Antiope Cruising: Mixing it with the big ships

I was about to post this episode when we received news of the Queen's death on the day we arrived into the Netherlands. It is a sobering thought that I can remember her coronation. It was in the same year that I first visited the Netherlands aboard my parents' boat 'Bonita'.

'Bonita' as she looked in 1953

Aboard Antiope we had reached Zeeland and could relax the pace a little. The worry of water shortages now behind us, we were now only a week's cruising away from our winter base in Sheerwolde which is a day or so beyond Amsterdam.

Not much spare room to pass here

These lifting bridges don't give you much time once a commercial arrives

In some the big locks the bollards are 'floating'

and they move up or down with you.

Our passage from the Sambre took us North through Brussels to the Scheldt river where we had to share the waterway with seagoing ships and massive barges. Restrictions applied to pleasure craft meant that we frequently had to wait for commercial craft to pass low bridges and share locks when and if there was room for us.

We did take time out in Brussels for a bit of sightseeing.

The Brussels Royal Yacht Club,

a tram ride from the city centre

The 'Atomium', a "temporary" survivor of the 1958 Brussels world fair

'Manneken Pis' on the tourist trail and this model dates from 1618.

The central square hosting the annual 'Beer Fest' on the weekend we visit !!!

We find an axe throwing beer bar. What could possibly go wrong?

On our way out of town we pass mountains of scrap

waiting to be barged away

On a clear calm day we lock out onto the Scheldt river to bypass the Antwerp docks, which are currently off limits to any vessels without AIS. Yep, it's on the shopping list for next year.