Day 8 - Ijsselstein to Gorinchem

 We got off to an early start, around 8:05, after saying goodbye to the chickens, swans and billy goats.

We hadn't traveled very far when we came upon several bridges that needed to be opened for us.  One frustrating thing is that there's a guy in the booth by the bridge who definitely sees us, but doesn't answer the phone or make any kind of signal.  You just have to be patient and wait.....

This is David patiently (lol) waiting.

We traveled through some lovely areas, going through several bridges that had to be raised for us, and a few that were sufficiently high enough for us to pass under.  We then came to a very narrow area, where we met another very large, oncoming boat.  It was very uncomfortable for a few minutes.  

 The noises you hear in the above video are made by our bow thrusters, which move us sideways, away from the other boat.

Shortly thereafter, we headed toward a giant lock.  When I called the lockmaster on the phone, he was unsure if there would be enough water in this low tide for us to pass through.  If there wasn't, we'd have to turn back and wait several hours for the tide to change, ugh.  He asked if we wanted to try it and we said yes.  Fortunately, there was enough water, by about 3 inches, according to the lockmaster!  So we continued along our way, passing by several large ships.  

It takes a lot of water to raise or lower the water levels in this giant lock.  Fortunately it worked out!

Most, if not all of the opening bridges have a phone number to call for them to open.  Sometimes you get a person who answers.  Sometimes you can see the guy in the booth but he doesn't answer - usually that means he's seen you and is getting ready to open it.  Other times it's a recording, in English for some reason (it might be our system is programmed to give us the English phone number).  On the recordings, they name the various bridges in the area and ask you to press 1 or 2 or whatever.  For the first time this morning, then recording was in Dutch. Then they said something in German.  Luckily, the third thing was in English so we could get the bridge open!

Like yesterday, a lot of today's route is beautiful!

At long last we arrived in Gorinchem and the Haven Master came out to meet us and help us tie up in our berth for the night.  We decided to take a walk to town to look around.  It was about a 15 minute walk, past a beach, a playground, and some kind of kids' activity that we couldn't figure out.  We wandered around the area, in and out of stores, and came upon some kind of concert.  I later found out it is part of a weeklong festival here, and at 9:45 pm as I write this, I can still hear the music off in the distance.

This next video is of some kind of kid's activity where they're building or something.  Unfortunately, I filmed it sideways.  I tried and tried but couldn't change it.  

On our way back, we passed by the beach again and I couldn't help but dip my feet in!

After we came back Adele and I needed to do laundry.  But there's only one washer and one dryer and they were already in use.  It took a long time for us to get through it, but we did, just in time to get to our dinner reservation.  We ate in a great restaurant right in the middle of this very happening square.  The food was terrific, so good that we all dug in without taking a picture!

Dumplings and naan bread with spreads - Delish!

Museum with church in background

I was surprised to see these water taxis and giant barges still operating at dusk.

Our marina for tonight