Let's go…

Maastricht has over 100.000 inhabitants and is the capital of the province of Limburg.

The landscape in the province is hilly and here is also the Netherlands' highest point Vaalserberg, which is 327m above sea level. 

Maastricht Marina, as we called it 11. October, is located in beautiful surroundings of Lake Pieterplaats in a nature reserve off the river Maas.

The marina has 6 bridges with room for 200 boats - all by floating bridges that can handle a water level rise of up to 6 meters.

Along the marina there are seats for motorhomes, with views of Maas on one side and the marina on the other.

The marina is open all year round, has good bathing and toilet facilities, is video monitored, fenced and locked with a gate. The area is kept under the supervision of the harbor warden Eric. He speaks both English and German, owns the marina and lives here in a houseboat with his wife.

Right across from us is a 30 foot boat from Helsinki. It is sailed singlehanded by a Finnish girl. She came here a few weeks ago, left before we did and plans, like us, to leave on April 1st.

Life as a winter crossing is fun.

We sleep until we are rested. Enjoying the calm and the beautiful surroundings. Cycle into Maastricht along the river. Strolling around the pedestrian streets. We eat lunch in a cafe while we watch the city life and on the way home we shop at the local supermarket.

The others in the marina are friendly but also a little reserved.

Our boyfriend, who has just bought another boat, lives in Belgium and belongs to the very small number of German-speaking Belgians. He speaks German and French, his children only French and his mother only German.

We have become friends with the New Zealanders - Neville and Ainsley - whom we met in Statte 2 weeks ago. They were the ones who told that the locks in France were closed and recommended Maastricht as a winter port.

They have traveled all over the world and found out a few years ago that they would experience Europe from boat on the canal system.

They bought a motor boat and have now in third year explored Europe. They had intended to sell the boat this year, but have decided to sail another season. They travel back to New Zealand in early November and are back in Maastricht in May next year.

There have been some cool days with temperatures of 13 degrees during the day and 3 degrees at night. 

But on Saturday the sun came out, the temperature shot up and culminated on Sunday with 21 degrees and sun from a cloudless sky - and suddenly we were back in summer fashion.

But even though we are almost 700km south of Denmark and have a different weather system, it is clear that the trend is towards colder weather, although there will occasionally be hot days like on Sunday.

We have been thinking about where to spend the winter after the locks in France destroyed the plan to reach the Mediterranean this year.

The conclusion was and is that we are going to the warmest place in Europe – southern Spain.

Tomorrow we fly to Alicante.

Here we report temperatures of 23 degrees.

We will be traveling around Spain and for the last two months we will go to southern France. This is to learn French, so we are prepared for the long haul through France.

… Come on