2nd part of the summer - and some of the autumn cruise.

We had about 5 weeks in Denmark in July / August, of which 5 days were spent in Berlin.

Margit, our lovely friend who "checks" that everything is OK in our little "museum base" in Copenhagen became 70 years and had invited family and friends to celebrate her birthday in Berlin.  It was a fantastic trip with wonderful people
(46 people), a wonderful birthday and exciting to experience the former East Berlin, where creativity flourishes in small shops.

August 9 we were back in Toulouse, where we enjoyed the city for a few days. Then we went to “our” small harbour Port Lauragais. It was hot and the sun was shinning, so finally we managed to do some rust treatment, paint, etc.

When we arrived at the port, Robert on the tour boat told us that his dog had been missing for several days and he and his wife Evelyn thought it was stolen. Two days after we arrived, Rudy saw his dog, Flick, in the harbour. Both of us thought
(99.9%) that it was his dog, so we took Flick into the boat and closed the doors.  Phoned them, explained the situation to Evelyn.  We would greatly appreciate that she could come quickly. If it was the wrong dog, we could be "arrested" for stealing a dog. We had seen several posters with dogs that had disappeared and their owners were seeking them.

It was their dog and happy they were.

When we were almost finished with the painting etc. - "the toilet broke down." Luckily we had our car, so we drove to Toulouse and ordered a new one. We were so happy to be close to a cafeteria that had toilets J  Although the new toilets were similar to the old one, there were some tubes of a different size. The captain used a lot of “strange” words and ended up with plaster on several fingers. But we succeeded and it was nice again to have our own toilet J

September 7 we were ready to continue towards Narbonne. We stopped in Carcassonne for 4 days and enjoyed the city again. Bird song had ceased, but not the cicadas. One evening there was a jogging, around 800 participants at full blast. Some looked more tired than others.

The sunflower fields were replaced by vineyards.  The grape harvest has begun.

On the last part of the trip we met around 20 boats coming against us.  A rental boat in front of us was blocking the channel, tried to correct the course and then went over to our bank side. Thanks to the captain we escaped without to collide.

In one of the locks a rental boat bumped into us, but all our fenders saved us. It was a nice American couple; they had just rented the boat. As she said: sorry, but I thought you were coming out. Well, what had she imagined - that we would leave the lock with a couple of meters of air below us J

We had almost forgotten how beautiful this stretch of the Canal du Midi is. Many twisted stretches are followed by other stretches with a feeling of cruising through a "cathedral" of the plane trees, and again quite open and flat areas, alternating with cliffs and rocks. We had views of the Pyrenees in the distance.

We stayed in small towns, we previously only had past and in the towns we had been in before. In one of the small towns, HOMPS, the baker was closed because the petrol station had taken over. There was an excellent small supermarket with a bakery, butcher department, tobacco sales and much more. But a little sad to see a small local shop closed.

On our way we saw a barge “buried” inside the countryside. Now it was transferred to a wine store outlet.

On the way to Narbonne you turn off Canal du Midi and into Canal de la Robine. .The channel is beautiful, with many open areas overlooking the vineyards, but in many places it is very narrow and there was low water.

Just after the last lock we moored. We thought the site belonged to "Le Boat" rental port. There it costs only 5 euros incl. water and electricity / night. In the municipal port it costs 20 euros. We paid to "Le Boat," but when we came back after having shopped, there was a little card from the municipal “Capitainerie”. It appeared that they had some spaces right after the lock.

Luckily there was one mooring space further closer to the city in the “Le Boat” port. The captain came back after having cleared out the misunderstanding with "Le Boat" and said "we are moving now."  “The sailor” had just poured 2 glasses of red wine and said: "Not now. "The captain" ordered to move now. "Ran my girl to the new space and give a hand to moor." “The sailor” raced a mile and helped to moor. You must never contradict the captain J It is a nice place with views to some old buildings.

The only problem is that there are 50 m. to electricity and water.  Electricity - we could cope with 3 wires. Water was done by putting water hoses together with another Danish boat in front and a Dutch boat behind us. So all 3 of us got water. The advantage of staying here is that we are closer to the town and a price difference of 15 euros / day J Furthermore, there are many homeless in the communal inner harbour.

The town is charming with a wonderful daily market in the halls, which have been renovated beautifully. In the 1400s the port closed because the river Aude changed its ran. Before that was a major diocese established and had started an ambitious cathedral project like the great Gothic cathedrals in the north. But when nature intervened and Narbonne was no longer a port, they had to abandon their grandiose plans and only the choir, which started in 1272 became a part of the cathedral you can see today.  But even in its unfinished form it is impressive. There are sculptures from the 1300s, a carved organ from the 1700s, beautiful glass paintings in the windows, Goblins, tapestries, and much more. Cathedral, cloisters, museum and town hall is almost one building.

The city's famous (perhaps the only J) Charles Trénet, singer, who died in 2001, was born in Narbonne. His birthplace is now a small museum.

We will stay in Narbonne for 6 days and then go a little further on Canal du Midi before we turn around going back to Toulouse, where Snoopy II will be for the winter (with us on board some of the time).

Our friends, Lis and Niels will join us in Carcassonne October 8 and then we will cruise together to Toulouse.

We can tell that autumn is getting closer. The days are shorter and it is a little chilly in the morning, but still warm and nice during the day. The trees are beginning to change colour more golden hues, beautiful.

We hope you enjoy it as much at home as we do here.

The most loving greetings from

Rudy and Jytte