L'Avenir - Cruising Europe's Inland Waterways

Our recent cruise through Paris was rather more exciting than I would have liked. This was to be the second time we'd sailed beneath those famous bridges this year and the third time in total so we were feeling pretty relaxed and looking forward to the experience. I should know better by this time. The Seine approaching Paris that afternoon was fairly busy with commercial ships. I am always surprised at just how many ships and barges load and discharge along the city's quays. Paris is still a thriving working port which is good to see. We shared a couple of the huge Seine locks with some large vessels but that was no problem. They are just in a hurry to be on their way and our rule of thumb on commercial waterways is to keep out of the way. The nearer you get to the city centre the more narrow and congested the river becomes and if you can't keep out of the way you have to try to keep up. Things start to become interesting at the Eiffel Tower which is where the many Bate...

Through the tunnel in the centre of Utrecht. - and since the Film Festival is on here's my contribution .....

This was taken on the canal from Hoogeveen to Coevorden (which I pronounce incorrectly of course). It's a very quiet canal - we met only one boat this day - but there are dozens of bridges. Some, like this one, are old swing bridges others are modern automated ones. Each bridgekeeper is responsible for between 3 and 5 bridges. They work you through and then jump in their car and drive to the next and open it as you approach. When they have completed their stint they phone on to the next bridge keeper. It all works beautifully unless you upset the system by stopping . We stopped overnight in a small town called Nieue-Amsterdam which incidentally bears no resemblance to old Amsterdam. It's only claim to fame is that Van Gogh stayed there for 2 months. We set off the next day and there was no-one expecting us at the first bridge. There was a phone number but the bridge keeper who answered didn't speak any English at all and my few words of Dutch were apparently unrecognisab...

First time we've tried a video!!!! Narration by Rob - stating the bleeding obvious...