Back on the water

Lemmer ahoy,
a festive weekend in glorious weather

After a long dreary wet and miserable winter, waiting for surgery for Nigel that isn’t now going to happen till August, we finally got away to Europe mid April.

Iles flottantes, a L’ecu, St. Usage

We had a short trip in the motorhome to Burgundy to check on Liberté and a catch up with friends, then we headed north to Lemmer, Friesland for the launch of our cruiser, Meander at the end of April.

Whilst at St. Jean de Losne we had the obligatory lunchtime meal at our favourite little restaurant, L’Ecu where we had to test the quality of the Iles Flottantes which our dear departed boater friend Angus rated the best in France. We declared that they were indeed up to scratch. Then after cleaning and tidying Liberté, we rewarded ourselves with an evening meal at another restaurant, Le Sauconna where I had a local speciality.

Baked Burgundy cheese
and charcuterie

Thinking we had left winter behind, the weather had other ideas on the journey north, we wanted to go over the “Route des Cretes” in the Vosges mountains but got put off by blizzard conditions so we retreated to a less hilly route! We’ll save that experience for another time!

Our snowy route over the Vosges

I had a few days on my own, which coincided with my birthday as it happens, whilst Nigel went home to collect the car and some more “stuff”. I was a busy bee; cycling and walking the dogs kept me too occupied to be lonely and a good internet connection provided the links with home.

Lemmer Ahoy
A festive weekend in glorious weather

We were lucky to have a week of glorious warm and sunny weather while we were preparing the boat for this year’s cruise but true to form, soon after we set off the weather reverted to cold wet and miserable.

Very important item from home
A picture of our granddaughter, Hattie

Never mind, we were at last on the move again. Unsure of what to do and how far to venture this year as we need to be available at short notice to get back for Nigel’s ankle surgery some time in August (we hope), we have decided to explore the middle and southern parts of Holland and if we have time to venture into Belgium as well for a few weeks, returning to Lemmer via the river Maas.

Unfortunately the midges were
not put off by the cold weather
It took a hose pipe to remove them!

So far we’ve been mostly using free moorings which are always very pleasant, often little islands, great for the dogs and are quite quiet at this time of year, apart from the two public holiday weekends since we’ve been out here.

Over last weekend we were in Amersfoort which is delightful, a very clean and tidy marina with good facilities. The weather then took a nose dive and we sat out the cold wet windy weather on a couple of small islands, the second of which was called “Dead Dog island.” After a 40 minute or so walk around it with Belle and Dash, there being knee high grass and nettles along the path we were horrified to find the dogs swarming with ticks when I got back to the boat with them. There then followed an evening of picking out the little blighters, easy to do on Belle but much harder on Dash with his thick coat. We’ve not stopped scratching yet! We left that island asap……..

Amersfoort, such a pretty town

We have now arrived in Naarden and from here will be cruising the Vecht river which the guidebook describes as the prettiest waterway in Holland. We’ll soon find out!