Austin and I had to master French and the Alsatian dialect, so here is a challenge for all of you at home: repeat “Souffelweyersheim" and "Iffezheim" 3x very quickly!
Waiting for the rain to stop and the Rhein River to calm down we stayed north of Strasbourg in Souffelweyersheim. This little harbour at the end of the Canal de la Marne au Rhine is our preferred mooring in Strasbourg.
Here we caught up with our very good friend, Eva, from Munich. We were able to celebrate Eva's birthday with a little champagne, a little cake and a lot of diesel smell while the fuel filters were being changed ! A couple of times we took the bus right from the marina to the centre of Strasbourg, a 20 minute trip. We visited the Museum of Modern Art, walked along the Vauban bridge and dodged from shop awning to shop awning to avoid being drenched by sudden torrential downpours. We didn’t mind getting wet with you, Eva! It was wonderful to see you!
The days and nights passed quickly and saying a sad good bye we left to have a short run down the upper part of the Canal du Rhône au Rhine we missed out on a couple of weeks ago. We stopped at the old Chapelle des Mariniers. Among a couple of permanent barge dwellers with market gardens growing on deck and chickens roosting on barge railings, we found some lush green nature moorings with more apple and walnut trees for the picking.
Back at Koejack, Strasbourg, we had a great last night with our NZ friends on the Beau Jollie. Rob, Sue and Rebecca with their achievements, enthusiasm and positiveness are nothing short of inspiring!
So today, we headed out onto the Rhein and were immediately welcomed by strong wind and “surf” rocking the Freshwater!
I didn’t know you could get sea-sick on a river, but, while I fastened cupboard doors and fenders, I almost did!
After 15 minutes the waters calmed down and were only stirred up by passing barges. It was a long day but after passing through the lock of Iffezheim the current picks up, and shortly afterwards we cut in to stop at the Yachtclub Oberrhein, at Neuburgweier, Germany, for the night. The water inside the little harbour was calm and not affected by passing barges. The pontoons had electricity, but no drinking water. The locked gate marina has a nice clubhouse with very clean toilets and shower and is surrounded by forest. A hundred meter from the yacht club is the restaurant “Zollhaus” (customs house) where we went for a dinner of fish and creamy mushrooms (great food!). The restaurant is the site of the old customs house between France and Germany. Sitting at a window table we looked onto the river rushing by at 10km/h while the sun was setting over the french river bank.