25.5.07

Hey - I finally made it here!

Well, so far this vacation has not been to plan. When we arrived at the boat after a very long day we discovered that the other passengers had cancelled so we were going to have a private tour. Cool! But, (there had to be one eh?) earlier last week someone rammed into a lock damaging it so that it wasn’t usable for a bit – like the whole week – and it was one that couldn’t easily be by passed on the planned route. So the captain (Mart) proposed an alternate route which included quite a bit more cycling and less boating but we still got to do a lot of locks – enough that they became almost boring.

So as of this morning that portion of our trip is done – and I have taken way too many pictures – I will include a few here when I figure out how to do that later this evening.

Today was very long and stressful. There were no vans to rent in Maastricht so we took a train to Amsterdam to try there. No luck there either. Talk about majorly bummed – but that’s what happens when you decide to not overplan. So we have rented a nice little Citroen C4 and are planning to toodle around Belgium and try to stay in some cute little hotels.

The beer – what can I say – so much beer and so little time. We discovered Grimbergen Abbey – wow – and Westmalle. We try to have a new one each day, not always managing as we have some favorites. And I have become fond of the Gueze lambic.

The cycling was fabulous – the weather is perfect for it – though a little too hot yesterday. Already we miss having the bikes. The bikes – next time we will bring our own – my behind will never forgive me.

3 comments:

Deborah said...

Well its about time we heard from you!

Sean was very cute in chapel, made my cry of course.

Joanne said...

Glad you are having fund, despite the changes in plans. Paige just home from Quebec, had a wonderful time.
Good to hear from you.
Joanne
Paige says Hi, all she can do at 13!

Anonymous said...

Any chance you can meet Bill and me in Sweden? We get to Stockholm June 8th and head straight up to Gavle.

B&B