29th April - 1st May. Edam, then on to the North Holland Canal.

The cheeses in Edam are very distinctive in colour, and shape, being much rounder than Gouda cheese. In July and August the old style cheese trading is re-enacted for tourists here in the market square.

Edam is a pleasant town, with typical Dutch buildings.

The Dutch villages can be seen clearly, across the flat landscape. They all look very attractive.

This mooring, close to the three windmills, was very good, with gaps in the fence, for getting off The Puzzler easily.

Having skirted Alkmaar, we were on the North Holland Canal, and these unusual floating bridges opened by remote control as we approached them.

Part of each side of the bridge lifted up to allow the rest of it to slide underneath.

These houses, near to Alkmaar, had the interesting style of thatch over tiles on the roof.

We are now right in the bulb fields of Holland.

They keep on coming!

A real Dutch barn, with the farmhouse hidden behind it.

This may look picturesque, but it was not the perfect mooring. We stopped here quite late, as we had not found anywhere else. There is a road crossing for the railway here, with loud klaxons whenever a train is coming. They came frequently until 2 am then started again at 6 am, so it was a short night!

27th - 28th April. Across the Markermeer to Marken, then on to Volendam, and back inland at Edam.

We spent two nights at this idyllic spot. miles from anywhere, or so it seemed. The first day was extremely wet, but two walkers passed us and recommended that we go to visit the island of Marken.

The following morning we took them up on this, and retraced our steps to Monnickerdam, and on out through the lock and harbour.

This route took us out into the Markermeer, which used to be part of the ZuiderZee. We passed a dredger working to the right of the navigation channel. The island of Marken can just be seen in the distance to the left of the dredger, although it is not now really an island as it has a causeway to the mainland. The three miles across open water to get there seemed a long way!

Marken Harbour is very attractive, with the houses surrounding it. Most craft here were yachts, with a few smaller cruisers too. The village is quite large, away from the tourist shops around the harbour.

We walked the two miles to the far end of Marken to see Marken Vuurhuis, or lighthouse. This was as close as we were allowed to go though.

Shannon did the tourist bit, with the large clogs!

Coming out of Marken Harbour, we turned right to follow the passenger ferry across more open water to Volendam, which is another tourist destination. The two boats on the skyline are actually enormous cruise ships, heading for Volendam.

In the harbour, The Puzzler can just be seen on the right, under the bird, while the cruise ships are beyond the ferry, just outside the harbour wall.

In Volendam Museum one whole room contained mosaic pictures, which had been made from 11 million cigar papers. Other rooms showed Dutch life in various scenes, with an interesting video presentation about the importance of the fishing industry to Volendam. As we are learning Dutch, we could understand a little of it.

We stayed at Volendam until 7pm, as the wind was too strong before then for The Puzzler to be out at sea.. Sally was at the helm again, for the last leg of our sailing across the open waters of the Markermeer. Well, along the edge of it anyway! This part was round the headland to Edam, but we had no markers to help us this time, for most of the way.

It was a relief to see the entrance to Edam harbour ahead of us. There are always a few red and green markers to guide ships in, from the Meer.