Baby, it's wet outside!

Before leaving Sneek yesterday, we moved the boat to get closer to a grocery store.  Time to do some restocking.  On the way, we went through this lovely old bridge.

Groceries safely aboard we said good-bye to Sneek, and the ancient gate of the city said good-bye to us.

We cruised slowly along through the drizzling rain.  Here was a windmill not like the other windmills, beautiful in its solitude.

We passed through the town of Ijlst

and continued on, heading for Sloten.

Here you can see see the difference in the water level in the small canal past the little pumping station and the larger canal in which we are.  It is this sort of thing, repeated thousands of times, that keeps Friesland, and pretty much all of the Netherlands, dry.

I previously mentioned the way the canal bridge tenders get the toll.  Here Nancy's going to try it.

Nailed it!

Here's a windmill that wasn't used to pump water.  It was a sawmill.  You can see the lumber at the end.  At the other end were large logs.  I can't imagine it's still used.  Now it looks to be primarily a place to store sailboats.

You see this often, the home in front blending seamlessly (except for the roof color change) with what I presume is the barn in the back.

We stopped for lunch at the side of the canal.  Of course it was raining and of course it was windy.

But all was well inside.  Elaine has made wonderful meals three times a day, day after day.

At last we came to Sloten.  Sloten is another beautiful town.  It was a fortress in the old days and very rich.

Here's where we moored to explore the town.  Exquisite!

Nancy's demonstrating the stocks to Elaine.

In the old city hall is a little museum.  This part, in the attic, is a collection of antique magic lanterns.

Here you see the layout of the town as it was. You can see the windmill in the lower right hand corner.

This painting is a bit dark, but in the lower right hand corner a boat is moored.  It's in the precise location where our boat was moored.

After the museum we had coffee.  Nancy and I ordered black coffee, but by some workings of Divine Providence it came with a little side glass of Baileys and whipped cream.  Pure Heaven!

Sloten is truly lovely.

We thought we weren't allowed to stay on our sublime mooring (at least that's what we thought the sign said) so we went a bit outside of Sloten.

The friendly mooring fee collector man tracked us down and asked us why we had left the best moorage in town.  Perhaps our Dutch needs some work :-).

With the exception of what must have been the last mosquito in the Netherlands, the night passed uneventfully, full moon and all.  The next morning, this morning, was my birthday!  What fun.  Three lovely voices raised in Happy Birthday harmony, cards, the whole bit.

Jeremy, by contrast, felt compelled to clean out the filter for the head.  Clearly, it wasn't his birthday.

And that's it for today, October 12, 2011.  It's raining outside, but that's ok.  Life is very, very good.