Here are some views of our “boat.” It was built especially for tours such as ours, based on the design of the original “Magnifique,” which actually was a working barge before being converted to a floating hotel.

It’s upper deck was one of the outdoor lounge areas and had lounge chairs, a hot tub and tables.

The stern area was another outside lounge area.

There was an inside lounge area that we used a lot, but we don’t have a good photo of it. Here’s a view of the dining area, with the group at our final dinner.

The chef was amazing. You can see a little bit of his tiny kitchen behind him.

Our last night’s entree was Guinea fowl. The other photo was of our first night’s dessert.

The bar was made of an old mahogany sail boat. You had to be careful where you placed glassware because of its sloped sides. They had two beers on tap: Heineken and a Belgian blonde beer called Affligem. We usually had the blonde.

Here’s a photo of the whole crew and the guides. The chef, Michael (service), Chris the captain, the “sailor” (he basically did a bit of everything), our guides: Hester and Sandra, and Lana (service). They all worked hard to make sure everyone was happy.

Here’s a group picture of everyone who worked as a “sweep.” Our group was well represented with three of us volunteering. Doug was “sweep support” a couple of days.

Here’s another view of the “Magnifique II.” It was wonderful to see so much beautiful country with a floating hotel. No packing and unpacking involved. Since taking our fifth wheel trailer on a trip like this is out of the question, this was a great alternative.

Monday (Day 5): Dordrecht to Vianen

We started our day with a short bike ride to a waterbus (for pedestrians and cyclists only) that took us and our bikes on a 20 minute cruise to Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage site, famous for the nineteen windmills that were built around 1740. Nineteen families worked together to drain the polder and through their efforts, the Netherlands gained valuable land. Unfortunately we had cloudy skies, but it was still an impressive site. We spent a bit of time at the windmills then rode on the bike path right beside them.

We rode for about 25 kilometres to another water crossing, this time on a short ferry. Here’s a view of the ferry unloading shortly before we got on. It was about a five minute ride.

Soon we were in the town of Schoonhoven, riding on the narrow roads.

We had some time to wander around town, but most shops were closed on Monday.

The boat docked in Schoonhoven and Joanne chose to sail instead of ride. Wendy, Doug and Bill carried on. Our guide kept a brisk pace, so although we were travelling through pleasant scenery, we had to keep our wits about us and couldn’t stop for pictures. The hot and humid weather was draining our energy, but since we were travelling faster than the boat, we took a detour and rode another water taxi over to Vianen. Vianen was a beautiful quiet town.

We made it to boat at about 5:30, just as it was docking north of Vianen (and on the other side of the canal). Joanne had the experience of going through locks on the barge. That evening, we sat in the shade on the lower deck. Soon a table was moved over and we realized that we had scored the best table for the barbecued dinner.

Tuesday (Day 5): Vianen to Amsterdam

During breakfast, we set sail for Breukelen. We set off for the Willegen cheese farm. After sampling coffee and freshly made pie, the owner took us on a tour of their cheese operation. They made cheese from their own unpasteurized milk and did everything by on a small scale. Here’s a view of their house and coffee shop and store. Notice that it looks traditional, yet is modern with opening windows in the roof. Below this photo is a close up of the roof, which is made out of reeds.

They store the cheese for a length of time depending on flavour. The “x” is on each cheese so that they can turn them equally.

We took a meandering path via Muiden to reach Amsterdam. It was about 10 kilometres longer than the short route, and more interesting than riding along a land bridge. We passed this working windmill, which was having repairs done.

Lunch was in Muiden, on a bench by the canal. There’s an interesting castle there too, but we didn’t have time and it had an expensive entrance fee.

We walked around town a bit and followed a sign for the WC. This one cost 20 cents, which we luckily had the change for. Here’s Doug out in front.

We were getting closer and closer to Amsterdam! Unfortunately, one of the bikes got a flat tire and the guide was unable to repair it. We were still 15 kilometres from our boat. Luckily we had a marathon runner in our group who willingly agreed to run the distance. Our guide rode her bike one handed, while dragging the other one beside her. We slowly made our way into town.

As we got closer to the city, the bike paths became busier. We had a few lights to negotiate. You had to be ready to go as soon as the bicycle-shaped light was green, because it wasn’t very long and sometimes the whole group wouldn’t get through. There also were scooters and motor bikes in the same lane.

The Magnifique II moored on the waterfront, near to where the cruise ships come in. We had one last dinner which you will see in the final post about the ship. The next morning we checked out and headed out to explore Amsterdam for a few days. More about that soon.

Saturday (Day 3): Ghent to Antwerp

Joanne and Bill were ready early on Saturday so they used the opportunity get a photo in front of the boat. The sky was grey but it wasn’t raining.

Here is the first group getting ready. It turned out that for the first few days we rode with the other six Canadians and a couple from Germany. Someone said we were the “A team,” but we corrected them and told them we were the “Eh! team.”

Our first stop after about 13 kilometres was in Temse, Belgium.

We continued our tour through the Belgian countryside.

We stopped at another castle just outside of Bazel. This one was available for groups to rent. I think there was a wedding there when we went by. They had a family area nearby and Bill couldn’t resist patting the horses. We had our bag lunch with a beer at the nearby cafe. (Cafe den Duiventoren).

After about another 20 kilometres of riding, we reached the St. Anna’s tunnel. There is a pedestrian and bike tunnel under the Schelde River. You can take a elevator, which holds about 12 people and bikes, 32 metres down to the tunnel. Doug and a few others chose to come up the old wooden escalator. It’s the same escalator that was installed when the tunnel was opened in 1933.

We had some time to explore Antwep. Our guide took us on a little walking tour to a narrow 16th century street. (Later that night we returned and had our dinner at a little restaurant that was on that street.)

Our guide also told us about a pub with a unique theme: “Everything holy,” she said. So we had to check it out.

She also recommended that we take the escalators to the viewing platform at the top of the MAS, a building with different museums on each level. Our barge is just visible in the lower left side of the canal.

Sunday (Day 4): Antwerp to Dordrecht

The ship sailed with us on it, for the first part and the last part of this section of our journey. (They refer to the ship sailing, even though it more accurately it should be the “barge motoring.”) We got up early to be on the top deck at 6:30 to watch us come out of the harbour. One of the bridges had to open for us, and another was just less than a metre above us. The flags are lowered on the top deck, which you can see in the photo below. We continued to the outer harbour where we could see modern windmills.

Soon the boat docked temporarily and we were on our bikes again. Since it was Sunday, we met more cyclists and most of them were in packs, traveling at high speed. We got a picture of one smallish group when we were at a rest stop.

We visited the Canadian War Memorial for Canadians killed in World War II.

The route continued on to a dedicated cycle trail. The dotted line indicates two way traffic.

Sometimes we were on narrow country roads. The dotted lines on the sides indicate the sides of the road. If a vehicle came up towards us, they would pull over until we passed. If a vehicle came up behind us, they had a harder time and sometimes followed at our speed for awhile until there was a wider section. Luckily there weren’t too many vehicles.

Farther along, Doug couldn’t resist stopping to get these photos of some deer in a yard and a view of the harbour.

When he stopped, he got behind the “sweep,” which worked out for him this day because Wendy was the sweep and knew he could catch up. Here is a photo of Wendy in her neon vest, at the entrance to the pier where the barge was waiting for us at Tholen.

She got a little closer and got a photo of Doug, Bill and Joanne posing among the activity.

We were on board by 1:45 and sailing again. We enjoyed the view from the upper deck in the afternoon. We even had dinner before we docked at Dordrecht.

Dordrecht was a lovely old city, but we chose to stay on board instead joining the group on a guided city walk.

Doug found a quiet spot on the lower deck patio.

We were now in The Netherlands. Onward to Amsterdam!

After visiting Stirling, we carried on to Glasgow. Our place there was in the city centre, less than a 10 minute walk to the main shops and restaurants. We were staying in an “infill” house, on a lane, in an area of one way streets. After we found our spot and parked the car, we left it until we drove to the airport.

It was bright, modern and spacious.

Of course, we walked to the grocery store most days. The biggish Tesco was on Sauchiehall St., a pedestrian mall for these few blocks.

On our first full day in Glasgow, Doug and Wendy went to visit Doug’s aunt, who he hadn’t seen for over twenty five years. Our visit coincided with Auntie’s birthday so it made it extra special. We also had the chance to meet Doug’s cousin, whom he had never met.

We visited her at her place in East Killbride, once a small village and now a suburb of Glasgow. Here’s a view of the village centre.

East Killbride is about a half hour train ride from Glasgow, which meant we got to experience Glasgow Central. The train ran right on time and it let us see a bit of the countryside.

While we were out of town, Joanne and Bill explored Glasgow on foot. Here’s a view of Glasgow Cathedral.

Glasgow is known for its art scene. There are murals throughout the city and Joanne and Bill found this one, titled: “Honey, I shrunk the kids!”

That night we recounted our day over beers and artisanal pizzas at Shilling Brewing Co., a brewery in the city centre.

The next morning, as we walked to see the sights, we got this view from the pedestrian overpass of the M8, the main highway that cuts right through town.

We headed over to Kelvingrove Park.

The rhododendrons were in bloom. You can see the University of Glasgow in the background.

The Kelvingrove Museum is adjacent to the park. We spent a couple of hours there and could have spent longer. The Spitfire was Doug’s favourite display. Wendy enjoyed the nature exhibits, especially the stuffed birds.

Here is a display of the life stages of the gannet.

Then on to the transportation museum, just a 10 walk away. Here’s Doug in front of the car he learned to drive on, called an Anglia, which was known as a Ford Cortina in Canada.

That day was our last one in Scotland. Next post will be about Bruges, Belgium and our bike/barge tour to Amsterdam.

We drove from the Glencoe area, on winding roads on the shores of Loch Lomond and on to Stirling. Stirling Castle was next on our list of things to see. This is a view of the James V’s palace from within the castle wall.

The palace is covered in remarkable sculptures. Look for the sun-like face in the shield of the centre figure. The upper figure holds a cross-bow. This photo is a closer view of the same wall (south) that was in the previous photo.

We walked along the outer castle wall. Unfortunately the views were obscured by haze.

The flowers growing on the castle wall were quite lovely.

Inside, the palace has been restored to look as if it did in James V’s time. The tapestries are reproductions that were done by hand that took four years to complete. Note the abundance of unicorns. Nowadays, the unicorn is Scotland’s official national animal.

Here’s a view of one of the ceilings in the palace. All the carvings are reproductions and painted as they believe they looked when the palace was new. The next photo below is of an original carving. There are many of them on display in another room.

And everyone needs a quintessential photo with a knight. Note that the knight is mounted on a pedestal, so is shorter than Bill, who is about 6 feet tall.

Doug captured a good view of the restored chapel, which is used for services nowadays. Wendy is at the far end, taking a photo of the hand embroidered cloth. See her photo of one of the medallions after this one.

After touring the castle, we headed down the hill, and found a cozy pub that served “artisanal” burgers along with traditional fare. Bill had “bangers and mash,” which actually is sausages and mashed potatoes.

We had enough time to go to the Wallace Monument, erected to recognize William Wallace, (“Braveheart” to filmgoers.) We took a shuttle up the Abby Craig (hill) to the base of the monument, then walked up to the top of the tower. We chose to walk all 246 steps in the narrow spiral staircase in one go, saving the displays that were partway along for the downward journey. Here’s a windy view at the top.

There was a display of Scottish heroes and heroines. The bust pictured below is of Sir Walter Scott.

We walked down the trail to the parking lot. You can see the Wallace Monument behind Joanne.

There were a number of wood carvings staggered along the trail and they were meant to signify a certain time period. The bear and other furry creatures denote the Ice Age, the pig is for Scotland’s first farmers and Joanne is posing with the carving for People and Invaders of Scotland.

Whew! All the pictures in this post were taken in one day. We saw a lot of castles on our trip to Scotland and we may have saved the best one for last. Next stop, Glasgow.

We came over to the mainland from Skye by ferry to Mallaig, the terminus of the Jacobite Steam train. The Glennfinnan Monument and the Glennfinnan Viaduct were on the way to our next place, so we had to stop. The viaduct is well known to Harry Potter fans and is the first and longest mass concrete viaduct in Britain.

We walked about 15 minutes in from the main road to find a good spot to take a photo. While we were waiting for the train, we entertained ourselves by taking photos of Lil’ Fox. Doug is really liking the portrait mode on his new phone.

We were not alone. Here’s a photo of some of the crowd leaving after the train had passed. We walked down the path to the other side of the viaduct in time for the second train to pass. (Okay photo, but no room for it here.)

We had booked a cottage in Ballachulish, a village just west of the community of Glencoe. Here we are walking back with our groceries. The cottage is managed by the guest house and is just around the corner out of the photo. Note the restaurant and bar across the street, just past Bill’s head in the photo.

Here’s a view from in front of our place on a day with better weather.

And here we are sitting on the deck of “laroch.” You can see our cottage across the street. (Between Bill and the other gentleman in the photo.) Even though we had cold beer in our fridge, we couldn’t resist stopping after our hike.

Now about the walking (as they call it here.) We chose to do lots of short hikes, but the Glencoe area is better noted for longer treks, like the West Highland Way. We started out at the Glencoe Visitor Center and did a short loop trail right from the door.

This is the view up the valley from the bridge over the River Coe on the trail to Signal Rock.

This photo was taken from our lunch spot up Glencoe, one of the most famous and iconic of all Scottish Glens. (We walked a short way along the path to Glen Etive by the Lairig Eilde.)

This one is taken from the same spot, looking west down the valley.

Here’s a view of Wendy walking along a path, which according to the sign was “Glen Etive by the Lairig Gartain.” We didn’t go the whole way.

We turned the car around and headed back to Glencoe. It was still early, so time for a short hike at Glencoe Lochan, a lake built by Lord Strathcona for his Canadian wife to help her feel a little bit of home. It did feel a bit like walking in Stanley Park in Vancouver.

Here’s a taste of our second afternoon walk just minutes from our place in Ballachulish, with good views up to the highlands of Glencoe.

And an interesting variegated broom growing wild.

The next day we hiked on a forestry commission trail near Inchtree…

and over to a view of the falls.

After our lunchtime ale in North Ballachulish, we walked on a trail from the old ferry and back along the shore of Loch Leven.

This time our afternoon walk was up the hill behind the town. This is a self-closing gate because of its angled construction. We saw quite a few of them in the area.

A good view of Loch Leven.

The forests here were so evenly spaced because they’d been planted probably about fifty years before.

We stumbled on to a ruin in the forest.

On our way to Glasgow in the morning, we stopped to take a last look at the Highlands.