Leaving the barge

There was lightening and rain during the night and it was fairly cold when we woke up after 7. We did the usual breakfast and shower routine and left at 9:15. We barged straight through Maarssen where there are some massive houses. The bridges all opened as we got to them. We went past the Nijenrode Castle and Guntenstein Castle from the 13th Century before Breuklen. We turned right back into the unsignposted Mijndensw sluis, paid the €5 fee and did not have to turn our engines off. We tied up in the barge basin at 11:45 and finished the formalities of cleaning everything off the barge and the payment by 12:15. We caught the 121 bus back to Hilversum station at 12:38 and arrived at 13:07. The bus shows connecting times and platforms of the busses and trains at the station. There is a large chapel in Hilversum which we saw on our way back in. We went back to Amsterdam to have lunch at Pancakes Amsterdam. Mark and Dave had American waffles with bacon and maple syrup. I went for the traditional Dutch pancake with ham and cheese. Mark walked back to the station with us and we said goodbye and caught the 14:45 train to Hoofddorp. It arrived at 15:05 at a not very clean station. We got the 145 bus ten minutes later and in ten minutes we were at the Beemsterstraat stop. We had a short walk to the bed and breakfast which o can highly recommend if you have to overnight for a flight out of Schipol. Roland showed us to our room and Dave caught up with work and we relaxed. We took a walk into the city centre where the shopping district is. We decided on having supper at Vrienden van Marktzicht. They have two South African wines on their wine list and we each had a glass of Roundhouse Sauvignon Blanc. Dave had Hollandse ossenhaas for his main course and I had Zeebaars. It was uncomfortably hot in the restaurant and we left as soon as we had finished eating. We wanted an early night as we need to be up early in the morning for our flight home. 

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