Netherlands 22: Zaandam by boat

As I mentioned in Around Zaandam, our holiday home was conveniently located on the Hanenpadsloot canal and we had access to two boats, which gave us opportunity to get out on the waterways in Zaandam during our stay. So once we were shown how to use the it, we were keen to take the boat out on the water, which we did a couple of times.

To continue the boat theme of the Netherlands 22 series, I thought I’d share some photos of our boat rides. There’s not much in the way of cycling or cycling infrastructure in this post, so if you’re looking for that, come back for my next post. While the route we took shares a lot with The route to Zaanse Schans we did on our bikes, being in a boat gives it a bit of a different perspective.

First boat ride

Our first boat ride was on the Wednesday, after we’d had a relatively quiet day hanging round Zaandam. We Set off from our holiday home along Hanenpadsloot, passing along the other houses on our street, with moorings on the canal. It’s amazing how the different the houses look from the back, from the front, they look quite ordinary.

Along Hanenpadsloot, we passed under the S155, then at the end, arrived at the river Gouw, where we turned left. The Gouw runs north to south, parallel to the Zaan river, but is much narrower and more suitable for small boats like ours.

Heading north, we initially went through a largely residential area, passing under a walking and cycling bridge, then under Vermiljoenweg. The Gouw then opened up as we approached the area around Burgemeester In ‘t Veldpark park. At this point, there’s some lovely views of the river, with multiple walking and cycling bridges going across.

Approaching a walking and cycling bridge

We then passed the new housing development and Albert Heijn, which we saw when we came through here on our bikes. We then crossed under the two motorways and railways as we did, when we cycled through here.

Looking back at walking and cycling bridge and new development

Now on the Nagouw, we made a right turn after the A8 motorway and headed for the Jagerplas lake, which we arrived at after passing some more walking and cycling bridges and a recreation area.

At this point, we stopped the boat in the lake, so we could enjoy a picnic. This was really pleasant on this sunny late afternoon on the relatively peaceful lake. There were some people enjoying watersports on the other side of the lake, but you couldn’t really hear them much. There was just us and a few other boats bobbing about in the water.

In Jagerplas, stopping for a sandwich and drink

As I mentioned in the The route to Zwembad De Breek, swimming in Jagerplas isn’t recommended, due to pollution. From what I believe, this is due to the local birds, rather than anything else. They’re not pumping sewage into here, like what happens in many rivers in the UK.

After a pleasant picnic in Jagerplas, we made our way back along the Gouw, passing many other people enjoying the river, either in boats or from the side. I must admit, I did feel very jealous of the people living around here, who have this lovely river and surrounding green spaces on their doorstep.

We soon reached the turning for Hanenpadsloot, where we went right and carried on towards our holiday home. The Hanenpadsloot canal connects the Gouw and Zaan, providing a route for small boats to navigate between the two, via a set of locks, to take you between the different heights of the two.

It would have been nice to have tried this out ourselves, but our boat felt a little too small to be going out onto the Zaan. Though in hindsight, we took a similar sized boat out onto the Amstel, during our day out in Amsterdam. Though I guess that didn’t involve traversing through a set of locks, which we’ve not done before.

On Hanenpadsloot, approaching our holiday home

We were now back at our holiday home, where we moored up and decamped to the garden to enjoy the rest of the evening.

In De Gouw, houses on Dominee Martin Luther Kingweg in the background

Boat passing in the other direction — In De Gouw, houses on Dominee Martin Luther Kingweg in the background

Second boat ride

Our second boat ride was on the Friday, after we’d been to Hembrug and before going out into Zaandam for our last evening in the city. We set off along Hanenpadsloot and followed largely the same route we did on our first boat ride, on another sunny late afternoon.

Boat selfie, walking and cycling bridge in the background

Though after stopping again in Jagersplas, where everyone took turns to drive the boat, we carried on further north along the Nagouw, to explore a bit further.

This route took us through more residential areas and some fantastic looking houses on the banks of the river. We then passed under quite a low bridge, where we got as far as we could.

At this point, we turned the boat round and set back off towards our holiday home, so we could get ready to go out. It was quite busy along the Gouw, as we made our way back.

We soon turned off the Gouw and onto Hanenpadsloot. We then arrived at our holiday home, where we moored the boat and headed in to get ready for our last evening.