L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Hard at work swabbing decks For those of you who imagine that cruising in France is all about lounging around on deck quaffing champagne and nibbling 'fromage' here's the proof that it's not. Well, not yet anyway. Before we get down to the serious business of life afloat six months of winter grime has to be scoured from the decks and, through the wonders of modern technology, namely the marina webcam, we can be observed from anywhere in the world. Spoiler alert - tomorrow's episode will highlight drying paint and varnish. We left Scotland in blazing sunshine having had 2 fantastic weeks with family and friends. Thank you to all for making us so welcome. Too often Scotland's scenery is completely hidden in low cloud but when the sun shines it's absolutely beautiful. 'When it's like this who'd want to live anywhere else?' we asked each other. We even began looking at the property for sale ads - and there are many. 'You're quite ...

Gourock to Dunoon ferry  As we whizzed around the west of Scotland this week, visiting family, we were accompanied in the car by a most irritating passenger. She of the husky voice and insistent manner who flatly refuses to shut up. Yes, we have acquired a sat nav. Now, I know everyone thinks they are a quite wonderful invention and I daresay they can be invaluable for navigating  unfamiliar cities however, I am not convinced of the necessity of the presence of this 'other woman' on perfectly well signposted roads. I have a pretty good sense of direction and am quite capable of reading (and actually like) paper maps so when she demands one route and I another things can get a little tense until she gets shoved into the glove box. There she continues to nag on about u turns, albeit at a lesser volume - the off switch just seems to turn off the map but not her annoyingly dulcet tones. 'Why do you want her?' I ask pathetically.  What's wrong with my directions? It...

The Steeple, Kilbarchan   For 24 hours we hurtled through time and space from Melbourne to Glasgow arriving exactly 18 hours after we left. Autumn became Spring - ostensibly. We stepped from the plane at midday into bracing winds, rain and a not so balmy temperature of 7 degrees.Welcome home to Scotland. The hire car was waitng for us but trying to work out windscreen wipers, lights, indicators and heaters at the same time as read a map with brains turned to mush by jet lag resulted in the inevitable. Right motorway, wrong direction, quick exit, lots of cursing and 3 circuits round a roundabout. Thank goodness it wasn't France or doubtlessly we'd have been going around that the wrong way. It's only 3 years since our last visit here but in the meantime someone's been busy rearranging the roads so what should have taken us about 20 minutes took us an hour (or two) and we saw more of Glasgow than we intended. A lull in the rain yesterday encouraged us on an expedi...