Tag: groceries

Land dwelling exercises

Cycling to Dronten for groceries

June 21st 2019

We decided to stay one more day. There was still a bag with laundry waiting to be done and we were running low on fresh food. A quick search on internet told us that the nearest grocery store was 8 kilometers away. That’s too far to walk, especially the return trip with all the groceries. But fear not, the marina had bikes for rent that came with handy cycle bags.

The nearest town is Dronten in the polder of Flevoland, which is the largest artificial island in the world. The reclaimed island is just about 50 years old which you can tell by the newness of the buildings and that all the streets are very straight, as if they’ve been drawn with a ruler (which they probably did). After all the historical towns we have visited it was weird to be in such a new place. But although it all looked rather urban, the atmosphere was friendly and people took their time chatting with cashiers, promenading past shops and eating ice cream in the sunshine.

Cycle bags and backpacks filled with fresh foodstuffs we went back to the boat. We did another laundry and even got some work done despite the fact that we were dead tired; it seems that our poor legs aren’t used to land dwelling exercises like cycling anymore. 

Popeye the sailorman

Doing groceries when living on a boat

June 3rd 2019

On our way to the grocery store

It was less tropical than yesterday, a good day to do boat chores. Cleaning the boat is one of them. Never our favourite job, but one of the good things about living in a tiny floating house is that it doesn’t take too long to clean it all.

After the cleaning operation we needed to get some groceries for the coming passage. Doing groceries is also a bit different when you are cruising. Normally we just got a cart and piled in everything we needed for the coming week, put it all in the car and drove home. But now we have to rely on the strength in our arms, and although we are sailors, we are not Popeye. And even if we were Popeye the Sailorman, it wouldn’t fit in our tiny fridge anyway. So in stead of the cart we take a basket. As long as the basket is still not too heavy to carry, it is the right amount to fit in our backpacks, we’ll be able to carry it back and it will fit in the fridge.

In the evening we heard funny splashing sounds, and we wondered what kind of big birds were passing our boat. Turned out to be a flock of humans, swimming back and forth in our stretch of the canal. They looked a bit like funny birds though, with their brightly coloured floating devices.