Incommunicado

Our reactions to not being able to be on the internet at will amazes us.  We actually have withdrawal-like symptoms. We feel relieved that we are back......more or less.

Greetings from Charleville, France.  We have traveled down the Muese river from Liege, Belgium and despite a few glitches, we've had a lovely trip.  After Namur, Belgium, the commercial barge traffic thins out to practically nothing, the hills grow taller, the woods get thicker, the towns ooze with charm, the locks get friendlier and easier to negotiate. 
We are back to the kind of cruising that we remember.

The old fortifications in Namur, Belgium. A bagpiper's lament was drifting across the river as I took this picture.

Flower filled marina, Revin, France

Path to the charming but unisex shower room, Revin, France

Glitch number one: we are out of propane and cannot get our Netherlands' propane bottles refilled here.  France has a different system (of course) so we must travel to the next town to get an adapter and somehow find propane containers to fit inside our locker.  Oh well, excrement occurs, doesn't it?

Yogi with Adolphe Sax in Dinant, Belgium

M. Sax (of 'aphone fame) is very popular in Dinant.

Glitch number two: just as we crossed the French border, we were stopped, thoroughly inspected by the gendarmes and found lacking.  Our fire extinguisher wasn't dated and we do not have a throwable life ring aboard so we were written up although we were allowed to enter France on the condition that we rectify our lack of safety equipment and report back when we have done so.
We've been told that there is a big problem with drug smuggling into France, so before the gendarmes sent a diver to inspect our boat's bottom, before they ordered our little Yogi-dog off the boat so that their drug sniffing dog could inspect all our corners and before they made Dwight take a breathalizer test for drugs, we quickly fed all our contraband to the dog ...............just kidding.

Duty calls even when it's raining

 
Glitch number three: we cannot cook without propane and Yogi-dog is running out of his super-deluxe home-made dog food.  In our search for propane, we had to by-pass some lovely little "haulte fluvials" that needed exploring.  Guess that someday we will just have to return to do the Muese again.  Not too sure that is a glitch though.

Finally, a little visual aid to show just how fast we travel.

 

Now it's time to join some fellow American cruisers for a glass of wine this evening.  It's a small world, so when we found out that they are from Tucson and spend their summers on the European waterways.....well, golly, it didn't surprise us at all.