Back in time. Holland’s Golden Age.

Medemblik’s laidback charm was the perfect backdrop for us to explore windmills, dijks and other tourism tickboxes.

From Medemblik we reached down to Enkhuizen under a hot sun.

Enkhuizen was extraordinary. From our mooring just off the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen with its story of life before the Afsluitdijk, we motored past its massive marina into town to be surrounded by Holland’s Golden Age architecture built with the massive profits from the Dutch East India Company’s (VOC) spice monopoly, which from 1600-1800 was the Apple or Google or Facebook or Microsoft of its age, the richest company the world had ever seen … in the 17th century.

Rather than stay the night we chose to press on to our next stop Edam – such short distances and everyone wanted to allow enough time for exploring Amsterdam.

The harbour was very busy as the wind strengthened late in the day, so we rafted up with all the other new arrivals.
Rafting meant shifting around the following morning to allow for departure times but we were soon all in the tender and ready to leave for town, a few kilometres along the canal.

If Enkhuizen was a complete surprise in its grandeur, extent, style and history, Edam by comparison was smaller, more laidback, and definitely cliched picture postcard.

Using the canals is definitely the way to explore Edam.
We treated ourselves to lunch in the restaurant, bought some cheese, and did the tourist thing, the sun still staying out all the while – made up for the horrendous North Sea weather that had greeted our arrival in Holland the year before.