Schoonhoven Walk

First I had plans to go to Lisse and do the Keukenhof walk but since I done this walk already twice, I decided to stay closer to home and take the bus to Schoonhoven. It's a small town situated right on the Lek river.  It's also called "Silver City" (Zilverstad) because of it's silver industry in the past. Today it is still the home of many silver smiths and gallery's. Also Schoonhoven is the home of the Vocational School for Silversmiths.
The 15 km walk lead us via the outskirt of Schoonhoven, back through the center of Schoonhoven to the ferry, which took us to the other side of the river Lek.

View over the Lek:

We walked along the dike with a nice view of the Lek........

 .....to another pittoresque town called Nieuwpoort. With about 1400 inhabitants it should be called a village but because it was given city rights in 1283 it is called a city. It is one of the smallest Dutch fortress towns. This is the old cityhall:

After a rest stop I walked back to the Lek dike and continued the route.

Here some houses/farms below the dike:

After a while we left the dike and walked to a country road which lead us back to Nieuwpoort, walking parallel to the dike but at a further distance:

If you look good you see the dike behind the church (see car):

Coot nest:

We are nearing Nieuwpoort again. Here you can see the fortress wall:

 Nieuwpoort city sign:

Entering Nieuwpoort:

We were back at the same rest stop. Ate my apple and went on:

Another way to use wooden shoes:

A typical Dutch front door.

The rest stop was at this church at the right, near the old city hall:

Leaving Nieuwpoort through the wall:

The church suddenly looks so biiiig, like a giant towering above the houses!!!:

A view of the other side of the town wall:

And back at the ferry to take us across:

On the right you see the Veerpoort (Ferry Gate), which was build in 1601. There were five gates in the town walls but this is the only one left:

After we left the ferry we walked over this traditional drawbridge..........

.........back to the starting point.

It was a great day to walk!