Part 2
| Kayak Elfstedentocht Part 2 |
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| Dag 4 | Franeker - Berlikum - Vrouwen Parochie | 21 km |
| Dag 5 | Vrouwen Parochie - Bartlehiem - Leeuwarden - Weidum | 34 km |
| Dag 6 | Weidum - Sneek - IJlst | 21 km |
Vrouwen Parochie
Today no cities: we are up in the north of Friesland. We see a lot of birds, and we save a lamb that has fallen in the water and can't get out. In Vrouwen Parochie we find a nice camping (next to a windmill). During the day it is pretty warm (and even better in the sauna), but at night we are glad we have warm sleeping bags. |
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Bartlehiem
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| Ok ok, you can't really call it Elfstedentocht without Dokkum. But hey, we do this for FUN. So instead of turning right to Dokkum we go straight on to Oudkerk and continue towards Leeuwarden. |
Leeuwarden (6)Near Leeuwarden there is another famous bridge. From a distance, you see a couple of skaters. When you get close, you find out they are formed by the portraits of a lot of people who ever skated the Elfstedentocht. The name and the years they rode the tour are on the tile as well.
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There are a lot of famous skaters, and there is even a system
to find them back. But we liked the normal people the most.
Ehhh .... can you call someone who skates over 200 kilometres in one day really normal ??? |
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| Leeuwarden is the capital
of Friesland. There are a lot of museums and other sites to be seen. But we
have been here before - for instance at the Princessehof, the ceramics
museum. Here one of Leon's pictures can be seen, as a background for ceramics.
So this time we don't stay very long in Leeuwarden. We park our kayaks just outside the city centre, get our stamp and a cup of soup, and move on. Too bad we didn't know about this nice low jetty you can see at the picture on the right. It's right next to the Waag, exactly at the centre of Leeuwarden. That would have been a perfect place for our kayaks. |
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Weidum
Around Leeuwarden it's hard to find a camping on the route. It is not too late and everything is going fine, so we go on, to the camping at Weidum. |
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| Weidum is a village in the 'empty middle' of Friesland. But don't think Weidum is boring. It has a church, a restaurant .... and an American windmill. Next to the church we watch the people play a Frisian game, called 'kaatsen'. |
Sneek (7)Again a nice little city, with a city hall and lots of canals. And, happily, a lot of terraces where you can have lunch.
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You can do a lot of things in Sneek, apart from lunches on terraces. There is a maritime museum, a lot of authentic houses, you can see how a kind of cake, 'drabbelkoek', is made, or you can have a taste of an alcoholic drink with a lot of herbs. |
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We visit non of these attractions. Instead, we go to the
train station. Here is a museum with model trains.
As we visit every museum with model trains, we can't skip this one. And it is
a real nice museum, with a lot of replica's.
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The water gate is the best known building of Sneek. You can see new married couples taking pictures here, and we can imagine why. We are one of the few people who sail through the gate: it is not very deep here. And a bit further, there is a low bridge over the canal, so we are stopped here as well. |
IJlst (8)Only a few kilometres from Sneek lies IJlst, a village-like city with a lot of green. The grass along the canals is property of the houses on the other side of the street, so you can see benches and so.
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Our kayaks are called after the three most famous ducks: Kwik, Kwek and Kwak as they are called in Holland (or Huey, Dewey and Louie in America). These little ducks are checking out Mirjam's kayak: "Kwik, Kwek". Of course, Leon's kayak is called "and Kwak". |
 The windmill was used for sawing. It has a surprising name: "The Rat". We hope that is not because there are a lot of rats around: our camping is close to the windmill. |
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