Friday 30th May Roermond

A few postcards while I have access to wifi
Rattentoren built 14th century and the only original gate to the city left

The Market , main square


city carillon with 49 bells and life size figures that move around ! midday there is a lot of action


Roermond on the pilgrim route

Maastricht to Roermond

Sunday 25th and time to move on. We have been very lucky to have gorgeous Aussie neighbours while we have been here on the town quay. Maxine and Russell on Compean, needless to say some time spent together, swapping stories, hints on what is to come ( they have been in the Netherlands for the past 3years we have been in France where they are heading) and of course a drink or two, a lovely dinner on board their boat one night.
Linquenda and Compean together flying the boxing kangaroos

Maxine and Russell

Goodbyes said and offer set towards Maasbracht, 36km down the Juliankannel . Monday morning we had an appointment with a programming wiz kid to get the AIS software we had bought to talk to the Navigo software( this is supposed to tell other boats where we are and where they are) Although we had been promised that it would work with Apple this did not appear the case so experts we're required. 3 hours latter finally success!!! Oh happy days.( so much for plug and play!)
Left Maasbracht ear!y arvo and headed towards Roermond, before we got there we did a sharp left hand turn into a lake, found a beautiful rural mooring and there we have stayed. Bliss, no bobbing around madly.

Just another few "postcards"

more cute houses

what a way to treat. car! Knud horrified


A work in progress, this was taken yesterday and the next taken today


and the winner of the decorated bike is ..............

The Way

As some of you can recall we often refer to our life on the waterways as like living in a long village, this was proven again when who should we bump into but Willem and Yvonne off The Way. A gorgeous Dutch couple who we have met many times, (bizarrely 3 of those times on Bastille Day) What makes them such an inspiration is that Willem has been wheelchair bound after an accident in his early 20's. Since then he designed and built their boat himself, with assistance from Yvonne,there was a delay for a few years because he ended up owning and running a boat building business now finally they now cruise the waterways each summer. We caught up for a couple of hours this morning, they rafted off the side of Linquenda as they have done a number of times before.
Willem at the helm of The Way, a lift gets him to the lower levels

We wave farewell , till next we meet

More from Maastricht Sat 24th

More exploring, more wonderful sights.
Today they have free jazz in the streets!! such a great vibe.
spent a while listening to this great band


a water bottle filling station


Electric car and bike re charging point


a button and bead shop, never seen so many buttons &beads

Some more of Maastricht

Having had problems for a few days with sending a blog finally the blog seems to work again!! so now I can send a few more photos.
Maastricht a stunning city, very affluent, a marked difference from rural France. Don't think I have ever seen so many up market shops in such a large area. Everyone dressed beautifully, even the uni students have a certain style about them. Another marked difference is the lack of motor vehicles, main transport is by bike. Mind you with some of these narrow streets you would be hard pressed to get a car down them.
7th century water mill that still works grinding flour, bakery next door bakes it and sells it, cafe also

part of old city wall

Helpoort ( Hells gate ) one of the old city gates

former Faliezustersklooster dating from 1647 now houses

pretty cycle

wouldn't this make a lovely Xmas door decoration!!!

A few pictures of Maastricht

bookshop in what was once a church

bikes!! thousands of them, theses parked at the station

cute street scene

wooden bike

Amay to Maastricht Monday 19th May

A bright and early start, got going by 7am !! 10km to the first lock. Very industrial landscape now so no hanging about.






barge being loaded with Belgium beer

Passed through Liege but decided to keep moving through, we can go back by train from Maastricht. Passed through our last Belgium lock and into the Netherlands !! 6 km latter we were in Maastricht, we are now moored to the wall/quay in the middle of town. The other side of the wall is the Maas ( the Meuse has had a spelling change) the big freighters churn past 24hours a day so the theory is that we have some protection however we are bobbing about a fair bit. I also have a ladder to climb to get up to the quay!! Those of you who know my love of ladders will be impressed!

only one way off the boat and thats up the ladder!!

Quay / wall in middle of the Maas at Maastricht

Maastricht a beautiful city so we plan so spend a week or so here.

Dinant to Amay. Sunday 18th May

A beautiful sunny , wind still morning, got going and to first lock by 9am , shared with another Swiss couple on Kada".
We made great progress, didn't have to wait at any locks !
The houses along the Meuse amazing, a long while since we have seen such affluence.








We arrived in Namur by lunchtime and decided to keep pushing on, we had been here 4 years ago , and although a beautiful city it will have to wait for a visit from us for a couple of years.



View of the fortifications of Namur

more fortifications of Namur

The first lock after Namur a shock to the system, suddenly we are in 200mt by 25mt locks, ( France the locks are 40mt by 5.15 mt and from the Belgian border to Namur they had been 100mt by 12mt )



From here on the landscape gradually changed, becoming more industrial. We luckily were able to get a lovely rural mooring. This stretch of the river the locks don't operate at night , so a peaceful nights sleep without the big freight boats going past.

So Much to Tell

Wow what a busy few days we have had!! We left Givet , France, Saturday morning the 17th May, after 4km of French waterways we were in Belgium.


This stretch of the Meuse river is particularly stunning









After 4 hours of cruising we arrived in Dinant, we had waits at each lock and the wind had picked up so we decided that was enough for the day, besides Dinant a very pretty town, the sun was shining so a great opportunity to catch the cable car up to the Citadelle.
Dinant the home of the sax , fibreglass sax erected across the bridge, each country in the EU has decorated a sax for the bridge

view from the Citadelle looking down over Dinant and the Meuse River

Knud next to the Danish sax