WE SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it to England alive. Thank goodness for that. Yesterday everybody woke up surprisingly early in Dunkirk. Sorry, we forgot to write about being in France. Well... we were in France. Just Dunkirk really. So we woke up, and started getting everybody and everything ready. We packed things away because we knew from experience that when it's wavy, things seem to fly all over the place. Then, mom and dad cast off (I was supposed to, but no one told me we were leaving.) Then we went under two bridges and through a lock. I hate locks. They are so boring. And this one took about three hours. Finally, we got out onto the sea. I was thankful to get out of the lock, but I was not thankful to get out on the sea. This is the north sea by the way and there are lots of waves and lots of current and lots of ships. We talked for a bit and then Georgia fell asleep. Then Mom started not feeling well, so she went to lie down. I was reading and I felt fine. So did dad. We left at around 9:30 and at lunchtime we were around the shipping lanes in the middle of the English Channel. We weren't really sure if we were going to make it to England that day, but when we got to Calais, mom and dad decided we would keep on going. So around lunchtime, we asked mom to make us lunch. We hadn't made sandwiches before we left because we had no bread. Actually we had no food at all. Except for pasta, but I'd rather not boil water when the boat is rolling. So mom made us ham and omelette wraps. She says that it was very hard for her not to throw up the whole time she was making dinner. Georgia didn't eat all of her wrap, but after a bit she threw up.
We cleaned it up and all went back to sleep. I slept or read the rest of the way and before I knew it we were passing the White Cliffs of Dover. Then we were in Ramsgate (a.k.a. Rampage). We got landed around 3:30. That was confusing because we had re-lived an hour and we weren't sure if the clocks had changed. Apparently they had. We paid and mom got confused with the pounds. Then the girls walked around town and got groceries. We had indian food for dinner.

Today, we went to Broadstairs. I couldn't remember what it was called so I called it Fatstairs. When we were getting the bikes off the back of the boat, Georgia dropped mine in the water. It was high tide and Georgia and Dad had to go find something to get it out of the water with. They came back with hooks that they had found in a scrap pile in a boat yard. They got my bike out and it was covered in grey muck. They had to clean it and by the time we got going it was 2:30. We biked along the dodgy bikepaths, and got to Broadstairs around 3:00. We had lunch of fish and chips. Georgia and I are having a problem with speaking in a British accent when we hear other people speaking with one. After lunch we had icecream and got back to the boat by 4:00. Then Dad went to go get groceries. That's it for our adventures in England so far!!!!

(: EMILY :) is happy to be where you can buy English books!

 The purple line is the route we took roughly

Bruges

Having found Ghent to be quite spectacular, we didn't really expect Bruges to surpass it.  It did, however, and has now made it to the top of our Most Beautiful Cities in Europe list.  Virtually every corner turned reveals a quaint streetscape, charming square or picturesque canal. 


Many of the medieval buildings are still standing are and maintained in very good shape.  This does mean, however, that the city is packed with tourists and all the trappings of tourism.  The main arteries in the old city centre consist primarily of shops selling souvenirs, Belgian chocolates (the country's best chocolates being offered at virtually every shop) and waffles. 

We spent some of our time in Bruges doing chores like laundry and replacing the bicycle that was stolen in Ghent (a very expensive mistake!) and spent most of our tourist time just walking around.  The girls and I visited only one museum, a medieval hospital with artifacts and art from the late middle ages.  Needless to say, it makes us thankful to be living in the age of advanced medical science!

 

The Old and the Beautiful

After docking in Ghent, we proceeded to do absolutely nothing.  Being a constant tourist can get tiring, and sometimes you just need a day of rest.  When we got up the next day we walked toward the centre of the old town and were astounded to see how great it all was.  Among other things, Ghent boasts multiple cathedrals, all in a row, and a tremendous number of old buildings.  One of the main gathering spaces is the Graslei along the river Leie.  On each side of the river the streets are lined with old buildings, many with outdoor cafes. 
In one direction you can see the Castle of the Counts, also called Gravensteen, a story book type of castle built in the 1400s.  This is now a museum that allows you to wander the rooms, some displaying artifacts of battle (full suits of armour and the like) and some showing off devices of torture (we skipped this room).  You can also climb to the top and look down on the city below.



While we were in Ghent we also visited the Museum of Design.  This establishment cleverly placed a series of playmobile characters around the museum and required the kids to find the characters hidden amongst the objet d'art.   We also visited the Museum of Textiles, as Ghent's claim to fame is the production of fabric and its distribution around Europe.  We also took the requisite canal boat tour and ate a box of Belgian chocolates.   

 
 
 

Not All Picturesque

When we left the very fancy marina at Kortgene, we headed through Middleburg to Vlissingen (pronounced Fleshingen) to a much less fancy marina.  On the way we passed this empty looking hotel.  Although "bad" is the word for "bath" in Dutch and may be an appealing marketing strategy for nationals, we wondered if the name might be putting off the foreign tourists.


Overall, the Netherlands was beautiful and looks like a great place to live.  Not everything is picturesque, mind you.  At Vlissingen (pronounced Fleshingen) we had a bit of a hike to get to the grocery store and found ourselves walking through a neighborhood that might be described as a little rough around the edges.  Fortunately, this was more than compensated for by the clubhouse at the marina that served wine, beer and excellent French fries. 

From Vlissingen we had to cross an inlet of the North Sea.  This was eventful only for the first fifteen minutes or so, starting from the moment when the sea started rushing into the locks as we were motoring out.  We had timed our departure so that we would be riding with the incoming tide which eventually worked to our advantage but got us off to a bit of a rocky start.

From Vlissingen, we crossed to Terneuzen, another industrial town where we stayed just one night.  Then it was off down the Terneuzen-Ghent canal and into Belgium.  This is a very significant commercial canal for the city of Ghent, taking all their manufactured goods out to the North Sea and wherever they go after that.  As a result, our first impression of Belgium was not quite what you see in the tourist brochures!  

Taste of the High Seas

We left Dordrect Tuesday morning at about 11 am in the spitting rain.  Our goal was to move as far to the south west as possible, near to where we will cross into Belgium, so we intended to put in a good eight hours or so.  Of course, we also intended to leave at 8 in the morning...(note that the sun sets very late here, and the girls rarely get to sleep before 10, hence, the 8 am start is unlikely, if not impossible).  In any case, most of the day's motoring was pretty dull.  Tom is still keen on looking at every shipyard, shipping dock, barge and yacht we pass, but we girls have moved on.  Emily and Georgia spent much of the day designing houses on their IPads while I read a completely pointless novel.  Which was all well and fine until the excitement began.  We had to cross a large stretch of open water and we had our first taste of the high seas.  I had been starting to wonder why a boat like this one would be made with 3/4 inch lips around all the horizontal surfaces.  I guess it was about five o'clock when we were taking five foot waves (I say eight, Tom says four) on the side, making the boat roll like mad.  Everything lose slid back and forth, including Georgia, who was asleep on the leather bench at that point.  If I hadn't been holding her back, she'd have landed on the floor with quite a rude awakening.  I don't think you can really get the feel of it, but we've included a little bit of video taken on Tom's blackberry.

Needless to say, by the time we docked at 6:30 or so, we were all pretty wiped out, so we've stayed put today, enjoying good internet access and a playground for the girls. 

From Amsterdam to Dordrecht



A Sampling of Ships on the North Sea Canal

We left Amsterdam on Sunday morning.  We visited only one museum during our stay, and didn't even manage to get into the Anne Frank house, as we unknowingly wound up in the city on a national holiday weekend.  However, we expect to be back when we sell our boat next year, so we will plan for other excursions then.  


Leaving Amsterdam the girls became absorbed in books on their IPads.  They showed very little interest in the number and variety of ships we passed on the North Sea Canal, but there were many.   In addition to the big ship from St. John's Newfoundland we crossed paths with multiple barges carrying heavy loads, the hovercraft that runs people up and down the river, and an out of commission submarine.  Needless to say, Tom was in boatbuilder heaven.

 

At home in Haarlem

After an hour or so we took a left turn down a smaller canal, heading toward Haarlem.  In Haarlem we found cheap docking on the canal in the centre of the city, an IKEA a 15 minute bike ride away, an amazing 500 year old church complete with a fabulous organ that Mozart played on when he was ten years old, the Corrie Ten Boom museum (see “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom), and tiny little pancakes called poffertjies (spelling is questionable).   We also outfitted the girls’ bicycles with saddlebags (for Emily, so she can help transport groceries) and a basket attached with a beeootiful string of plastic flowers (so Georgia can do her part).   We are enjoying our boat, but we are deeply in love with our bicycles!


The organ played by Mozart



14th century church in Haarlem

Town square at Gouda

On Wednesday, we left Haarlem heading for Gouda, city of cheese.  Again, we tied up in the city, a nice spot to be but without internet, as we had been in Haarlem.  This is a minor stressor for the girls, who do much of their school work on the internet but a more significant problem for Tom, who needs internet to communicate with work.  While Emily and I explored the old town on foot, Tom put Georgia on the back of his bicycle and set off to find a McDonald’s, international source of free internet.  They found McFlurries while Emily and I found a town square, old churches, a windmill, a cheese store, and a maze of cobblestone streets. 


Gouda was a lovely old city, but not a major destination for us, so we took off again Thursday morning.  Our goal on this day was to make it all the way to the city of Gorinchem (inexplicably pronounced Horkum with a lot of back of the throat “ch”) where Tom had arranged meetings with a couple of people from a boatyard that he was involved with about ten years ago.  We put in a full 9 hour day of motoring and encountered all kinds of bridges and a few locks, all accompanied with crystal clear operating instructions in Dutch.  This is what we’ve figured out:  if there’s a red button, press it; if there’s an intercom looking thing, talk into it, starting with an apology for not speaking Dutch – when you get a response, hope that the translation is that the bridge will open shortly; if there’s a phone number, call it, a VHF radio chanel, radio it; when a live person opens the bridge and holds a wooden clog at the end of a stick down over the boat, put a 5 euro note in.  It was always a bit of a relief to come upon either tall bridges that we could go under without needing it lifted, or an automatic bridge that worked via some kind of invisible sensors. 

 Although it rained much of the day, we enjoyed the quiet canals we were on and particularly liked to see the striped fields of flowers.  We now have dozens of photos of windmills as I felt the need to take a photo each time we passed in the hopes of eventually taking the ultimate windmill photo.

 

 

 

Thursday evening, we landed in the town of Gorinchem, tying up again on the canal in the centre of town.  In this case it still provided no internet access, but there was conveniently located laundry and we had the opportunity to watch the dragon boat teams practice up and down the canal.  Tom spent some of Friday touring the Damen shipyard (builders of very many very big boats) and we were treated to fine dining in the evening by the fellow whom Tom had dealt with many years ago when Damen and Metalcraft were looking at a joint venture.  The girls were particularly struck by the portion sizes (small) and time spans between courses (long).  All in all, dinner took nearly four hours, unheard of for North Americans!

 

Saturday morning we headed to Dordrecht where we are still, partly because it is such a great place to dock, and partly because internet is available.  This is our last big city in the Netherlands.  When we leave, we are heading into Belgium, where we will spend just a few days on our way to the coast of France.  Then we will wait ‘til the conditions are right for the big crossing to England.  We’ll be sure to post on the blog again when we’ve conquered the English Chanel.

Hamsterdam

We have been in Amsterdam for five days. On the first full day that we were in Amsterdam, we bought a family ticket for a canal cruise tour thing. The ticket lasted for 24 hours so we could be on the boat until Friday at 11. In Amsterdam, the three main things we wanted to see were the marine museum, the Anne Frank House and NEMO. In five days we have only managed to see the marine museum. Anyway, on the first day, we got on to the canal boat and started on our commantarried tour. There was Dutch, French, German and English. We stayed on the boat until we got to a restaurant that we wanted to have lunch at (it was a hop on hop off kind of thing). On the boat we met a couple from the United States. My dad had a long conversation with them. The restaurant that we had lunch at was called the Pannenkeuken Huiz which was (you guessed it) a place where they sold pancakes. I had the things called poffortjes (the J sounds like a Y) with strawberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar. After that we walked around a little waiting for the next boat. Georgia started getting very grumpy. I can’t really remember what we did after that so we couldn’t have done anything to significant. Oh well, there was one thing. We stopped at one of the stops called the dapper market hoping to go to the market. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that it was a holiday (don’t ask me what holiday!), so the market was not open. Dad had not wanted to go to the market, but he saw a boat museum, so he went to that. When we saw that there was no market, we decided to find dad so that we could get back to the boat in time. My dad has a friend in Kingston who is Dutch. He has a son who lives in Amsterdam. Dad had been trying to get in touch with the guys son (whose name is Friso), so that they could meet. Apparently, when my dad was going through the gates a guy drove up and my dad helped him open the gates. They talked for a bit and then realized that they had been emailing each other recently. Things happened and before we knew it, we had plans to go on a personal tour on Friso’s boat guided by him. The next day it was cold and windy but we still went out on our tour. In Amsterdam, we have seen three giant cruise ships. We went past two of them on our little tour. After that we went to home. I will write more on a different day.

This is a picture taken on our personal tour with Friso

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JEMILYJ is excited to have started our trip