Hot days on the water

 We a

re currently anchored at a marina in IJstellstein, where we spent last night. This was not in the plan, tentative though it's been. The day before we'd left Maarssen for Montfoord, going under and through numerous bridges and a lock or two. We spent the night there, in a charming smalll town, stocked up on groceriess, cooked dinner on the boat. But....

Well the heat wave that's hit Europe has created the highest temperatures ever recorded in the Netherlands. One effect that has directly affected us is that the low bridge in the town, which we would need opened to pass through, is stuck closed due to the heat. Yesterday it hit 100 F. So we decided to backtrack an hour or so to where we are now.

The bridge is still closed, as are many others. It's good that we've been somewhat flexible in our plans, and do not have a set series of destinations. But there are towns that we definitely want to visit, including Gouda, Delft, and Leiden. Gouda, famous for its cheese (the correct pronunciation is Chowda, with a gutteral ch, or just Howda for those of us who can't do the gutteral sound. It doesn't exist in English, but does in Hebrew and other languages like Arabic.) That's probably why I can pronounce it and Loring and most Americans can't. By the way, this sound is also the proper pronunciation of van Gogh, with end sound the same gutteral. So if you want to impress people, or, more likely, amuse them try pronouncing the cheese or the painter with the hard ch sound next time the subject comes up. 

So here we are at this marina, not sure there even is a town here. One good thing is that they have showers here, and toilets, and a restaurant. We do have a shower, or at least a showerhead, onboard, but we haven't yet used it. It seems that it will flood the entire bathroom, which probably isn't a terrible thing. But with the heat, I've just been having Loring dump buckets of water from the canal over my head. And he has just been jumping in the water at every opportunity. I would probably go in the water too if I had a way to get out. The bottom rung on our boat's ladder is too high for me, nearly too high for Loring to hoist himself out. 

One source of entertainment while we've been docked here is watching people jump from  the bridge. This is one of the high ones that many, but not all boats can pass under. It's about 15 feet high. Every bridge's height is indicated on the boating app, and also every boat's height is written on it. Ours is about 8 and a half feet at the height of the upper deck and steering wheel. All afternoon yesterday a group of teenagers, mostly boys, jumped repeatedly into the water. Once, the adults staying in the camper right next to us(there are folks camping here as well as boaters) people probably in their 30s, jumped in as well. They are here in two campers, a younger and and an older couple, I am guessing the parents of one of the younger one. 

I wonder how much people normally jump in or even just go in the water, and how much is due to the extreme heat. 

And there's a fairly constant parade of boats in the canal, of all sizes. Some with couples, some with families, some with groups of young adults and lots of beer. Everyone is very friendly, nearly everyone waves or says hi as they pass by. There are periodically people on paddleboards. But we've seen nearly no one in a kayak or a canoe. 

Everyone we've come across is Dutch. They speak to us in Dutch, which makes me glad that we don't stick out as tourists.  And everyone speaks English, very good English.

Our boat is labelled on the side, with their slogan of No license necessary, no experience necessary. Which does make me feel branded as a novice. 

Today we will go back to Monfoort, on our original path, although we don't think the bridge is open. There's no practical other route by boat to Gouda. Most likely we will stay there again tonight, and with luck the bridge will be open tomorrow. The heat is finally supposed to subside by then. We are wondering if there will be a backup of boats waiting to go through. 

Alternately, there's the land route. If necessary we could go by bus or uber from Montfoord to Gouda.  But that takes all the fun out of it.