Flanders

It is May and wild poppies are blooming everywhere in Flanders, poignant reminders of the human carnage that took place on this same soil, in the 'War to end all wars'.  What have we learned?

Waterside and among the thistles are banks of scarlet blooms.

For our shakedown cruise we made our way up the less travelled waterway to Ypres. It is 14 years since we last moored up in the town basin.  Walking the cobbled streets, the dramatic history of the town becomes very real. The town centre has been rebuilt exactly as it had been before 'The Great War'. The fleeing city fathers took the original plans with them. 

Ypres, Menin Gate, and one of the pair of replicated lions. 

Thousands of Anzac and commonwealth troops marched past this lion to the front line and never returned. The original Lions were gifted to Australia.  

Every evening at 8pm, hundreds gather at the gate.

The town falls silent as buglers sound the 'Last Post'

Inscribed on the walls of this gateway are the names of each of the close to 500,000 commonwealth servicemen who never returned  

Evening light behind Ypres old cloth hall.

From Ypres we retraced our route through Diksmuide to Nieupoort and through Passendale, a springtime of green fields, where mud and trenches had once filled the landscape 

The sea 'Sluis' at Nieuwpoort became strategic defense weapons. 

As the German army advanced eastwards along the coast, the Belgian afterguard opened three massive floodgates and turned the lowland of Passendale into swampland and literally bogged down any further advance, defining the front line for 3 years. 

Brugge city quay and customs houses.

 The city's wealth was derived from the cloth trade

The picture book city of Brugge was mostly spared the devastation suffered by the front-line towns just a few miles to the west. Tourism is now their primary industry.  A friendly lock keeper tipped us off to visit the 'Vlissinghe', the 'Oldest pub in Belgium' dating back to 1515 and off the tourist radar. 

Well-worn steps lead to a back yard 

The Vlissinghe is well hidden down a back street

I get to sample a Brugge beer

 beneath a portrait, reputedly of the original owners.

After a few heatwave days in Brugge, we cruised to Ghent where, on a stormy day dawn, we lock out onto the tidal Scheldt at high water to ride the strong flowing ebb tide for three hours and lock into the Dender river. This will take us South and into Wallonia, where we take a right turn onto the Canal du Centra, Thieu, Saneffe, and the Sambre into France later in June. Our cruising plan for the season is taking shape. 

An early start to catch the tide, Merelbeke Sluis.

For three hours we see no other boats, 

Where is everyone?

The Stadhuis Dendermonde, they do love their flags.

 

After the stress of the tidal Scheldt, we took time to explore Dendermonde, a hidden gem. A strategic riverside town settled in the Bronze age, fortified by the Romans, sacked by the Vikings, re-fortified by Napoleon. Garrisoned by Wellington, flattened in WW1, authentically rebuilt in medieval style and within commuting distance to Brussels.    

Minstrels with a story

A hand crafted 'Hurdy Gurdy' 

a very different string instrument

We happened on a medieval gathering in the square including this minstrel couple.

Both of these medieval instruments were hand made by the husband, both the 'mid-European' pipes and an authentic replica 'Hurdy-Gurdy'     

As I close off this post, we are in Aalst on the river Dender held up by lock repairs just a few kms ahead of us. We are informed that this may take two more weeks to fix. We are faced with a change of plan, retracing our route through Ghent and Southwards via Tournai.

 

Spring 26

 In late April, despite the dire NZ travel advisory, we flew up from New Zealand with Emirates in two of their superb A380s.  Transiting at Dubai and on to London, the pilots carefully skirted the war zones below. In the end, this was one of the most stress-free journeys we have made.  Our London destination was in order to catch up socially with a few folk before heading over to Antiope in Belgium

                           

At the Diksmuide boatyard, we find Antiope 

still snugged up after her winter sleep. 

Since my last post in September 2025, we have had a busy NZ summer. Alongside tasks at home,

In February we attended the annual gathering of Kiwi Cruisers in Europe, an eclectic group of like minded snowbirds. Charles has also skippered several sail training trips aboard Lion NZ and Steinlager. These trips can be challenging at times, however the rewards of seeing the students grow in confidence are worth it. 'My best job ever'!

The annual Kiwi cruisers meeting in the Bombay hills.

Steinlager 2 is no match for Team NZ 

and their foiling 40 

Taking students to sea aboard Steinlager2 

and Lion NZ is my best job ever

Another achievement has been to finally complete a model replica galleon, a task handed to me by my daughter several years ago. The final act being to see it installed safely in a glass cabinet at her home in Tauranga. 

Finished at last!

More or less authentic rigging,

Even the gun ports open.

Returned completed and safely behind glass.

While in London we found a warm spring day to visit the Chelsea Physic Garden, this having been on on Annie's bucket list for a while. The extensive walled estate owes many of its specimens to Joseph Banks' early voyages with Bligh and Cook. Exotic plants and trees have been nurtured alongside carnivorous and deadly plants for over 350 years, all in the interests of science and medicine.   

A flowering kowhai in the Physic Garden.

This Wardian Case once transported 

exotic plants by sailing ships.

    

A homage to my misspent youth.

 A pint in my old 'local', The Nightingale Pub

 

Another visit to the Suffolk seaside coincided with a Classic car parade in Felixstowe with over 600 vehicles entered and all ranged up alongside the beach huts.  

Even a 'Trabant' on show

A Dodge Charger...General Lee, 

an immaculate repro  

Hands up those who can remember the Dukes of Hazzard.

1953 Ford Popular. My dad had one of these!

This Morris Cowley is a century old

As I write we are back aboard Antiope, in Diksmuide having found her in good shape after a long winter sleep snug inside a large shed in the company of many craft of various vintages. Hauled outside, Antiope is currently sitting in a cradle on the hardstand while we complete some pre-launch tasks.

                                                                     STOP PRESS

 

We are back afloat 

 

On the Lake

Before heading back to New Zealand, we take time out to visit friends in Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance and use the time to explore the area.

We take a cruise on the Rhine !

It seemed bizarre to be to be on a cruise ship almost 400m above sea level. We were on Lake Constance known as the Bodensee to the locals. The lake is fed by the infant Rhine river close to where it flows from its source in the Swiss alps. Glaciers during the last ice age carved out this 536 sq km lake. The river then takes shape again after spectacular waterfalls and becomes the commercially navigable Rhine waterway to the sea just a few kms later at Basel.

The infant Rhine winds its way up this valley to the foot of the Swiss Alps. 

 In recent years we have cruised Antiope in stages from Basel to the sea, so it was an experience to explore these upper reaches.  

 The 'Santis' mountain peak seen from across the lake

On a day trip to the Swiss alps, we take the gondola to the peak of 'Santis mountain', 2502 metres above sea level and one of the highest peaks in Switzerland that is accessable by cable car. While there was October snow on the distant peaks, we learn that the alpine glaciers are receeding at an alarming rate.  It is no wonder that the lowland waterways, which are fed from the Rhine and Rhone rivers and rely on the alpine spring melt, are drying up each year.    

     

On Santis peak, among the clouds at over 2500 metres 

We are well rugged up 

 

                                                  

Global warming has left this alpine ridge with scant snowfall in recent years.  

               

              The Santis 'Schwebebahn' cable car

'Aescher' restuarant literally clings to the side of a mountain. 

Before flying back to New Zealand, we have been staying with friends on the German side of Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen and taking day trips up and down the lake and across the water to Switzerland and Austria.

The Bodensee is the German name for Lake Constance, the Swiss alps beyond

In 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin made his first ascent in a rigid airship from Friedrichshafen. By 1935, the massive airships Hindenburg and Graff Zeppelin were circling the globe, carrying passengers in luxury.   

This 33m replica of the Hindenburg hangs n the Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen.

An Airbus A380 size compared to Hindenburg

Hindenburg and liner Queen Mary in same scale

         A modern small airship does tourists daily tours over Friedrichshafen .

A passenger boat trip down the lake took us to a bronze age archeological site showing a recreated stilt village. 

The materials needed to built the original dwellings would have all been found nearby.

This pile dwelling site dates back more than 3,000 years, and the recreated stone to bronze age village seemed eerily authentic. The remote area and shallow lake shore has revealed pile stumps, tools and pottery which all indicate a once extensive settlement.  

    

The remains of crude dugout boats were also found in the lakebed silt  

   

Another 2 hour lake cruise took us to the medieval town of Lindau.  It is now very much a tourist destination, however without the summer crowds we were able to take the time to absorb the atmosphere of lakeside life through the centuries. It was once a fortified island and to walk around the island would take less than two hours.    

Our lake cruise ship approaches Lindau 

The iconic Lindau lighthouse. 

 Lake Constance last froze over completly in 1963

                                         Next stop Paris before boarding our long flight home.