France 2011

July 27^th

It seems along time ago that I sat down to write my blogg. We have passed through many towns that were highly industrial and not that exciting.

Our first place in France was a place called Lille. It is here that we picked up our German friends, Dietmar and Margrit.

                                                            Town square of Lille

                                        Dietmar and Russel in Lille

We had a great mooring in Lille but no electricity so after three days things were getting a bit grim. We even had to turn off the drinks frig.  It is also a lot harder to communicate as the French have little English. We have been spoilt by the Dutch and the Germans.

 

We have very little information of where to stop overnight and if we do find somewhere it has few facilities.  We had been sailing for about7 hours and decided enough was enough so we pulled into this little area where some Belgium people made room for us.

Russel then had to turn the engine off. We hadn’t been able to switch it off all day, so we pulled the floor up and Russel went down to try and turn the engine off manually. He ended up with a part coming away in his hand. Oh horror from me.!!!

He decided to get help form the Belgium, who claimed it had happened to him 2 weeks ago. He managed to turn the engine off. Next day Russel repaired the part that had come loose and we are now in action again.

                                          This is the spot where we stopped overnight -Estrun

At about 7pm we received a text from the Gilberts “Where are you?

We turned the Tom Tom on to see where we were and after telling them the Gilberts turned up and parked on the road.

                             These guys passed by the next morning

The next place we stayed at was Cambrai – here we had power and water and were fairly close to the town – riding bikes to the town showed we were definitely out of the Netherlands – we had hills to go up.

 That night I refused to cook so Dietmar and Margrit took us out for dinner and we all had mussels. Even though they were from Zeeland they were not as big as the previous ones.

We have now started the locking scene and it is quite strenuous. We hit a lock about every 1-2 klm today and now we are sitting outside the Riqueval Tunnel. Tomorrow morning we will go through. The tunnel is 5.65 klm long and you are towed through by an electric boat which pulls itself along a very large chain. . You are not allowed to have your engines going. You are tied to the next boat by a 30 meter rope that is crossed at the front. They take all our details and then send the charge to your home address.

Once again we received a text from the Gilberts for our location and after a while we could see them walking up the long walk way for a visit. This time they couldn’t get their van near us, so after a cup of tea they headed back to their van. 

 

If you look close enough you can see Gilberts walking towards us

 

                                                   Gilberts arrive

At about 9am the barge arrived to pull us through the tunnel.

 

                                 We are about to enter the Tunnel

The Carr’s are being towed from our boat. They are about to enter the tunnel.

Well we managed to get through that tunnel and the next one. We have had to pull our binini down a couple of times. I expect this will happen a lot in France as the Bridges don’t lift and are sometimes quite low.

We made it to Saint Quentin in the rain and we are here for a few days. Dietmar and Margrit left this morning and so did the Gilberts and the Carr’s so we are here on our own doing washing, cleaning and boat maintenance. I am also nursing a really bad cold and I need the rest. We leave tomorrow.

Aug 5^th.

 The Gilberts finally found the cheap phone. “Lebara” it enables you to ring a home phone in Perth for 1c /minute. We still haven’t found internet so will be visiting MacDonald’s today if the rain stops. We have had the odd sunny day since leaving St Quentin. I even put my bathers on once. The weather really has been appalling this year.

 We continued to travel down the St Quentin canal and stopped at Chauney, Pargny-Flain, Berry on Bac and then arrived in Reims after many locks and one tunnel. Below are a few photos of our travels.

Our tie up in Chauny at side of canal

                                   One of many many locks

Near Pargy Flain was this water playground in the canal water supply pound

Entry to a 2.5km tunnel

                               

                                  Following the Carr's

Reims is the beginning of the Champagne country so yesterday we did a tour of the Mumm company which ended with a great glass of champagne. We went underground through their maze of tunnels (25 km in total- we didn't walk that far) where they store  millions of bottles of champagne. Did you know that some 80% of Frances champagne production is consumed within France.

                                  

                                 Outside Mumm Champagne house

The previous night we went to a light show on the cathedral. It was extremely well done. For those that will visit Reims it’s a must. They hold it on most Friday and Saturday nights at about 10.00pm.

Belgium 2011

July 14^th (Bastille Day) in France started with us all waking up to rain, wind and some very miserable weather and it didn’t improve but got worse and worse, we got wet, blown around and generally it can be said by all of us that it was a rotten day!!!

 It began at about 9.45 when the first bridge was opened so we could be let out of Willemdok, then the second bridge about 15 minutes later, which let us all out into the Antwerp docks where we waited for the big Sluis to open. There was no where to tie up so we had to keep the engines going and dodge the barges and other ships for two hours.

Below is a picture of us all out in the open roaming around trying to keep the boat stationery.

.

We all had to call the Sluis and tell them our ship length, FD number ( which was given to us by the harbour master before we left the haven) and where we were going and he told us what number ship to enter the Sluis.

After two hours we were finally called in after 4 barges had tied up, and we all were jammed in there, all wet and frozen.

Below is me in the Sluis feeling very sorry for my self.

You can also see Bob with two other ship holding onto his boat.


We all thought that was bad enough until we got out into the Zeeschelde (the main river which is tidal). It was very rough water and really quite scary. We passed Antwerp into the Boven Zeeschelde where the water came a little calmer, but it nether stopped raining. We all went through a few sets of clothing and at the end of the day we had loads of drying to do.


The following pictures shows Antwerp as we passed through.  It is showing Bobs boat .

About 5pm we arrived at the Dendemonde Sluis where we were let through to find that the only place to moor for the night was on the edge of the Sluis.  It wan't that inviting but we were all tired, wet and miserable so we tied off, dried off at opened a bottle of wine. We all felt we deserved a big drink !!!

Below are the boats tied up against the sluis.

The next morning we woke to a glorious sunny day, so we hauled our bikes up to the top of the Sluis and headed off to Dendemonde which was about 3klm away.

Bob and Russel hauling the bikes up.

Dendemonde was a delightful and interesting town. It was destroyed during the first world was so they rebuilt it as it had been. The second world it escaped any real damaged. We had a coffee in the Grote market.

We left at 2pm and headed to Ghent. We couldn’t leave before this as we had to wait for the tide to turn.

We arrived in Ghent just as the Sluis keeper was leaving to go home so once again we stayed at the Sluis sides waiting for the morning so we could go into the great yacht club close to the centre of Ghent.

                                          another Sluis overnight

Ghent is a very old city and even looks greyer today as once again the rain has come in and it looks like it intends to stay for a while.

                                  Our first sight of Ghent

We arrived to find they have a festival on – it lasts 10 day!!!s – we watched a parade that began the festivities but gave up as we were very wet.

The clean up the next day

We went on a trip on the canal in a boat - but it rained!!!

It wasn't raining when I took this

The next day we caught the train to Bruges and did the very touristy things there. It was Bob’s birthday so we had a special lunch. We all tried some local food. The boys had the Rabbit stew, me the beef stew and Lois the seafood stew. They were all very yummy but Lois came out on top.

                                   

                                                      The other place to stop in Ghent 

We left Ghent am slowly sailed through the side of Ghent and into the Leie River and onto to Deinze. This was the most delightful and picturesque section we have been down since we left Holland. It was gorgeous. The houses were huge and manicured lawns and gardens were great to look at.

Below are a few of the houses we saw.

This shows Arcturus travelling down the leie. Its not often we get a picture of us. Bob had been instructed to get some of us.

Deinze is an industrial town. We managed to have some luck at long last. We managed to get the last two pens in the yacht club and woke up to a sunny day which lasted long enough for us to go to the market which was huge. Clothing and food.!! We spent a fortune on local delicacies which we are now enjoying.   

                                       The Chicken Rotisseri

we are living on fabulous fruit.  The necterines are fab!!!

We left Deinze and travelled for a day and passed the border into France.

We have spent the last few days in Lille trying to organise phones and internet. Its all very different here. Very expensive to ring home and forget about internet. If anyone has suggestions or experience let us know. I am sitting in Mac Donald's for the first time in my life using the internet.!!!



Belgium 2011

We spent the next few days travelling down towards Belgium, stopping for a night at Dordrecht, Willemstad and Bergen Op Zoom.

Arcturus on the dock in Willemstad

 I felt sad about leaving The Netherlands and a little apprehensive about entering a new country. We now need to find new phone cards, internet, super markets etc which we did on the first couple of hours we had arrived in Antwerp.

                                  
                                                   Willemdok

Travelling through the port of Antwerp was an experience. It was extremely busy with barges and big ships and us little sports boats felt like a cork in the ocean. At times I felt a little sea sick. I was down making coffee and suddenly the boat started to bounce all over the place and things were flying – a small boat went pass at great speeds. They really are a pain. It is however quite scary when the boat is lurching from side to side.

                                  
                                         Penny when the waters were calmer

Antwerp Port

                                             Russel puting the Belgium Flag up

 We arrived in a great marina close to the centre of town and then planned our next adventure.

 We hired a car which was a bit of a drama in itself. We booked a car over the internet to pick it up on The Thursday morning at 8 o’clock. The wedding was at 1.30 and we had 2.5 hours to drive to Steenwijk. We decided on Wednesday to go to the railway station and make sure we were going to get a car as we couldn’t have delays on the Thursday. Just as well as the girl said she didn’t have any cars and anyway didn’t start till 8.30am and then she had work on the cars if any came in.  We panicked.  We then asked if we could pick one up that night. Yes she said if one comes in. So we waited all day for her phone call. When it came we had 1 hour to get to the airport to pick it up. They close at 5pm. We rode to the bus station and caught the bus to the airport and we finally had the car.

                                                                                              

Next morning we packed and drove to Steenwijk with Jane. (Jane is our Tom Tom) We arrived at 11.00 to a house full of relatives getting dressed.  They were all very friendly and gorgeous people.

                              
                            Outside the housebefore we all left

Russel had the task of driving John’s car with his two girls to the different wedding venues. (there were a few). We drove first to the yacht club De Kluft where we had coffee and ham rolls and then we all followed the main car the had John and Rinolda in to Vollenhove where the marriage service was held. The ceremony was in a lovely old house with a delightful celebrant that sounded like she was enjoying her role. Not that we understood what she said but we did get it all explained later by Lara.

                        
                                   John and Rinolda with John's two girls Lara and Demi

It was a marriage for all four of them and they all looked gorgeous

We then had champagne and cake cutting in the grounds of this beautiful house.

 

 At about 6 o’clock we all headed back to the Kluft where we had a barbeque. At about 8.30 lots and lots of people arrived for the party. Up till then there had been about 40 relatives and close friends.  We danced until about 12.30 when we caught a taxi back to Steenwijk where we slept the night at John’s house. The rest of the crew stayed at the Kluft hotel.

It was a wonderful day and a great wedding. It was great to be invited to a Dutch wedding.

Next morning we headed to have lunch with the Gilberts who had arrived back from Paris the night before. We had a big chat and then headed towards the Zeeland area.

                                          
                                                       Yvonne outside her van

We were very tired and by about 6pm we hit the freeway traffic and ground to a halt. I asked Jane where to go and she gave us a motel just out of Gouda, so we pulled off the freeway and booked in for the night. We had visited Gouda on a previous trip so we didn’t have to do any sight seeing. We just had a meal in the town centre and then crashed.

                                         Map showing Zeeland area

Next morning we headed passed Rotterdam to the Europoort (Rotterdam harbour). The harbour complex is huge it extends some 40 km from the city of Rotterdam to the sea. The industry was incredible. We finally arrived at the sea – this is where an extension to the new harbour is being undertaken.

 

 Some time ago land from the sea was reclaimed which was called  Maasviakte 1 – now they are into Massviakte 2 – a completely new harbour extending the existing. Apparently when the Global Financial crisis hit the world and Dubai island making developments stopped they brought the equipment to Rotterdam and are making the new harbour. Sand is dredged from the seabed about 11km off shore and dumped at the new site – concrete blocks used in Maasviakte 1 as the hard sea wall are being recycled to the new section – the are 2.5m cubed and weigh about 30 tonnes each. The place was fascinating but as our luck had it on Saturdays it is closed so the display centre and the tour were unavailable – next time!!!!   .

The dredging machines in the distance

We left there and headed down the N57 until we arrived at the big water park of Neeltje Jans. It is on an island – this island was the construction site for the massive storm surge project. In 1953 large tides combined with winds from the north west broke through dykes and other protection and inundated large areas of land – this same event also hit the south east of England. As a result plans where developed to stop such devastation occurring again. The photo shows the extent of the project. The island has been turned into a theme park but the site has other aspects such as access to the storm surge structure and extensive expos on things such as Mussel farming – this area is famous for its Mussels – we had some  - yummy.

After spending the rest of the day here we decided to look for accommodation. It is now school holidays and we were by the seaside. Accommodation was hard to find so we looked up on the Tom Tom again and using the phone numbers we found a little hotel in the forest after spending sometime winding around the narrow roads. It was very cute. We had a meal that night in Domburg. Domburg was a very lively little town full of holiday makers. It is here that we had the traditional dish of Mussels. They were cooked in the local beer and served with chips and salad. We both enjoyed them immensely

                                            Hotel where we stayed

Next morning we drove to the local beach which was a short distance from our hotel.  We then left for our trip back to Antwerp stopping at Middleburg and Vlissingen which were delightful towns in the Zeeland.

                                                The Beach near Domberg

                                                 The Beach at Vlissengen

                  
                                                    large boats pass the local beaches

We really enjoyed the Zeeland area of Holland and were pleased that we spent sometime exploring. I think travelling by car and not the boat was a better option here.

We then spent the next few days exploring Antwerp. The Carr's caught up with us and Lois and i had an afternoon shopping. I also found a shop that sold lamb chops so I stocked up.

                                  
                           Oh no the girls have gone shopping again!!!

                                      
                                                 Groen Platts in Antwerp

                                   Over looking the marina

                                      Antwerp with the Schelde River in the back ground.

We will be heading down this river today. it is tidal and we must go at 10.00am to get through before we run out of water.