Welcome to the Tales of Taddy

Hi Everyone,

Follow the tale of 28 tonne Taddy, Julie, Rob and Cora the Idiot Retriever as we head off for 6 months of barging around Europe.  The UK may (or may not) be leaving Europe but we certainly aren't!

We've spent the last 3 months sorting out our lives in Winchester ready to escape to Bruges on Wednesday 27th March and back to our lovely boat.

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A Perfect First Day

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Monday 1st April and we're off. We're up bright and early to get ready and say goodbye to the friends we've made in Bruges; Andy and Felix the harbour masters, and Luc the trip boat owner. Bruges is a busy city and we need several bridges lifted as we leave town.  That means we're asked to leave in convoy: 3 from our harbour and another 3 from the one just up the canal.  And there's a big commercial barge coming through as well.  There's plenty of people watching to make sure we haven't forgotten how to drive over winter . . . We head east through a total of 5 lifting bridges where our convoy stops traffic for 10 minutes.  We're last and feel most guilty but the natives still seem happy to wave.  5 out of the 6 boat convoy are British and nobody shakes a fist (although we have been assured we're the laughing stock of Europe). On down the boringly-named Gent to Oostend Canal where spring is in the air.  We see our first dabchicks (baby gr...
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Paris - the city of love

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Paris was packed with tourists all snapping the views and having a great time.  But very few of them were passing the Eiffel Tower in their own boat that day.  It felt VERY cool.  Probably the highlight of several exciting days visiting the city of love.  But first we had to get there. We cruised the lower reaches of the Marne which pass through the up-market southern suburbs of Paris.  Very pleasant but not many boats and just the odd commercial. The extravagant loops typical of the lower reaches of a river are shortened by a short tunnel at Joinville le Pont.  Everything changes as the river becomes very busy and quickly joins the Seine and you're crossing under the Peripherique.  We'd been joined by other pleasure boats and there were large commercial boats moving fast in both directions and passing under the many bridges.  The navigation instructions warn against stopping to admire the view.  I get their point - there's so much...
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The Bridge to Nowhere

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Where have we been?  In Brussels, that's where.  There's plenty to distract a visitor to Brussels which is one of Europe's more under-rated capitals.  But we have the added distraction of daughter and son-in-law, Cat and Chris and (almost forgot) young Alfred George who at 10 months needs to see his grandparents! After Ronquieres, we headed north on the Brussels-Charleroi canal and back into Flanders.  Here and ecluse becomes a sluis and the lock keepers speak English!  The town moorings at Halle looked unfriendly and a close call in a narrow stretch with one of the 1350 tonners encouraged us to continue on to Brussels.  The canal get quite 'gritty' as it enters the city and there was some tight corners.  But the industry is interesting.  Belgium uses its waterways to get waste and recycling moved without clogging up the roads.  We could be doing a lot more of that in the UK We arrived at the delightful Brussels Royal Yacht Club in th...
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