Europe 2023

Finally, after spending 47 nights away; enjoying 46.5 days of sunshine (just half a day of drizzle in Venice); visiting 8 different countries; driving 2,164 kilometres through Italy; traipsing up 13 hills to visit some of the best hill-top towns; staying in 9 different  Airbnb accommodations (all good value I must say); sailing 175 kilometres of canal in France; passing through 66 locks (so ably assisted by Crew) - it is time to go home! What have been the highlights for us.... 1.  Catching up with our daughter Ellen and husband Franz in Austria (thank you guys so much for your hospitality and time/effort to show us around). 2.  Those Italian hill-top towns - so impossibly hard to drive to and get parked up! - But oh so wonderful to walk around at a leisurely pace and soak up all that history in places where time appears to have stood still for centuries. 3.  The Italian cuisine - so much great pasta, risotto, pizza, real parmigiano cheese, limoncello and the incredi...

Yesterday was Brenda's birthday. To celebrate we had the most gruelling journey through 24 locks that day. Am I a cruel Captain? Well in my defence it wasn't planned that way. Our original schedule had us spending that whole day in Carcassonne - but the boat hire company stuffed up our booking - they managed to arrange our one-way trip the wrong way around and we only found out about that just days before leaving on the trip. That issue has resulted in lots of changes to our plans - some good and some not so good (like we lost a day and ended up doing 24 locks in one day to recover that lost day)! However, Brenda did a sterling job with all those locks and accordingly she was promoted from "Crew" to "Lock Keeper". Here is a pic of her carrying out her lofty duties...... Look - two hands, one to hold the rope and one to push the green button! What poise! What "je ne sais quoi!" Actually, joking aside, and before I risk mutiny on the Nourriguier (tha...