This morning we hired two extra bikes from the harbour office for the mile cycle ride into the old, fortified town of Naarden, where we circumnavigated the star shaped canal moat and took coffee in the cobbled market street in front of the highly decorated town hall. The Vesting Museum (fortress museum) is in one of the six bastions of the fortress wall and has an exhibition of the Hollandse Waterlinie, a strip of land flooded as a defence line in Holland, and of Naarden's eventful history. However, a terminal puncture in one of our folding bikes terminated the trip, and we hobbled back to the marina, consoling ourselves with lunch on the popular terrace of the harbour side cafe.

We opted for another afternoon cruise in the ongoing warm weather, continuing our passage east along the Gooimeer and under the Stichte bridge into the Eemeer. The waterway follows the former coast of the Zuider Zee, inland of the new Flevoland polder, and takes the form of large lakes connected by wide buoyed channels. The whole area was alive with boats of every persuasion - motor boats, yachts, sports boats, dinghies, ribs and even pedaloes. The Nijkerkersluis bisects the narrow Nijkerkernauw stretch, with a storm barrier restricting the rest of the channel, although the benign conditions hardly seemed to warrant it.

We made our way to the old Hanseatic port of Harderwijk, where we chose the inner municipal harbour over the more remote location of the "De Knar" marina. The harbour side restaurant de Haven van Harderwijk hosted our "gala" dinner, with the added bonus of a salsa party in full swing as we arrived. The large town is a tourist centre for the Dutch, who come especially for the Dolfinarium, reputed to be the best in Europe with nine shows and presentations featuring not only dolphins, but sea lions, seals, walruses, rays and sharks. On a more traditional level the town's history museum is housed in an 18th century mansion house, where special exhibits include reconstructions of an old-fashioned grocer's store and a First World War internment camp. Another bonus for us was the extensive shopping centre, including a well-stocked Halfords, where we took the plunge and replaced our defunct 20 year old bike with a gleaming new model, the aluminium framed Cumberland Hopper at €349, built by Dahon for Halfords.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 24 nm

Total to date: 1343 nm

Avg Speed: 7 knots

Duration: 3:30 hours

Diesel: 82 litres

Mooring: €15

Electricity: €1 meter

Bridges

Stichte Brug (12.7m)

Locks

Nijkerkersluis

Charts

1810.3

1810.6