7th - 10th October. Up the Vecht to Utrecht, then across the Amsterdam-Rijn Kanaal to Oudewater.

Elaine joined us in Weesp, and we sailed up the river Vecht. This unusual double lift bridge is in the village of Loenen.

All along the Vecht, but especially in Breukelen, splendid houses can be seen. We are told that the very rich people from Amsterdam live here.

Work is always going on somewhere on the rivers. This crane seems to be lifting as much water as mud.

From Maarssen, we walked across to look at barges on the Amsterdam-Rijn Kanaal. This is not a waterway for The Puzzler!

We sailed on to Utrecht, where The Puzzler is  passing the waterside cafes. The canal winds its way through the centre of the city, with the streets at a higher level.

Some of the bridges are an unusual shape, but this only adds to quaintness of this waterway.

Further on, there are houses at the lower level. The trees by the canal make this an attractive part of our journey through the city.

From Utrecht, we have to cross the Amsterdam-Rijn kanaal. Two barges had gone past, while we were coming down in the lock, and as a result it was quite a rough crossing, even though they were long gone up the canal.

We were lucky enough to arrive in Oudewater at the start of Oudewater 750. This is a year long festival to celebrate the town's 750th anniversary. With most people in costume, the street market had a really good atmosphere.

There were many craft stalls, with  a lot of demonstrations going on, but our favourite was the waffle stall. The waffles were delicious!

Oudewater is famous for its Witch house. In ancient times, if a husband wished to divorce his wife, then he would accuse her of being a witch. The crowd here are only too willing to help to take her to the scales.

The suspect witch is put on the scales. If she weighs light enough to ride a broomstick, then she must be a witch!

Having been found guilty, then she is tied to the stake, ready for burning.

The burning of the witch at the festival was quite effective, though the firemen came just in time to save her. Apparently the scales were found to be faulty, so she was deemed to be innocent, and received a certificate to state that she was not a witch. Once anyone had this certificate, they could not be tried again, and were safe forever.

The whole street behind us is lined with vintage fire engines.

It was surprising to find how tall a Friesian horse is, once you are close to him. This one must have been about 17 hands.

The mayor and his family are enjoying a concert. The lady harpist was sitting at a window, high above us, with the carillon, and other instruments, up inside the church tower. We would have liked to have seen them, as the music was good.

This was our first mooring in Oudewater, but it was rather close to the parked cars.

We moved on through Oudewater lift-bridge the next day. What a contrast in the two moorings, which are only a couple of hundred yards apart!

4th - 6th October. On across the Markermeer to Muiden, then on to the River Vecht.

By Sunday morning the wind had changed, to come from the north, so we were very sheltered on our mooring. We walked to the far end of Hooft Island to see how rough our crossing was likely to be. The waves were rushing past the end of the breakwater, so we waited until late afternoon to cross over to the mainland at Muiden.

It was a very unusual sky later on, when we were out on the Markermeer, but the water was much calmer for our crossing.

On the approach to Muiden, we passed the Royal Marina. This white boat is the Green Dragon, which belongs to King Willem Alexander, the king of The Netherlands.

Muiden is a pleasant town, and we managed to fit in, backwards, on to the visitor mooring. Last night there was a converted lifeboat in the space next to The Puzzler, but we were socialising on his boat until late, and he left early this morning. It was a fascinating boat.

Update here! Rob has sent us this pic of both our boats at Muiden.

Walking back to see Muiden lock in the morning, it had lost the busy atmosphere of last night, when all these chairs were full of gongoozlers. (These are interested non-boaters, watching boaters!) The castle can just be seen beyond the yachts, which are moored beyond the lock.

We are on a staithe mooring on the river Vecht. These moorings are free but, as there is no access to land, they are not great for Shannon!