We read in one of the brochures that Capestang had a Sunday market in the village, so we followed the stream of people with baskets and found it easily. They sold clothing, books and baskets, but mostly they sold food. We could not help ourselves and bought yet more yummy cheeses. They may smell like old socks but they certainly taste good. We also bought ripe black figs, fresh melon, red cabbage, spring onions, coriander, a dark grain baguette and some lavender honey. Food heaven!
Canal du Midi
Back at the boat we opened up the sliding roof to let in fresh air and snacked on a platter of local cheese, fruit and bread. Ripe Brie, Emmentaler, pepper encrusted goats’ cheese, sweet grapes, nectarines and a glass of rich red wine. Yummy!
Lowest bridge in France at Capestang
Apart from the scenery on the canal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Capestang has the distinction of having the smallest bridge on all the canals in France. After lunch we packed up, headed under this bridge and veered left to Narbonne. We met a French couple heading in the same direction as us and managed to converse in “Frenglish” through 5 locks together.
We stopped off for the night just outside the lock at Saleles D’ Aude. It was nice to be away from the other boats for a change. We lay in our cabin that night listening to the sounds of nature, and what we thought were owls hooting.
Monday 7th September 2009
We left our peaceful sleeping spot and set off for Narbonne. Out boat was a 9.5 m non-fly-bridge, Penichette. The Le Boat style cruisers were massive next to our boat but for two of us the Penichette was plenty big enough, however it would have been tight if there were two couples on this boat. We met up with two Scottish couples on another boat and travelled through 5 locks with them. One sort of makes ‘friends’ with other people heading the same direction as you for the time you are together.
We got to Narbonne by lunchtime and still managed a water top-up en route.The south of France is normally a warm part of the world, but by afternoon it was sweltering hot. I stripped down to my bikini top to keep cool.
A typical lunch on our boat.
Later, we went to explore Narbonne and found the Tourist Info Offices. They allowed two hours free Internet there so we planned to make a turn before we left Narbonne. We compared boats as we wandered along the canal. People actually live on the rivers and canals. It is amazing how some boats have home comforts, flat screen TV’s, wi-fi and washing machines. They are powered by batteries, but also by wind turbines and solar panels. There are even huge floating hotels where guests languish in luxury. We had a long chat to a Canadian who had lived on the canals in boats since 1965.
Plane trees along the canal
We saw the old Roman baths and a canal running under a building. Seriously, the canal runs right
through a building! There was more typical Mediterranean architecture in this region. We noticed eccentric people who appear to roam the bigger towns and cities with packs of dogs. We suspect they are street people.
Places like Narbonne are ideal for a sleepover as they have the requisite shopping, eateries and amenities one needs. But a night in the middle of nowhere with not a soul in sight and the only sounds are water lapping and trees rustling, are what make this such a special holiday.
Vineyards opposite the canal
At about 19.00 as the day started to cool we went for a run along the canal under the shady plane trees. I took a detour along the vineyards which stretched out behind the trees for miles. Back at the boat, after a warm shower, my other half made a chick pea curry with rice and a raita. We had shore to boat power so we sat till late tidying up photos and working on the laptop.
Friday 4th September 2009
After breakfast we checked out and walked to the main train station. Two tickets from Toulouse to Lezignan-Corbiers, came to €38.00 for both of us. We arrived in this sleepy little town and found the only taxi driver at the café next to the station. He was having lunch. Priorities are different in France. He still had two other passengers to drop off before us. They were waiting for him to finish his meal. We decided to eat at the café too.
Canal du Midi
They served us each an enormous baguette with Brie, a coffee and a tea, all for €8.00. The presentation of the tea was a little different – I got a small cup of boiling hot water with a tea bag in it.
The drive to Loca-boat passed through ancient villages and vineyards that were planted way back in Roman times. One got the feeling life has not changed much in these villages. Local villagers sat outside their old stone homes and watched the world go by. A barking dog or a bicycle passing was about as busy as it got.
At Locaboat we had our handover and set off immediately as we needed to buy food and cleaning items. We tied up at the next village, Paraza, and asked some people walking past in our best pidgin French where we could find the local grocery store. They asked if they could speak in English. But of course!
Our Penichette boat
They said it wasn’t much of a store but directed us up the road. We scrambled up a thorny bank and meandered along lanes that twisted and turned until we found the local ‘epicurie’. One has to remember to look out for cars coming on the opposite side of the road in France or one can walk right into a car. We managed to buy the absolute basics and headed back for a quiet night on the canal. Sleeping well is a given in such tranquil surroundings
Saturday 5th September 2009
At the Locaboat mooring
Our plan was to head along the canal to Narbonne, track back, and then head in a different direction to our final destination, which was Negra. We stopped en route at Ventenac d’ Aude hoping to shop. Buying supplies was not as easy as we thought and our attempts to get guidance from locals proved amusing to all. At times it was like playing a game of Charades with a word or two thrown in and plenty of smiles.
We passed Le Somail and decided to brave it and eat at a bar/restaurant type place we saw close to the canal banks. Nice to be able to check out potential places to eat as you cruise the canals. I’m vegetarian and the French don’t get why anyone wouldn’t eat meat. However they served us a divine salad with warm goat cheese on bread, a demi-carafe or ‘pichet’ of wine, a bottle of water, a cheese platter to share with bread, and two coffees or cafes as they call them. Our meal excluding tip was €32.00.
Le Somail
Back at our boat we got going again. Further along the canal we decided to stop at Capestang. Voila! At Capestang we finally found a supermarket. And after a shop-up we promptly found an even nicer supermarket. C’est la vie!
We both went for a short run along the towpath. I stopped and ate wild black berries growing along the banks of the canal. Our mooring for the night was picture book perfect. There was a crowd of riverboats under a bright full moon. We could hear of the strains of other people chatting and cutlery on plates. Meanwhile we tucked into a meal of baguette, cranberries and Brie with a fresh vegetable salad. We both slept soundly.
After our boating trip we spent a long weekend in Amsterdam. There are gazillions of must-sees and you can’t possibly see them all. We narrowed it down to the things that make Holland unique.
Our pick was a canal cruise, the Cannabis College and the Marijuana Museum.
We also did the Sex Museum and the Erotic Museum. We’re not likely to see museums like that anywhere else in the world so we decided to see them while we were in Amsterdam.
Were they all that? It was interesting to learn just how many uses cannabis has, apart from getting stoned, and they showed us some of the different ways it can be taken. Same with the sex museums. People are turned on by really strange stuff and you get to see it. Not for the prudish. You are warned before you go into a room where there is graphic and disturbing material. But they mainly have exibits of erotica going back eons and from all civilisations.
What it is really wierd though, is to walk the streets and smell the aroma of weed coming from the various coffee shops. My head knows that it’s an illegal substance, so it’s quite a head twist watching people smoking in public without fear of breaking the law. The distinct smell of cannabis pervades the city.
Add that to the constant clanging of the trams moving swiftly past and you could close your eyes and know you are in Amsterdam.
The Grasshopper Coffee Shop
We walked about and took in as many of the recommended sights and areas.
Cheese tasting and shop
We also enjoyed just being in the city and strolling the streets observing the goings on. If we passed a cheese tasting shop, then we would pop in, or have a coffee at a cafe and watch the world go by. Our obsevations were that the biggest customers of the coffee shops and the ladies in the red light district are NOT Dutch.
We found markets all over Holland. They seem to be in different towns on different days. The food stalls allow tastings and put out morsels for you to try. Be warned – you will end up buying – and eating – a lot of food. We consumed our body weight in cheeses, cookies and Belgian beers.
Dutch frites or a Maoz falafel for lunch???
My favourites were Speculaas cookies and Dutch apple pie. The beers are served in brandy style glasses with the name of the beer on the glass at local watering holes. Our favourite beers were Leffe and Grimsberg. These two have a sweeter, almost nutty flavour and aren’t fizzy like most lagers. One warning – they pack nearly double the alcohol content of other beers.
We tried a cheese and apple pancake at one of the pancake bars. Not a combo I would have thought of, I have to say, but nice all the same. Dutch liquorice is highly addictive. I managed to wolf down a half kilo bag in two days. It comes sweet, mint, honey or salty. I got a mixed variety bag and I can report – they are all good.
Since I don’t eat meat, the best value for money, and the best food for vegetarians, came from Maoz. They let you go back to the salad bar as much as you want to top up.
Tourism office or VVV
We had fun looking out for quirky boat names and even quirkier cyclists. There really, really are a lot of bicycles in Holland. I was surprised to learn they have right of way on roads. They also don’t wear helmets. Kids grow up riding bicycles so riding a bicycle is like breathing to the Dutch.
They manage to do all sorts of things whilst cycling. Like; chat on a phone, apply lipstick, carry babies on their backs, hold an umbrella. Pedalling in the highest of heels doesn’t seem to present a problem.
You have to keep your wits about you crossing a road as bicycles hurtle past in all directions. Amsterdam is not a pedestrian friendly city.
The Dutch tourism offices do not have an “i” sign, but rather a triangle shaped VVV board. It stands for Voor Vremdelingen Verkeer and is pronounced “fear, fear, fear”. The VVV offices are not always free standing. They pop up in museums and even in a sports shop in one town.
The ubiquitous trams
Many shops close on Mondays for some reason in Holland. Even in Amsterdam. Once we realised this we made sure we did our visits and shopping between Tuesdays to Saturdays.
Here are a couple of handy links for visiting Holland –
Holland Tourism
Visit Holland
Timeout Amsterdam
Lonely Planet Amsterdam
View fro Ibis Hotel Stopera
For accommodation we used Housetrip and bagged ourselves an fully furnished apartment right in the central city area. You could also try Wimdu or Airbnb.
The wonderful thing about the open, warm Dutch personalities is you can ask them for directions without fear of offending them. You are likely to be rewarded with enthusiatic help and friendly conversation.
It’s a great city and a lot more than just sex and drugs. Just rememmber to pack a rain proof jacket. It rained every day we were in Holland. Especially in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, it must have rained ten times a day.
I am going to dispense a little bit of advice to wannabe boaters. Not that I am an expert, but I have done a few boat trips now.
1. One week is never enough. You hardly get going, and before you know it, you have to return the boat. You also lose a day as you don’t get seven full days and nights. A fortnight is best.
2. Most canals boat holidays don’t require boating experience but it does help. Manoeuvring a boat in tides and wind is not easily done. For a sailing holiday, consider doing a boating course. You can do a 6 – 8 week competent crew course which will give you the basics.
Mooring in Steenwijk
3. For the person handling the boat, you need to know that a boat doesn’t drive like a car. Rather go slowly and get a feel for the wind and the currents and work with them to move the boat. We have seen people with no clue heading off full throttle and bashing boats. Less is more with a boat.
4. Rather plan a shorter distance and enjoy the trip than travel further and have to travel at speed to return the boat in time.
5. Try to travel in a loop, rather than there-and-back, to vary the scenery.
6. You need to be aware that boating usually is done in the countryside and you can’t always pop into a 24 hour superstore or pharmacy on a whim.
Toll bridge on the canal
7. Boats are compact. Space is limited. Pack as little as you can get away with.
8. The perception that boating is elegant and luxurious is a complete myth. You will have much less water than you are used to. You will bump your head and shins moving about in the cabin. Don’t even think about wearing heels.
9. Boat loos take some getting used to. They don’t have regular flush systems.
10. Pack working gloves to handle ropes. Garden gloves will do. Use heavy duty hand cream every night to soothe dry chapped hands. Also pack a sunhat and maximum factor sun cream.
Mooring in Urk
We self-catered on our hire boat which brought costs down. Most towns had a supermarket and we would buy their own-brand foods which were even cheaper than our own-brand foods back home.
If we were lucky to find one, we would shop at a LIDL or an ALDI. The prices at ALDI are excellent. A 750 ml bottle of French red wine was €2.29; a 120gr tub of walnuts was €1.79; sliced pumpernickel bread 500gr was €0.35 and 125gr punnet of raspberries cost €1.79.
I left South Africa a week ago and spent a few days in London. From there, my other half and I did a mini road trip to Scotland. It’s mid summer back in South Africa and of course mid winter in the UK. The contrast is sharp.
South Africa never really gets that cold. There are places that get cold, but they are remote and sparsely inhabited. Snow in our cities would be front page news.
I don’t possess the sort of clothes that people from cold countries wear. Instead I am putting on just about every item of clothing I brought with me. Wearing all this clothing is so freaking heavy.
Frost covered garden
Salt/grit bins, snow poles, clip on ice grips for shoes, ice scrapers for car windows, bum warmers in a car and many other things people in the UK consider normal simply don’t exist in South Africa.
I always though ear muffs were daft things. Now I totally understand why people wear them. I wish they could come up with something to keep my nose warm other than wrapping a scarf around my face.
Back in South Africa they have been having a heatwave. Places like Riebeek Kasteel have apparently had temperatures in the upper forties touching 50’C. Yikes! Riebeek valley tourism.
We were glad we chose to stay in the Deira area, which is the older part of the city. It’s right opposite the City Centre shopping mall, and walking distance from the Carrefour food store, which has a wide selection of yummy Middle Eastern and Asian foods. We hardly ate out, and ate well for very little money. Alcohol was not readily available, and when it was, it was so expensive that we chose not to drink for the 3 days in Dubai.
Concrete skyline
There are a few Souks (markets) and we got to see the old market. It is quaint and deserves to be seen to get a feel for how the old style architecture would have been. Dubai for the most part is a modern and almost new city. As far as the eye can see hundreds of developments are going on. They were even pulling down old buildings to put up new ones. We saw the famous Palms and The World, where they are dredging and building islands with beaches in the shape of a palm tree and the shape of the world.
Dhow
Our city guide made so many references to buildings being bigger or better or more expensive as we drove past them, I lost track, but one that stood out was the Burj Dubai Hotel. It is reputed to be the biggest and most expensive hotel in Dubai. It is right next to Dubai’s Jamirah Beach, which has warm water, as you would imagine, but also calm sea and a sandy white beach. One has to remind oneself all the time that Dubai is built in a desert. Beautiful palm trees, lush lawns and brightly coloured flowerbeds dot the city.
Our friendly guide from the day dropped us off for the dhow trip along Dubai Creek. The creek is really just a big river running up into the city not unlike the Thames into London. It has marinas with luxury yachts and beautiful old style wooden dhows. A dhow trip includes a meal but not alcohol, which, as said earlier, is very expensive. The evening was warm and pleasant but, as I don’t eat meat, I always worry whether I will have enough food at these buffet meals. However, there was plenty delicious vegetarian food. I really enjoyed the humus, pita and pickles mezze type foods. We were given lots of water in lieu of alcohol. The dhow trip was enjoyable although I could have done without the copycat hits they belted out on the PA. We saw the city lights, the mini ferries zipping across the creek and a glimpse of the harbour.
Sand dune surfing
We were taken back to our hotel and slept soundly. The next afternoon we were anxious as the tour operator was late to collect us for the dune tour. Our hotel phoned the company and the driver for us. Turned out we had another party joining us who had gotten stuck in traffic. Finally we all climbed into a great big 4 x 4 and headed off for the desert. A mix of raucous hip-hop and sweet Arabic music was playing in the car to get us all in the mood. I suspect our Egyptian tour guide and the other party with us had no idea of the lyrical content of the music we were listening to, as it was XXX rated.
We stopped at a petrol station for the tyres to be deflated and were herded into the curio shops. The usual cold drinks, sweets, fridge magnets, toy camels and tat were on sale. A plethora of highly enthusiastic sales people showed us all sorts of awful things we could buy. We escaped to the warmth outside and shortly we all piled back into the 4 x 4 and our driver drove off into the soft red sand. There were plenty of other 4 x 4’s gathered there. They seem to wait until there is a big enough party and get going together.
Cheesy desert photo
Our tour guide, who till now had been quiet, asked us to fasten our seat belts and assured us we would be safe. He then, raced the car straight up a steep dune, swung around and let it slide down the slopes. The only way I could describe this experience would be like surfing a wave on a surfboard, except we were surfing dunes in a car. How the cars do not fall over I will never know. Quite obviously not any old driver can do this. Once we realised we would be safe we enjoyed it. We stopped a few times to watch some biker demos, a sunset and then we went to a desert camp for a meal and a display of traditional and belly dancing. Again the food was good and plentiful. We avoided the alcohol but there were lots of soft drinks.
Local dancing and entertainment
Three days is enough to get a feel for Dubai. There are other tours offering rock climbing, quad biking or trips to the other UAE states such as Abu Dabi. There are Arabic countries that are not conducive to female travellers and seem repressed to western societies, however Dubai allows you to experience Middle Eastern culture in a safe modern environment. My only disappointment was that the only Emiratees we had contact with or saw was at airport customs or shopping in the malls.
