Netherlands Trip - Harlingen      18th June:

    What a change this morning; blue skies, hardly a breeze and temperatures in the high 20 degrees.
    Rex put a curse on a dead eel floating down the canal, and the carcass immediately took up residence against the side of Duonita in retaliation. "The stink is going to be terrible," he wailed.

A Row of Trawlers in the Fishing Harbour

    After breakfast I took myself for a brisk hike, stopping off at the huge locks that connected the Waddenzee to the Van Harinxmakanaal. I was amazed to see a torrent of water pouring out of one of the two locks. Closer inspection revealed that the lock was totally open, with the canal level being slightly higher than the sea level, hence the torrent. Craft still continued to use the other lock in a normal fashion. I tarried a while, and watched a small flotilla of motor vessels glide down the canal and halt just outside the working lock, while a boat made its way out and headed up the canal. The boats wanting to go down through the lock and out to sea were kept waiting for quite a while, one of them gilling about the entrance to the lock hoping to be in pole position when the lights turned green. Then, to my amazement, the lock gate at the sea end opened and then the canal lock gate was opened at the same time. There were now two torrents racing out to sea. The boat gilling about nearly got sucked sideways into the turbulent flow, and only just managed to shoot out into quieter waters. The lights turned green, but the vessels were hesitant about entering it, but the pole position boat took courage and headed in. He was suddenly flying through the lock at a rate of knots, yelping like a cowboy as he did so. Soon the other boats followed his lead and were swept through into the harbour basin.
    I ambled over to the trawler harbour, bristling with tall superstructures and acres of fishing nets from armadas of trawlers. It was all jolly colourful.

Grote Kerk from Lammert Warndersteeg

    As I headed back through town, multitudes of stalls were being erected along Voorstraat. Music would be performed in the afternoon.
    Rex had been busy catching up on his emails and texts while I was hiking, but I cajoled him to meander around the same route, albeit me returning back to the boat to recover his tablets. Poor Rex still needed his drug fix. We made it back to Voorstraat and partook in a coffee at one of the roadside cafes. Suddenly there was a startled cry from one of the female customers who carried her small dog in her arms. It had escaped, and was running off down the street. Immediately the young waiter gave chase, and returned a short while later with the yapping little dog. He was hero of the day.
    In the evening, we discovered a delightful little bar, De Lichtboei (The Light Buoy), where we enjoyed a couple of beers in a very much rough and ready local pub. As we sat outside, more locals turned up who also sat alongside us, all with at least one dog. "Is this National Dog Appreciation Society Day?" I moaned to Rex. "Don't you just love it when this happens?"
    Earlier in the day I'd had some text exchanges with my daughter Sally, and whilst we were at the pub I received a call from Dan to wish me happy Father's Day. Nice to be remembered. The poor lad was suffering with the heat which was as high in the UK as it was out here.
    We left the walking dog home and headed into Voorstraat where music could be heard. Many bars seemed to favour karaoke, and at one restaurant a solitary guitar player turned out some awful renditions of the Rolling Stones. Rex winced at this, the same sort of wince he produced on his back spasms. However, he kept his wits enough to observe that this restaurant was devoid of customers. Such a shame.
    At the other end of the long street, a couple of guitarists, a male/female duo, played out 70s type songs. I noticed a pattern, the chap would tend to start at too fast a tempo, and the woman would gradually slow him down before she started to sing. We found a decent restaurant near the duo and ate a splendid meal. I had cod with salad and frittes, accompanied by piccalilli and stewed rhubarb - I kid you not, but it was a wonderful combination. The musicians meanwhile cycled through their entire repertoire, and started once again on their umpteenth version of "Jolene".