Netherlands inland waterway trip – Nijmegen

Nijmegen – Netherlands

13th and 14th September 2014

After our shopping expedition at Jumbo supermarket we headed for Nijmegen.

Back up the maas for a short distance, along the Maas-Waalkanaal(which as it’s name suggests, links the 2 rivers), through Sluis Weurt, up the Waal River for a short way and into Lindenbergse Haven at Nijmegen.

Stoplock at Sluis Heumen

At the start of the Maas-Waalkanaal is the Sluis Heumen stoplock, which is a new flood barrier.

Bridges on the Maas-Waalkanaal

The rest of passage along the kanaal was pleasant and uneventful, under a lot of high, modern and rather dull fixed bridges….

Sluis Weurt

…and finally locking down about 3 metres through Sluis Weurt.

Then our first taste of the Waal River!

Well our trusty waterway guidebook had warned us about the current on this river.

They weren’t wrong.

We only had about 3 kms to go to get to our mooring place, but it took about an hour.

Shangri La at Lindenbergsehaven

The Waal is a busy commercial river, being one of the main barge routes into Germany and we had to alter our course several times for downstream barges.

Just outside the harbour we had to wait for a large Viking River Cruise passenger boat to get clear.

It was most strange motoring against the current at about 3 kms per hour but actually standing still. (more about the Waal River next week).

Hill in Nijmegen

We finally tied up at Lindenbergsehaven at about 15.00 hours.

Mooring cost was Euro 12 per night, with unmetered electricity.

Payment here was at a parking meter style credit card machine.

No wifi here though.

Chapel from Charlemagne’s castle

We immediately walked up to town to explore.

Nijmegen is one of the town involved in the 1944 Operation Market Garden.

Being relatively close to the German border, it was heavily bombed during the war and thus there are a lot of new and restored buildings here.

Nijmegen also had strategic importance in old times as it has a hill!!

Not many of these in Netherlands. Charlemagne built his castle at the top of the hill, and only the chapel remains today.

Velorama – bicycle museum

We found out that next day, Sunday, as part of the 70th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, was open monument day and many of the museums were offering free entrance.

Saturday evening we found a vegan restaurant – an place run by volunteers where we had a 3-course vegan meal for 6 Euro! And wine at 1.50 Euro a glass.

Brilliant.

More from the Velorama

So Sunday was museum day.

We took in the Straatmakerstoren (Street Makers Tower).

This is a section of an old castle which was hidden behind new buildings for ages and only recently unearthed. The rooms have been restored. A bit gloomy inside and not good for pictures.

The restored Stadsaal

Then was the Velorama – the biggest bicycle museum in Europe.

They have examples of all types of pedal-powered contraptions going back to way back
when.

Some of them most uncomfortable looking.

We tried to visit Marienburgkapel, the home of Nijmegen history, but the exhibition turned out to be in the form of a play, only in Dutch, so we passed on that one.

The guided tour in the restored Stadsaal also was only in Dutch.

We returned to the boat and spent a relaxing evening on the back deck, making the most of the good weather.

Statistics:

Distance           22 kms
Locks               1
Bridges            11 fixed
Motoring time      2.4 hours

Next – Up the River Waal and on to Arnhem.