this time round.
NdB was a pleasant enough spot with a small shopping area about a 20 minute walk from us, but little in the way of decent dogwalking – Nicki did pass a farm with a very large bunny seemingly confined in a small fenced area – but he seemed very content and not fazed by the dogs at all, hopping over to say a brief hello, nose to nose through the mesh – and several other nearby farms housed curious goats and sheep. One field contained a dozen or so horses, one of which she was informed was ‘evil’. She wasn’t sure if that was it’s name or if it was in fact evil, so she kept the dogs and herself well away from that one!
After what turned into four nights there, we made the decision to move … to the far side of the village, travelling a mere 45 minutes along a windy section of the Vecht river to a much longer, more peaceful stretch with nice grassy tracks running alongside which was much safer for the dogs. From this starting point we found a couple of nice walks to take up some of our time, but generally we spent our time enjoying the beautiful sunshine.
Once again we overstayed the permitted three free nights, moving off on 13th May on yet another glorious day. Our intention was to stay at Vreeland but as we entered the area we realised that it wouldn’t be possible and so carried on to Loenen aan de Vecht, just a short distance further ahead, where we slid into a nice bankside mooring overlooking green fields on one side and beautiful properties on the opposite side. It was a hard life at times. From this point and for quite some time, we had to use paid moorings via a Dutch mooring app, which was simple and quick to use.
Here we stayed for another three nights, taking advantage of the sunshine and a couple of pleasant walks along the riverside path up to the small village of Nieuwersluis where we could enjoy the ‘backyards’ of some lovely properties and plants. Nicki managed a few photos but they don’t really do the scenery justice – she was particularly taken with a wisteria grown in the rear of a property which had grown and extended above the path and was in full bloom.
We stayed there for a further couple of days before moving on the 15th to the next town of Breukelen, less than an hour’s cruise away, stopping on its quayside, which happily had a convenient grassy area for the dogs.
