Low Bridge, Everybody Down: Barging in Europe: Never A Dull Moment

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Enough already! Not having an engine for 5 or more days and being in a city like Namur means we aren’t suffering. BUT, besides not having an engine we have also lost the use of our kitchen sink, dish washer, and washing machine. By placing buckets where the overflow comes out we’ve managed to limp along. My question to you is: how many buckets of water come out of a front loading washing machine? We called Wilco who came back on Saturday to replace the impeller on a pump that takes the dirty water off the boat (that’s kitchen and laundry water only). Without going into all the details (which you can get on Tom’s blog at tmillerauthor.com) we thought we were back in business when Wilco left us Saturday night. The fix didn’t last through Sunday, which makes us believe we have a defective pump! It is now Sunday night and our first guests arrive Tuesday. With Wilco and Tom’s ingenuity, hard work, and more than a little luck we should be back in business by the time Fran and Ed arrive.

Meanwhile, what have we been doing while in Namur? It’s a nice city. Between rain, wind and icy cold (37 F one evening) we have managed to walk for miles. We are tied up directly below the Namur Citadel. Having never seen it on previous visits to Namur this was our golden opportunity. The Citadellel of Namur used to be one of the largest fortresses in Europe. We climbed the many stairs to the top and enjoyed beautiful views as well as a little train ride covering part of the grounds. As is known, civilizations build on the ruins of previous civilizations, which is what has happened to the Citadelle. Therefore, it’s a nice place to visit but what you see are remains mainly from the 19^th Century. For those who are not claustrophobic there are underground tunnels to tour. NOT for me!

We were fortunate to be here on a weekend and walk thru the very extensive outdoor market. We found a little food (we missed most of that area), but the flowers, clothing, bric-a-brac as well as live animals were fun to see. The streets were packed.

Better yet was the 13^th International Biennial of Belgian Aquarelle Paintings. There were some 200 watercolor painters exhibiting more than 500 works. Some excellent painters were represented at the show.

We found a restaurant Peanuts where for the price of a beer they let us stay as long as we wished to use their Internet. I can recommend the locally produced beer Blanche de Namur. This city is know for their snails and Strawberry Festival. Living so close to Camarillo where we produce strawberries all year long, I wasn’t impressed with the small and very expensive selection of strawberries. The weather may have contributed to the lack of enthusiasm over this weekend’s Strawberry Festival. I have yet to try their snails, which are specially grown here. I did try a Belgian waffle dipped in chocolate sauce. Very nice. I can also highly recommend the local beer Blanche de Namur.