Then the rain came... - Thursday 27th August Back to Belgium

The day started so well too.   Sure the spectre of departure loomed over us, but that was later and we still had much to discuss or perhaps not much at all but we did anyway as we lingered over breakfast in that way that people do when there is reluctant parting to be had.

Eventually we could linger no more and naturally that was exactly when the rain began, settling in to a steady drizzle before we hit the motorway.  So we crossed Belgium in a sheet of spray, visibility marginal at motorway speed and hopeful that the traffic would not approach from behind too quickly.  We had a choice of facing the congestion around Antwerp or Brussels.   Either one would certainly provide a respite from the high speed madness, and we chose the latter or our highly intelligent GPS which knows about these things did.  As the trucks snarled around us for an hour while we covered the sixteen kilometres on the express ring road, we could only be thankful that we had for once managed to avoid the really bad hold ups.

It hadn’t been an easy drive, and when at last we arrived to clearing weather, we watched the sunset from Dave and Ria’s back deck, feeling as though today we’d earned it.

Among friends - Wednesday 26th August Düsseldorf

All things considered we were quite bright eyed and bushy tailed by the time we arrived in Ratingen, just in time for our second breakfast.  We suspect that Günter and Alexa’s tummies may have been rumbling a bit while they waited for us to battle with the morning traffic on the autobahn, but all’s well that ends in a meal.

It wasn’t long before they had us out and about again, leading us on the best kind of guided tour there is; the kind where a pair of people who grew up in a place simply wander through their favourite streets and hangouts and allow us the privilege of tagging along. Thus it was that in what seemed like no time at all we had picked the eyes out of the place in a tourism sense, and according to our trusty pedometers had covered fourteen kilometres in the process, stopping only to eat and drink several times along the way.

Eventually we called of a sight-seeing truce, collectively deciding that enough was enough for one day and that perhaps it was time to light the barbecue and settle down to some serious conversation about the mysteries of life and Wuppertal, and wooly mammoths and Roman soldiers and how chance meetings of strangers can from the foundations of lifetime friendships.  

Castles in the sky. - Tuesday 25th August from Rüdesheim to Koblenz

Thirty-three years ago this month, armed only with a pair of very small children we travelled on a Rhine River day cruise from Koblenz heading upstream intending to reach Mainz, but were so entranced with the villages and castles along the way.  On a whim and with the absence of planning which has held us in good stead ever since, we disembarked in the village of Rüdesheim, completely inspired by the journey and promising to do it again “one day”.

Today was to be that day, but by the time we had slept sufficiently and eaten sufficiently the cruise departure time had come and gone.  After a hasty conference at the booking office, we discovered that the return journey was entirely possible if we were willing to suffer an  hour or so of train travel with nothing but the river the forest and the castles to see on the way.  We grasped the opportunity, were thanked for our flexibility, given last minute (and seniors’) discounts totalling thirty percent of the fare (to help with the cost of the train) and wished well as we set off for the station.

Of course the journey was all that it had been in our memories and perhaps more.  Back in Koblenz we may well have retired gracefully to our room to quietly digest all that we had experienced were it not for Joel and Cindy waiting in their motorhome, ready to accompany us on yet another big night out.   One day we will work out how it happens that random friends from far away places simply turn up in our path from time to time.  Perhaps then such meetings then will be with less incredulity.

When finally we found our hotel we were like kids full of red cordial, minds abuzz with vineyards and castles and fairytale towns and ice cream sundae and laughter with late night schnitzel, not at all ready to tackle the road again on the morrow.

On our way! Monday 24th August to Koblenz

Travelling at around one hundred and thirty kilometres per hour, closing on slow moving vehicles at a terrifying rate while being closed from behind at even more terrifying rates requires a steely nerve and not to put too fine a point on it, a certain level alertness if one is to come out of it at the end of the day with one’s hire-car deposit in one’s own pocket.

If there were a set of instructions setting out the ideal preparation for such a road trip, it probably wouldn’t include getting nowhere near enough sleep the night before, then working all morning in increasing chill and showery gloom.  It certainly wouldn’t include sitting over the last long lunch of summer, no matter how snug and warm the restaurant may appear to be. But as we lingered over dessert looking out as the storm lashed the now well-protected boat we couldn't help but think that what we were doing was infinitely more pleasant than pounding through the gloom on the road or on the water either for that matter.  

Somehow, despite the odds of us moving from our positions being clearly against us, eventually we came to be walking this evening in Koblenz, in an entirely different country, in that familiar post travel and post pack-up fog, a little weary and definitely ready to flop on the nearest bed.  Never the less, unwilling to waste a minute of daylight, we trudged on thankful that none of the zimmer frames that lined the footpath beside the cruise ships were ours,  planning to embark on a proper exploration tomorrow.

Paying the price - Sunday 23rd August - Lagarde

Ahh, well, anyway we aren’t that good at covering the boat unless it’s raining.   Not that we’ve ever tried, although we nearly did today, but the forecast changed overnight and now there may not be respite for a few days.

So when it came time to try out a few ideas for the back cover, by the time we got to the picnic table that serves so faithfully as our workbench, and fired up the trusty Singer it was in a misty sort of drizzle.  I know, I know… we’ve had all year to do this, but it doesn’t matter as long as it’s finished by tomorrow morning, we will be underway.

Actually, there are a few other things that have to be finished by tomorrow morning as well.  Possibly there are a lot of things to be finished.

All will be well I’m sure.

Smoke gets in my eyes - Saturday 22nd August - Lagarde

We haven’t used the diesel heater for a while, so rather than doing anything constructive like for instance, fitting the boat covers in perfect weather for it, one of us decided that it might be worth blowing out its cobwebs so to speak.   That might have been forgivable had the cobwebs been actual cobwebs and not a few years’ worth of soot and smoke.  Even that might have been forgiven had the clothes line not been laden with the remnants of the last load of washing for the year.

In an instant the last load of washing became the second last and really we should have been fitting the covers while the weather was fine but after all it hasn’t rained all year, so tomorrow would do.

Besides, Jørn and Birgit need groceries and we could do with some hardware stuff and we have a car.

Chaos theory - Friday 21st August - Lagarde

Every year at packing up time, a photograph appears of the incredible progress we are making in the packing up stakes.

Every year I am assured that it has to get worse before it gets better, and that it will come together on the day.  To date it has, thus it was with things so incredibly in hand, when Jørn and Birgit arrived in port, there was absolutely no point in not taking the afternoon off, nor the evening, nor the night, and spending the time instead catching up on another year’s worth of news.   Perhaps tomorrow will take care of itself, since today clearly didn’t.