Netherlands waterway cruise – Weesp to Uithoorn

Leaving Weesp

Sunday 22nd June

The weather was lovely again.

Left the mooring just after 09.00, and through 2 bridges – Zwaantjiesbrug and Roskaan Brug.

Both these operated by the same bridge-keeper, and a place where we had to pay bruggeld or a toll.

Kieron did the honours of dropping the 3 Euro in the clog on a pole as we went past.

On the Weespertrekvaart – Driemond bridge behind

Our route plan was out of the Small Weesp river, directly across the Amsterdam-Rijn Kanaal, into the Weespertrekvaart which runs close to the southern outskirts of Amsterdam, and then into the Amstel river and south towards Alphen aan der Rijn..

We followed a large hotel barge through Die Uitkomst, the last bridge in the Weesp area, and across the Amsterdam-Rijn kanaal.

BB – Beweeg Brug on the Weespertrekvaart

This is a large and very commercial canal which we were avoiding by taking the alternative scenic route.

Immediately on the other side we went through the Driemond stoplock (which stands open) and under Driemond bridge.

Spoorbrugge on the Weespertrekvaart

The Weespertrekvaart was indeed a lovely scenic route, but with a lot of bridges – 7 in all. Most were Lifting bridges (BB Beweeg Brugge) and the 2 fixed bridges had clearance of about 4.9 or 5.1 metres so we could slip through okay.

Passing through the town of Duivendrecht we could easily see the tall buildings of Amsterdam not far away.

Leaving the trekvaart, we turned south into the relatively wide Amstel river, which for the first few miles was lined with large permanent houseboats.

Rowing on the Amstel

Being a Sunday and good weather, the Dutch were out doing all sorts of sporty things, and we were passed by many skiffs and Oxford and Cambridge style rowing ‘eights’.

Oudekerk aan der Amstel

Once clear of Amsterdam, the river narrowed and became scenic again and we passed through Oudekerk a/d Rijn and Nes a/d Rijn,both with large churches towering over the river.

Wild stop near Uithoorn

We had planned to overnight in or near Uithoorn.

We tried the community (gemeente) mooring in Uithoorn but this seemed to be for boats of only 10 metres in length.

So we went on through the 2 bridges in the town and found a very pretty open or wild mooring about a kilometre further along.

Shangri La underway

A friend or ours who now lives in Netherlands came and visited us and we all went into Uithoorn for drinks and supper.

We ate at a place right by the gemeente berths, and found that we probably could have squeezed in there after all.

But we were quite happy with our more countrified mooring place.

Since we have had the boat, we have never been able to take photos of her actually underway.

So, in the morning, when we left the mooring, we left Kieron on the bank armed with our cameras, and motored up and down a few times while he snapped away.

Statistics: 27 kms, 1 stoplock, 8 BB (beweeg brugge) and 9 fixed bridges. Time 4 hrs 15 mins