Windmills & wine

Hello everyone and welcome aboard 'Snow Mouse', our 42' Broom.

Last year I posted on TF our journey from the middle of Ireland to Dunkirk, France.
It was the first part of our overall journey and the thread is called 'Ireland to the Mediterranean Part 1'.
After a hectic winter schedule we're now preparing for the next leg of our journey, this will take us from Dunkirk,France, up through Belgium and into Holland.
From there we'll go through part of Germany, then Luxembourg and finally back into France and on down to the Med.
I will post photo's and snippets of local information in the same format as last year which most folk seemed to like, as we travel along.
Be Patient, there may sometimes be a small delay in posts as we might not always have access to a Wi-Fi signal, there's no point in buying an all singing all dancing system just for a few months, we already have French system on board.
Over the winter months we've been living on board on our comfy Birchwood 33' cruiser in Narbonne, it's for sale and hopefully we'll get a buyer before we leave, if not it will keep our mooring space for us when we return to Narbonne on 'Snow Mouse'.
Many of you are not familiar with Europe and it's canal system so rather than posting one large map which would be difficult for you to visualise and follow, I will post a map of each country as we enter it and you can then be able follow our journey easier.
I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we intend to.

Have a very good and enjoyable trip, looking forward to see the photos.

Thanks Olivier.
Just like everyone else planning 'a big one' it's been a hectic winter, catching up from our last adventure, planning the new with some personal TLC thrown in along the way. We went for a weeks holiday in the French Alps to follow in the footsteps of Hannibal when he took his elephants over the Alps to attack Rome century's ago (photo) some feat in those days.
As our boat was pre owned we also wanted to keep the momentum going on upgrades for easy cruising and reliability.
Y'all know the kinda thing, uprated alternators, 'run dry' impeller kits from Speedseal, modified oil change pump for easy clean servicing, new Cat Water/fuel separator, new ropes, curtains etc. etc. the list goes on.
One of the problems we encounter is that most of the French chandlers and marine suppliers/agents are inflexible.
As our boat was built in England naturally the equipment suppliers were too, and that makes replacing things costly from a shipping point of view, or as we tend to do, combine a trip home by car and collect it ourselves.
The bonus of course is that we get to renew our old friendships and make new ones. The French can't understand why we love dry cured thick cut back bacon and damn good aged Irish beef for example ( the French eat theirs fresh, flash fried and very rare) so we take a cool box to restock with goodies too.
Just like you guys we love a sundowner at the end of a day so we nip over the border from France into Spain where we can buy spirits like Irish whiskey very cheap around 15 Euro's a litre for Tullamore Dew, Jameson's and Bushmills, note, Irish whiskey is spelt with an e and it's triple distilled for purity and smoothness. Scottish whisky is also very nice of course but only distilled twice, I'm biased so buy some Irish and boost our exports.
Spanish brandy is also much cheaper at around 10 Euro's a litre.
All this means an extra couple of 2,500 kilometre time consuming trips to transfer all these bottles and the junk we've acquired on our old boat to our new one.
Photo's of Cenis valley in the French Alps that Hannibal traversed with his army and elephants.
Husky Dog sled competition.
With all those dogs around NEVER EAT YELLOW SNOW !

As part of our preparations for our forthcoming adventure we had to go home to Ireland, then return via England to pick up some spares.
I've posted quite a bit on here about WW2 because quite simply there is so much that's been preserved it's impossible to miss.
The first part of our trip of 3000 kms takes us up along the Cherbourg peninsular and I've posted photo's of the Omaha beach in a previous post..
If you haven't already, I thoroughly recommend, you search online for a film called 'The Longest Day' of the D-Day landings on the 5th & 6th of June 1944.
In that film it shows the parachute assault by the American 82nd Airborne division at 04.30 on the 6th of June. The town of St Mere Eglise was the target and during the parachute landings Pvt John Steele's parachute got hung up on the church spire, he was captured by the Germans and released back to the Americans later that morning. The town of St Mere Eglise has an original DC3 and glider used in the assault along with many other artefacts in it's war museum.
A parachute and an effigy of John Steele are to this day shown suspended from the church spire to commemorate the town being the first town to be liberated in France.
On a lighter note we spotted these wild deer grazing in the field just outside St Mere Eglise.
Apologies for the turned photo.

Irish, great photos and narrative of an area that someday I WILL visit. I have a few things I need to do first but then it's off across the pond to see what side of the world.


Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

Entertained by a Lodi, CA winemaker (and boat lover) while in a hurry to imbide: a joy:

GFC,
I have to be careful in case I bore people of a younger generation but anyone with any interest can easily spend a leisurely week just along the Cherbourg peninsula alone.
We travel that way to catch the Irish ferries cruise ferry from Cherbourg direct to Rosslare in Ireland and I'm happy to make the post interesting for as many people as possible.
Markpierce, I can see your gonna fit right in France as you appreciate being out in the sun with food, wine and good company.
France boasts the largest vineyard in the world with 50 million hectares of vineyards and, err maybe I shouldn't tell, but it exports some of it's heavier reds to America fortify the lighter California wines.
The reds we drink as much as possible to dull the mind from the complete a*****s in government. Apologies for being political.
Here of course you can travel by boat along the canal, moor up to the bank and just dander into the vineyards and sample the grapes 'au naturel'.
I don't know if you get migrating birds passing through your vineyards in California as we do down here but when the machines have passed to harvest the grapes from the vines, they always miss some grapes, these ripen so much the sugar content slowly turns to alcohol.
Migrating flocks of birds stop off for a while to fatten themselves feeding on these alcohol rich grapes before the long sea crossing over the Med to North Africa.
One of the funniest sites is a flock of tipsy birds, they gorge so much on these they're falling about like a group of sailors on shore leave and can't take off until they sober up.
When they finally get airborne, DON'T LOOK UP !

Rambler, great stuff! Keep it up! My kind of trip. I understand from a Scottish friend that as children they'd ferment old oats to feed to wild geese to make them drunk and easy to catch! They wouldn't have had access to grapes in the Outer Hebrides... Cheers!


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Ah ! the canny scots !

To try and help to put things in perspective I've attached a map of the European waterways to give you an overview.
Altogether there are 45,000 miles of rivers and canals which are navigable and with such a plethora of choices as to where to cruise ensures there's something to suit everyone's taste.
I will post an individual map of countries we pass through on our journey.

Wow, if I'm seeing the map correctly, it looks like one can cruise from the English Channel across Europe to the Black Sea?

Hi MrJim.
Yes indeed you can, however the lower reaches of the Danube would be 'challenging', it's a bit like the Wild West down there and light fingered natives abound. I know of people in barges who've tried it and had to turn back.
On the European canal system you can cruise from the Med up to Russia, the Atlantic (read 'How to Cruise Between Two Sea's' on Amazon kindle, the Black sea. North sea, English channel, Baltic sea.
It's such an amazing and diverse system and over the coming months we cannot hope to physically (and financially) cover it all but we will cover enough to whet your appetite.
Likewise we envy you the ICW, I think the older and more informed we get the more we have the burning desire to explore.

Thanks for sharing your trip! Loved the last thread and am looking forward to this one evolving!

Did you read the post last year called 'Ireland to the Mediterranean Part 1' ? ?
On page five I related the story of the evacuation of the British army from the beaches at Dunkirk by the Winston Churchill's flotilla of 'Little Ships'.
During the winter months I spent some tracking down any surviving 'Little Ships' to get you a photo, I nearly missed her, she's called Omega and lo and behold she's moored in the South of France. Here she's seen with a winter cover.
She's owned by a Belgian gentleman and that's as much as I found out.
You can see the plaque she was presented with after the evacuation (if you can enlarge it helps to see the detail..

This weekend we head North to begin de winterizing/washing/modifying/victualing in preparation for our exciting summer adventures.




First we have to empty the bottles in the bar of 'Sanity' to save hauling them all the way North.
This turned out to be a very enjoyable solution, as the nigh wen bi and ours frens vishited we foun oushelves avin a schpectacula evenin hic, we finshed the bokkles an collaps inn the bed sumtim later.
Seriously we had a great night of fun and laughter, and yes we did empty the bar, what a send off !
Aspirin for breakfast anyone ?


On a more sober note, when we were searching for the Dunkirk little ship earlier we came across this 3 way lock at the medieval town of Agde, the original town and cathedral are built in black basalt rock from a nearby ancient volcanic quarry
The engineers building the canal du Midi at Agde needed to cross the shallow river Aude.
They built a weir below the crossing point to raise the water level in the river Aude to create a step up, over the river, then step down on the far side via another lock which allows barges/boats to cross the river
The 3 way lock also allows traffic to go down to the lower river Aude below the weir, from there they can follow the river out to the Mediterranean.
If you look closely at the photo you will see the higher water mark on the lock wall.
passing the lock gate facing you takes you up a step to cross the river Aude.
The lock gate in the centre right takes you down 2 metres to the lower river level and from there out to the Med.
The Belgian steel boat on the right is leaving the lock to cruise the canal du Midi.

Hey Irish Rambler.

You enjoy your cruise and Happy cruising to you and your Mate. Look forward to your posts.

Happy cruising to you.

Cheers.

H. Foster

Thank you very much HF for your good wishes.
A French neighbour from Narbonne has family around Paris and owns a camping car, he kindly offered to bring us and our belongings up to Dunkirk and on his return can visit with his family.
We've some mods to do first on 'Snow Mouse' and then restock for the summer..
The map shows our first planned short shakedown cruise to Bergues and will help those unfamiliar with France's geography.
You can just about see the black line I put on the top right hand corner of the map to show the short Southerly spur to Bergues, then the short Eastwards leg to the Belgian Border.
For any of you war movie buffs get yourself a download of 'The Dam Busters' as there'll be references later in the post that you can relate to.

Thank you for the map Irish Rambler.

It nice to see your route and understand where things are so we can follow you with a better understanding. Wow it sure does seem like a wonderful cruise. You both enjoy it and I for one am looking forward to your next post.

Happy Cruising Mate.

Cheers.

H. Foster.

A final trip to the diesel pump and we're ready at last to leave, time to quit talking and get walking.
It's important here to keep receipts for diesel.
In Ireland/England were allowed to use agricultural diesel which is dyed green in Ireland (naturally), and red in England. This dye is called quintinrazahol and of course stains the tank, subsequent fills will pick up some of this dye and taint the diesel.
(There's a way to get rid of this dye but I can't post it on a public forum).
Because we will be shortly passing the Belgian border the customs guys there get a bit twitchy as it's not allowed to use agri diesel in Europe in pleasure boats, therefore we keep receipts to prove we bought white(road) diesel and any dye is residual.
We say our final goodbye's to Dunkirk, (Dunkirk means The Church among the dunes) it's a great place to winter and the locals have been very helpful and kind. The place itself is steeped in history and well worth a visit if your ever in this region. It's hard to believe as you walk around the centre of the town that it was 80% razed to the ground in WW2 and rebuilt again using the original architectural plans.
Some photo's around the seaport and our friends Pat & Geri in 'Cool Running's' in the first of what will be around 5/600 locks during our summer cruise.

Hey Rambler! Watching your adventures with envy. Give 'er!



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Rambler,

Great post and thank you for the update and info. I know you both are enjoying your cruise.

Wow that is wild about the diesel fuel. I would love to have some Green Diesel on St. Patrick's Day! Just kidding.

Cheers Mate and be safe.

Happy cruising to the both of you.

H. Foster

Today we cruised the oldest canal in Europe ! Only 8 kilometres long. (photo).
Before the sea receded and the port of Dunkirk was built, the town of Bergues was an ancient tidal trading port, the canal was built in the 9th century to provide easier access, in the 16th century it was renovated by the then ruler of this region, King Phillipe of Spain.
Food, fine lace, textiles, bricks & tiles were the main exports from the port.

It got severely damaged in 2 world wars, the Germans dynamited the belfry tower and it was rebuilt again after the war, it houses 50 bells of various sizes which play a carillon (tune) on the hour.
(photo).
The old pawnbrokers building now houses the towns museum.
The town has always been fortified and much of the old walls and the original moat survive to this day. (photo).
The fortifications were 'modernised' by the French military defence architect, Msr Vauban.
The town is very very pretty and we really enjoyed our visit, we met some old friends and made some new ones.

Next we travel the canal du Furness up to, and across, the Belgian border. As we leave France we also lose our permanent Wi Fi so our posts may be a bit erratic until we get another system organised.

The canal Furness parallels the sea up as far as Neuiwport in Belgium but we will turn off so we can visit Ypres..
The land around here is very flat (the fields are called Polders), the water table is about 2 feet down.
The weather for our journey is bright & sunny but there's a cold North wind blowing across the flat land that would cut corn so up on the flybridge it's kinda chilly round the nether regions.
Despite the heavy clothing were wearing trips on the long straight sections allowed us to use the lower helm.
Of course it's early boating season here, were trying to get to Amsterdam in the first week in May and so far we haven't seen another private boat.


Arriving in Belgium at the canal port of Vuerne we were immediately impressed by how very neat & clean everything is. (photo's).
As the first port of call in Belgium we must show the ships papers and get a cruising permit (vignette) which set us back 80 euro's for 3 months, the port captain spoke excellent English and was extremely helpful and warmly welcomed us to Belgium and wished us 'Happy Cruising in our country'.
When we left the port we cruised the Lokannal, then took a shorter link canal to join the canalised Itzer/Ieper Canal to Ieper, on the way we saw our first working windmill and slope sided lock. photo's
What is most impressive is how each lock keeper who managed a section of the canal was there to open the lift bridges for us to pass unhindered & prepare locks for our arrival always with a cheery wave and 'I see you next place OK'.
Each lock keeper 'handed us over' to his college and we were royally looked after all the way to Ieper. Brilliant.

As you may know, in Belgium they speak either Flemish(similar to French) or Walloni which is more Dutch orientated, 90% speak English very well so that will explain the two names for the same place.
Of course during the last war the British soldiers gave Ypres the slang name of Wipers they weren't so good at the accents.
Many soldiers passed through the Menin gate in the fortified wall of Ypres to go to the Ypres salient and the allied front line to fight in what must have been the worst slaughter of mankind.
So bloody was this war that a young English man named Winston Churchill commissioned the design of a land battle cruiser to break the bloody stalemate, the code name was 'Tank' if you read the post Ireland to the Mediterranean part 1 where we visited the Tank museum in Bovington you will see those early tanks.
It was decided after the war to build a permanent memorial in brick and Portland stone to the fallen.
A local Superintendant of the Ypres police, Mr P Vandembraambussche came up with the idea of sounding 'The Last Post' as a tribute to those men who lost their lives and had no known grave.
The privilege of playing 'The Last Post' was given to the local volunteer fire brigade and a daily ceremony has taken place since 1928 at 8 pm every evening whatever the weather and draws crowds of up to 2,000 people.
The only break in this tradition came during the German occupation from 20 May 1940 until 6th of September when it was played at Brookwood Military cemetery in Surrey instead.
When the Polish forces liberated the town it was again played despite heavy fighting still in the town and the bullet marks can still be seen on the memorial.
I first attended the ceremony in the 70's in command of a guard of honour and vowed one day to return.
Apologies some of the photo's are a bit poor but I only had one shot and everyone one was jostling for the same photos.


Origins of 'The Last Post'
The tradition of sounding a bugle or drum at various stages of the day originated in the British army.
Reveille wake up call comes from the French word Reveiller, meaning 'to wake up'.
At various times of the day inspections and a bugle calls would be made at each sentry post.
During the time the British army was on campaign in the Netherlands they adopted the Dutch custom called Taptoe, over later years this became known as Tattoo.
Tap den toe (Taptoe) was sounded around the taverns and literally means 'turn the taps off' so the soldiers could have no more drink.

Last Post comes from the tradition of the officer inspecting each sentry post and at the final one the bugler would sound 'Last Post' warning that all soldiers should be back in their billets.
'The Last Post' symbolises the end of a soldiers day insofar as the dead soldier has finished his duty and can rest in peace and Reveille celebrates his new life with the Lord.

Ypres, continued...
While there I also found Celtic cross memorial to the Irish who also gave their all.
Some photo's of the beautiful town of Ypres.
Photo's of a British Vickers machine gun, German Spandau machine gun, German 'Potato Masher' hand grenade. British mills 36 hand grenade (it a bit like chocolate, when the wrapper comes off everybody gets a bit).
Pride of place for me was when I was able to buy a cap badge of my old regiment in a memorabilia shop.
There are also organised tours of the Ypres salient battlefield for the interested visitor
One thing strikes you is how clean and well kept everything is and how friendly and helpful the local people are despite the enormous amount of visitors.
An absolutely a 'Must See'.
It's a heart moving tribute and brings a tear to your eye and the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Ypres,,,, continued.
Between 'The Last Post bugle call and Reveille an exhortation is read by a visiting person.


They grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morn,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.


As we leave Ypres to follow our planned route here are some photo's en route to, and through the city of Bruges.
Because the land is flat cyclists seem to swarm everywhere.


Our days start at 6 with a quick cuppa, engine checks and cast of at 7 am, most days it's around 7/8 pm when we moor up as we try to make good progress.
Our route is tortuous but as you will see later well worth it.

Bruges, known in Belgium as their little Venice and boat trips around the city are popular.
Everywhere we see people working and there's a buzz in the air, these people mean business and from the canal side we see the back of factories, normally untidy, here everything is kept pristine, the canal banks are well managed and there's no pollution in the canal, no litter, no graffiti.
This is a cruising area well worth visiting.
Here are some photo's through Bruges.

If you follow the black line I've put on this map it will give you a better understanding of our circuitous route.
We travelled via Bruges and joined the canal Ghent Oostende, what is known as the 'route maritime superior' which runs from the Dutch Scheldt to Paris, a veritable marine motorway.
Choke points are having new locks built to ease progress and the canal banks strengthened, despite all this commercial traffic I can't get over how well it's managed and maintained, it's a credit to the waterways management team, no pollution, no graffiti, all the trees manicured and banks trimmed and neat.
These waterways are well worth visiting.
So far we've seen just two leisure boats, one hire and one private cruiser.
As we pass Kortrijk were within 25 kilometres of Ypres on the other side of the salient.


This is a very famous poem (photo) written by a Canadian, Major John McCrae, called Flanders fields.


We also pass near Armentieres, there's a famous song about a young girl who helped out in her grandmothers café in the town of Armentieres.
This young girl dispensed so much joy to the troops with her liberal dispensation of sexual favours, a bawdy song was written and it goes like this.
(This is just a couple of the many verses in the printable version)


Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
She's got the palm and Croix de guerre,
For washing the soldiers underwear,
Inky Dinky parlez vous.


Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
She's the hardest working girl in town,
She makes her living upside down,
Inky dinky parlez vous.


Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
Oh Mademoiselle from Armentieres parlez vous,
She'll do it for wine she'll do it for rum,
And sometimes chocolate or chewing gum,
Inky dinky parlez vous.

Is this a myth, a figment of soldiers imagination ?

No, the young lady in question despite her background or maybe because of, she met a theatrical agent of 47 when she was just 16, she moved in with him and started another career in the theatre as an actress.
She's now in her very well preserved eighties and does guest appearances on French television and her name is Lin Renaud.

Up until now the barges have been from 350 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes. This route is so busy there's a barge passing about every 15 minutes and some of them are near 2,000 tonnes, that's the equivalent of 100 trucks.
The cargoes are sand, gravel, scrap metal, shipping containers, cereals, cement etc.

As we travel this route, vigilance is the watchword, we are only tiny minnows as we tuck into the massive locks behind the big boys.
You must NEVER release your lines until these big guys have left the lock because the turbulence from their props will whirl you round like a spinning top.
99% of the barges are pristine, the crews are always washing, cleaning, painting.
No outside footwear is permitted inside, it's so clean as to be near surgical in the bridge, engine room and accommodation, as they live and work on them it's a real credit to their professionalism.
Talk about a real eye opener cruising these canals, it's just brilliant.

Irish Rambler said:

...Between 'The Last Post bugle call and Reveille an exhortation is read by a visiting person.


They grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morn,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Click to expand...

Thank you, the moving recitation with the "Last Post" is especially poignant for Australians and New Zealanders, about to observe ANZAC Day, on April 25.
ANZAC Day initially related to events at Gallipoli in Turkey, and WW 1. A dawn service, attended by numerous Australians and Turks, is held at Gallipoli in Turkey each year. It is our national day to honour our veterans, and the fallen, of the theatres of war in which Australians have served. Marches of returned veterans are held across the nation, crowds gather to cheer them on.
So thank you, Aussies and New Zealanders will appreciate your timely post.

G'day Bruce.
Yes I know, I've a son proudly serving in R.A.A.F.
It's why we've been driving so hard to be there, take the photo's, witness it and get it up on line for that very reason.
Sadly there are 5 battalions of Australia's finest commemorated on the walls at Ypres and I think I counted 3 battalions of Kiwi brothers in arms.
Glad you appreciated the effort and know your fallen are definitely not forgotten even though we are on the opposite sides of the world.