11th - 14th October. Past Gouda, Boskoop and Gouwsluis, to Zwammerdam and Nieuwkoop, then back to Woerden.

We continued on the Hollandse Ijssel to Gouda, and made our way into Mallegat Sluis. However, as it is Sunday, the sluis at the other end of Gouda is closed, so we could not continue through town that way. The lockkeeper waited until we had manoeuvred off the tidal river into his lock, before telling us this, so then we had to back out again, to take a different route.

It was nice to see so many boats about on the Gouw canal, as we headed north from Gouda. Now that it is nearing the end of the season, the waterways are quieter.

Boskoop is a pretty village, with car parking dangerously close to the water's edge.

At Gouwsluis, this is an active container depot, just off the main canal.

We turned on to the Oude Rijn, and into the chickweed! However, as our engine has a sealed cooling system, this is no problem for The Puzzzler

Soon it was a left turn in Zwammerdam, and through Ziende bridge on to this smaller waterway going through Nieuwkoopse Plassen.

This area is well worth a visit, for a small license fee, with narrow canals between the lakes. It is like a mini version of Friesland.

There are many wonderful properties all along the water's edge.

We are heading in to the centre of Nieuwkoop village.

We had to have a coffee stop here!

There are several moorings through this area, overlooking the lakes.

Back on the Grecht, we decided to cross over the canal on the ferry for a walk on the far side.

A sculpture of skaters on the bridge in Woerden. We are on our way to the station, for Elaine to catch her train, after an enjoyable week. We have been so lucky with the weather all week, at least until this morning!

The cathedral in Woerden is a very fine building.

I think that this is the best canalside mural we have ever seen! There is so much detail in it.

From Woerden we retraced our steps to moor near the ferry again. One boater was very keen for us to stay in Woerden overnight, but we prefer to be out in the country.

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!

1st - 4th October. Our location in Holland on Flevoland. On to Almere-stad, then across Gooimeer and Markermeer to the island of Hooft.

Having been right over to the eastern border of the Netherlands, we are now back in Flevoland, as shown by the orange dot.

This mooring in Flevoland caters for campervans too, and we found extremely good walking in the woods nearby. We are quite near to the town of Lelystad here.

Our original idea was take our time on Flevoland, and to cross the Markermeer on Sunday, but the weather forecast has changed its mind, so we have pushed on, missing a visit to Lelystad. We managed to reach our friends, Ed and Olga, in Almere-stad by Thursday evening and had a great time with them.

In order to reach the lock at Almere-Haven by 10am, our booked time, we set off just after 7am, as soon as it was light. However, our route was across the Noorder Plassen, where we had to stop for half an hour, as the mist was too thick to see anything! After a while it began to clear, so we crept on until we found a marker to follow for our route.

Almere Sluis is built into the dike ahead of us. At this time of year it is only opened at 10am and 3pm, by arrangement. We managed to get here by 9.45, despite being delayed by the mist, as the sun eventually broke through.

Once in the lock, it seems a long way to go up!

We go up 5 metres in this lock, but these "floating" bollards make it so gentle. I kept waiting for the surge of water coming into the lock, but it never came!

From Almere-Haven we sail along Gooimeer, which is the most westerly part of the Randermeer. If we had wanted, we could have sailed along the full length of the Randermeer, to the south of Flevoland, all the way from Ketelmeer, but we prefer the inland route to these wide waters. We do not have a choice about this part though!

We have to go left of the green marker, then on  through the arch marked by the two yellow lights at Hollandse Bridge, which looks tricky, from this view! However the work barges are actually further from the bridge than it looks, and there was plenty of room to go behind them. They seem to be building a new bridge here, beside the current one.

In the distance we could see innumerable swans, sitting on the rocks.

As the weather was so calm, we went across to Hooft Island for a break, before the final stretch across to Muiden. It was so lovely that we stayed there until Sunday, only regretting it during some strong winds on Saturday, when we did bounce! During the weekend more boats of all types arrived, and the wind moved to the north, so the island protected us.

The island of Hooft is made of sand, but is protected from the waves by breakwaters, especially on this northern shoreline.

Well, everyone needs their own director's chair!