January 2021
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Our first winter in the lovely town of Harderwijk, a little gem we discovered on our journeying around Netherlands (and recommended to us by Gaelle and Russell (Vriebuiter) when we met them here back in October). We had visited in 2019 but decided the location would not be secure enough to leave SHENSI unattended. This has proved not to be the case.
Having been stuck in lockdown for the ten days following our arrival back from the UK at the end of December, we were finally able to move around relatively freely although only essential shops were open. We found a good dog walking area in a local forest though, so that’s made walks more interesting.
Most of the boats in the harbour are nicely illuminated for Xmas, as is the boulevard and the town itself. Harderwijk is a really interesting area, so it’s just a bit frustrating that all the shops and attractions are closed down – although the DIY stores are open for click and collect which helped with one of my little projects to make a new boat step; my second project to build a bookcase was easier as we brought the wood back with us from the UK.
One of our more local walks is through an as-yet undeveloped sandy expanse, and it’s interesting to see how the whole area is being developed around the town and it’s canals. The harbour master told us that a canal in that location was being officially opened, so we managed to get there just in time for the end of the ceremony.
After a few minor hoops to jump through, we received our letters confirming that we had been granted our Netherlands residency permits. A few days later we drove over to Almere to provide our biometrics for our ID cards, and then a week later we went off to Zwolle to collect them. It feels great to have all that sorted now, and to know we are free to stay in the Netherlands for the next five years. As an interesting bonus we arranged parking in a local car park. Absolutely stunned to discover that it was just 20 euros for an annual permit.
Towards the end of the month, temperatures began to drop with some very high winds which whipped up the waters in the harbour and hammered against the hull so much that we struggled to sleep for a couple of nights. After the winds died down it began to snow, making the scenery even more interesting.
Luckily for us we re-filled the water tanks and taken the boat to the pump out station to empty the black tank just before the weather really turned – as it got colder the waters froze over completely, so much so that it wasn’t long before the locals were out iceskating. Even the fishermen got in on the act, cutting holes in the ice so that they could carry on with their favourite pastime. That was interesting because we were just waking up as the fishermen started pounding at the ice with hammers, it sounded like they were bashing in the side of the boat!
There is a skate park but the majority of people were out on the main waterways which were heavily frozen over.
