Holland at last - El Dorado!

Finally we are in Holland – but unable to celebrate with a blog post last night because of the various cross-border internet issues: this wonderful European Union that unites us so closely still hasn’t figured out how to make cellphones etc cross borders sensibly.

Anyway, we set off  from Huy in good time, and made it to Liege – the last Belgian town before Holland – by lunchtime. The Chateau Le Chokier sits on a crag beside the canal a bit before Liege: it is a pleasant break from the otherwise unremitting industrial installations we sailed past.

After a rest tied up on the bank, we pressed on, soon entering the Albert Canal, named after a King Albert, whose statue faces sternly upstream as you enter:

The Albert canal was very industrial too, although because it was Saturday, the commercial traffic was not too intense. However when we finally left the canal to return to the Meuse and cross the border, it was quite a tight fit:

And the spray from a waterfall behind as we descended did nothing for drying our clothes pinned to the rail.

Arriving in Maastricht was a pleasure, however, with lots of people whizzing about on jet-skis and in speedboats. After a false start at one potential harbour, we went right into the central basin, which reminded us to the Arsenal basin in Paris, though a bit smaller.

As we discovered this morning, it is an easy walk to the city centre, though grey skies and drizzle meant there was nothing very photogenic about it. We found a shop to try to resolve our internet problem, but without success, so this is coming to you via the WiFi hotspot facility on my cellphone: I hope I can pay the bill when it comes in! Holland seems very pleasant and welcoming – also tough. A bit like Scotland, many of the locals simply ignored the rain and continued walking about in polo shirts as if the sun were shining. The beer is good too – maybe all that grain from France we saw being loaded.

Anyway, the Vodaphone shop opens tomorrow which should sort out our dongle, and we have some business things to do, so we will stay over Monday night and resume the navigation on Tuesday.