L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Palais du Cardinal Louis de Rohan Savernne My knee is improving and I can now get about in reasonable fashion with the aid of a knee brace. ‘Reasonable fashion’ is, perhaps, not quite precise as my knee accessory is, in fact, perfectly colour coordinated with my blue bathers. ‘Bathers!’ I hear you splutter. Yes, indeed. Rain jackets and fleeces, de rigeu,r last week have been put away, hopefully for the remainder of the summer. The temperature has hit the high 30s and emboldened by the admirably carefree attitude of the hordes of scantily clad Dutch boaters we’re now encountering on their annual southerly migration we’ve broken out the bathers. I’ll spare you the photos though. After leaving Strasbourg we continued along the Canal de la Marne au Rhin stopping at Saverne and Lutzelbourg. Saverne is yet another handsome Alsation town with, once again, impressive buildings ranging from ancient half timbered houses to the immense Palais du Cardinal Louis de Rohan which overlook...

Inclined Plane Life on board has its ups and downs and I'm not talking about anything philosophical here. I mean pure and simple, physical up and down. You are either going upstream or downstream, up in locks or down, up steps or down. There are a lot of steps on our boat. Outside there are, apart from the one of varying height to get onboard or ashore,  2 on each side deck. Inside, there are 6 from the deck to the main cabin then a further 3 down to the galley and forward cabin or 3 to the stern cabin and bathroom. I don't know how many times we go up and down these each day. Possibly as many as some people do in a step class at gym (but minus the beaty music). That's good, you might be thinking, we'll be getting fit as we go about our daily lives. There's a drawback to steps though, a moment's inattention and the 'down' can be speedier than intended and the fitness benefits instantly disappear. Weight + gravity = pain. And so it ...

Strasbourg Internet is more miss than hit at the moment so I am trying something new (for me) – uploading via email. I think I may have to add photos later. We had an excellent few days in Strasbourg made even more enjoyable by the arrival of Libby and Brian. As in previous years, they managed to time their visit to coincide with a local 'spectacle'. This year it was the sound, light and water show at the old port and it was so good that I went 2 nights in a row. Much more exciting and inventive than the usual firework display. Brian took a video, a clip of which I will attempt to upload once we have a decent connection. The show runs every night for most of the summer.  Being one of the capitals of the European Union possibly means that money is not in quite as short supply as elsewhere. European Parliament The city is cosmopolitan and whilst you may very well find your waiter supercilious or even downright rude he will be able to be ...

Ever since arriving in Alsace the locals have been urging me to try choucroute. It is the dish of the region, much like andouilletes in Troyes or Haggis in Scotland. So I did. I am not going to attempt to describe this dish. I'd really rather not think about it the morning after. ( If you really want to know more there are plenty of recipes on the internet). Sometimes I wonder if these 'delicious' dishes are some sort of joke to be played on the gullible tourist. Haggis, on the other hand, is a fine dish and should not be missed if you're travelling to Scotland.

'Little Venice' in Colmar. The waterway running through is having repair work done so has been virtually drained - so not looking quite as beautiful as it usually does We made it! After a hectic couple of weeks of long days and occasional short tempers we can now ease off on the pace and relax. The spectre of The Rhine is behind us and of course it was, in the end, nothing much to worry about. The locks, whilst huge are easy to negotiate as they have floating bollards. This means that you secure yourself to a bollard which then floats with you as the water level drops (or rises if you are in the unfortunate position of going upstream). My main concern had been the current, particularly after the recent storms and torrential rain. Our last stop before joinng the Rhine was Kembs where we were made very welcome at the port. The man living on the boat next to us kept us updated on the changing river level which he meant kindly but it just contributed to a similar rising sickn...

Halfway down the Valdieu flight into Alsace  After leaving Isle sur le Doubs we were once again and at last, on new waters. The canal from here on was a pleasant surprise.We somehow had expected it to be industrial but for the most part it was rural and pretty. We had a welcome rest day in Montbeliard which has the Peugeot museum attached to the factory for those interested in cars, a very nice 'scientific' park for anyone interested in being mesmerised by Foucault's pendulum or twirling a huge, floating granite sphere with the flick of an index finger, not to mention  an excellent Indian restaurant (yes one of us is still on that quest). From Montbelliard we had to arrange with  lock keepers for our onward journey because, according to the girl in the tourist office, we were about to cross into a different country. We were, in fact, about to enter a different region of France, Alsace,  but it might as well be considered a different country. German is as likely ...