Saskia is back in commission

Marnemoende, Ijsselstein, Netherlands

After 10 months absence, we are finally back on board and getting set to head off to northern Holland tomorrow. To set the scene, here is a map of the area we plan to explore:

We will be heading first across to Arnhem, then north to Groningen, across west to Leeuwarden, then south through Friesland, Giethorn (where I bought Saskia in 1999), Meppel, Zwolle and others, eventually to Nijmegen (we hope) and on south towards Belgium and France. We plan to be in Paris for a few days in early August, and then we’ll head down through the Burgundy Canal aiming to get back to Saint Jean de Losne by the end of the month.

We came up yesterday by car, after considering alternative possibilities – train or plane. But really, with so much stuff to bring with us, it seemed best, even though it will mean a certain amount of toing and froing to get the car and ourselves back to St Jean at the same time. The journey was always going to be long – about 12 hours, and it was made longer when after a couple of hours, still south of Lyon, we rather dramatically blew out a front tyre – travelling at about 130 kph and overtaking someone. Big surprise, and rather alarming, but the car kept straight and we made it safely to the hard shoulder, whence we were eventually rescued. The garage was painfully slow in changing the tyre – and understaffed – but eventually we got going again, and after that it was plain sailing, though we didn’t reach the boat until about 9.30pm.

We had considered stopping at a hotel, but were glad to get here and found Saskia in great shape: shiny in her new coat of paint, as you can see. She was clean and warm inside after wintering in the heated dry store. Well worth the extra cost. Also good to get the new flag flying again, especially in these troubled times.

Today, as well as getting unpacked and everything stowed away, we made a shopping foray to Utrecht – rather different by car than boat! – and also Ijsselstein, to get set up for our online communications, which seem to be working.

By the way, for those who may have been frustrated before, I have tried to get the blog set up so you can comment. At the foot of each post it probably says ‘no comments’ or maybe one or two. Anyway, you should click on the word comment, and that should let you say your piece.