Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Barge Date: 02-08-2017

Leaving the Somme


Not wanting to miss the canal that we could not see by boat, we decided to take a train to Abbeville but were interrupted with this thought when another boater said it is much nicer to go all the way to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme on the Atlantic. One must take a small gauge railroad to get there but because of a delayed train from Amiens, we got a late start. St Valery is very much a summer place for tourists. Marianne wanted to see some sites that have ties to her family that crossed a little channel to take over England. Worth a return trip and stay. There are 2 other towns connected by this small railroad that should be visited.



I would like to stay at this hotel some day.


Marianne with monument to her family's war making.


We were needed back in Brussels for my resident permit and we took the train from Amiens. The short story with the permit people is that I must again return after important papers are prepared. I have been given a secret number that will make it all work next time.

While there and being hosted once again by our wonderful Belgian family, we took a trip with Monique and Maxime to see the castle of Gaasbeek. The castle was of interest but even better for me were the gardens. The gardeners specialize in training plants and trees to be things they normally are not. Shapes, hedges, borders. People come from all over the world to learn this process. Time is a factor. This garden was started about 20 years ago and they have just opened it to the public.










Back to the boat, we began our exit from the Somme. We had been warned by the lock workers that several days earlier a car had been driven into the canal and to be careful at a particular location . We saw one very wet VW.

We were looking forward to getting back to the marina at Cappy as our new energy efficient refrigerator had arrived. The captain had stored it in his garage and we quickly retrieved it and swapped out the old for the new. While it is a bit smaller, it does seem to use less electricity. That's the point of the purchase. We also swapped out our nearly empty LP tanks so now we are filled up.

Now headed east.

1 comment:

  1. Too bad about the weed. A two weeks later it was clear and we made it easily to St Valery. We very much enjoyed our short stay in Abbeville also, so if you come this way again, have the time and the weed is sorted - you would enjoy a re-run on the Somme. Seems we were just behind you.

    ReplyDelete