7-9 June Our next stop was Maasbracht. We moored at the Passenthaven, close to where large commercials (80-110m) moor. You can see them in the background of the below photo. On our first afternoon (Thursday) we rode to Stevensweert, just south. This was an old fortified town. We had a look around and then had a drink at a terrace overlooking two of the many local marinas. On the way home we stopped to have a look at the Maasbracht lock, which we are told is the busiest and the deepest in the Netherlands. It has 3 lock chambers which were all working when we were there, and the drop is 12m. The length is about 150m. Friends sent us this image from Marine Traffic showing marine traffic where we are moored. It gives an idea of how busy the harbour is. On Friday we cycled to Thorn, known as the white town. It is dominated by an Abbey which was run by abbesses for centuries. Most of the buildings in town are painted white which gives it a nice feeling. On the way home we stopped in at the Linssen headquarters and looked at their operation and a couple of cruisers. Very well made beautiful boats But we are still quite happy with our Moondance. In the evening we had Susi and Austin over for drinks. We had noticed the Aussie flag on their boat. They are from Sydney, and we had a pleasant evening. Hopefully we'll bump into them again on our journey. On Saturday we had Marcel and Dawn over for lunch. It was great to catch up. We hadn't seen them since they came to our rescue on the Sambre in Belgium last year. At one point a huge hotel barge looked like it was going to moor alongside us. Luckily it was just picking up passengers from a near by pontoon. There was also a party boat arriving - with loud music - at the same time. So quite an interesting time on the water. Marcel and Dawn also took away our unwanted furniture, to use or give away. We were happy to have that gone. We have arranged for Dawn to cruise with us for a day or two next week (unfortunately Marcel will be away next weekend). We'll pick her up in Venlo - hopefully we'll moor in their home marina for one night.
1 Comment
Lisette McCauley
13/6/2018 12:41:00 am
Great blog and pictures as usual. If you see Austin and Susi again - ask them if they met us at the foot of the ascenseurs two years ago? They saw our Aussie flag, and it turned out they had met Deb and Pete on a previous cruise. Interesting that we should individually have all met Austin on his travels.
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