Historic Towns

After leaving Maastricht we continued along the Maas River, then diverted into one of the many lakes that have been created through gravel extraction. We chose to stop at the ancient town of Thorn, founded as a home for noble ladies loosely attached to a women's Benedictine convent, and run by women for 800 years. There is a most attractive Church and for once a good English language explanation was provided. The Village is also called the "white" village as most of the old houses are still whitewashed, a throw- back to a time when the French gained power and taxed each residence on the basis of the number of windows. Many windows were boarded up and walls whitewashed to hide the changes.  

Church at Thorn

The stay in Thorn was also welcome as a quiet rural stop after having spent our time in cities since the children arrived. They enjoyed stretching their legs in a very pretty and well- maintained spot.

All the houses are whiteAl
We left the Maas for the quieter Zuidwillemsvaart Canal, carrying smaller commercial vessels and some pleasure boats. This took us to s'Hertogenbosch, the provincial capital of North Brabant, a busy place with some attractive buildings and plenty of squares where people stop for a drink. We discovered more about Dutch opening times: shops generally are closed all day Sunday and in this city at least, don't open again until Monday afternoon.

Canals in s'Hertegenbosch

One of the huge crowded locks. We had a very interesting chat with the skipper of the 65metre barge on our left

Soon we rejoined the Maas, now as two separate sections, the Bergse Maas and the Afgedamde Maas to visit two historic towns Heusden and Woudrichem, both of which had been fortified for many centuries. Heusden has re- erected its historic grassed ramparts and returned its harbour to its ancient state; Woudrichem also has some of the ramparts and gates which it needed as one of the towns in the "Dutch Waterline of Defences" from the 14th century.

Old Ramparts and moat lakes- Heusden

We stayed in the Historic Harbour at Woudrichem, thinking that as an historic boat we would be very welcome, but no, we were treated just like one of the 21st century white cruisers.

Historic Harbour, ramparts, windmill- Woodrichem

The weather was good so picnics were the order of the day for our daughter and family. They tired themselves out with long walks and found a great playground too. However, who needs a playground when there are cannons everywhere- s'Hertogenbosch, Heusden and Woudrichem had many handy cannons for climbing on and for making up exciting stories: favourite activities for our little ones.

In these historic towns we were reminded how important cycling is in the Netherlands. In Woudrichem it seemed that the only people walking were those exercising dogs (and us). The range of child carriers was impressive and varied. In Heusden we were having lunch in the square when over 100 middle- aged cyclists arrived. There was a sea of bikes, the late comers found it quite hard to find a spot. 

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave