Strasbourg (moved on by the police)

SATURDAY 12 JULY 

We made an early start on Saturday as we’d be travelling along the Rhine for much of the day. We had no concerns about travelling on the river but weren't confident about making arrangements for going through the lock that would take us off it. We had three different sets of contact details and thought we knew the correct phone number. I'd rung it the previous day to make the arrangement but wasn’t convinced that I got the message across. We’d moored overnight only a few kilometres from the lock that would take us on to the river so we could start our day on the Rhine. The lock was set for us when we arrived and we took advantage of having a French éclusier who could speak pretty good English by asking him to ring up too to make sure that the message had got through about the lock to take us off the river. Of course, it’s difficult to estimate when we would need the lock because locks on the Rhine could be ready when we arrive or we may have to wait for several turns if there’s a lot of commercials around. Anyway, we estimated we’d be there around 2pm.

As we joined the river, we had to wait as a commercial was leaving its mooring having taken on its load. It started to spin around too so we kept well back whilst he manoeuvred and then he went off downstream ahead of us and we soon lost sight of him.

We were now on the Rhine proper and to be honest it didn’t feel much different to the canalised river, the Grand Canal d’Alsace, that we’d been on a few days previously. 

The river Rhine with banks

The canalised river with its sloping concrete sides

We shared the first lock with a German boat, Jakob Götz, whose crew took turns coming out on deck to exchange pleasantries with us as we went down.

They sped off as soon as they exited the lock and were soon lost in the distance. Above each lock, on the German side of the river were marinas for river cruisers and speed boats. There were lots of speedboats out, we assume because it was the weekend. We find it strange that they give us more problems than any other type of boat. Their wakes are far higher and greater than those from other boats and we have to be very careful how we handle our boat when the wakes hit us. I assume commercials don’t affect us so much because the waterways are so deep absorbing potentially large wakes, whereas speedboats skim across the top of the water.

The next lock was 16 kilometres away and we couldn’t believe it when we radioed ahead with a couple of kilometres to go. We were told to share the lock with Jakob Götz who we’d thought would have gone through a long time before. Sure enough, when we arrived, they were waiting and once a large commercial came out we went into the lock with them. They said they were not happy with the éclusier but we couldn’t understand what had caused the delay; selfishly there was no delay for us. Soon after coming out of the lock we were due to turn off onto the canal du Rhône au Rhin. We were about 45 minutes later than we'd anticipated but the lock was open with an éclusier waiting for us. We apologised for being late but got the usual response, ‘no problem, it’s my job’ or similar.

It made a welcome change to go through what we call a 'normal' 40-metre lock after the larger ones on the Rhine and we were able to relax. We would be taking the canal all the way up to Strasbourg over the next few days. In 2022 we came down the canal from Strasbourg with the intention of going up the Rhine in the opposite direction to that we’d just travelled. When we’d arrived at the end we checked the flow of the river and chickened out so had to retrace our steps back to Strasbourg. Just outside the lock was a small port with a dozen or so river cruisers and we moored up opposite them for the night.

We sat on the back of boat listening to the cricket and reflecting on our busy few days on the Rhine and our detour into Colmar. We tend to do 10,000+ steps a day and obviously on run days Karen does far more. While chatting about our Rhine trips we checked our step counts for those days and found they were only around 200 showing how much time we spent standing on the rear deck and not walking anywhere.

On Saturday we cruised 36.5 km, down four locks, passed two private boats, lots of speed-type boats and ten commercials.

SUNDAY 13 JULY 

The locks we’d been through on the Rhine were the same size as those on other rivers we’d been on, such as the Moselle, the Seine and the Saar. Obviously, the locks get larger as the Rhine continues northwards and I’d read that the next size up is 270 metres around Strasbourg. This got me thinking overnight that as we’d never been in locks that size that maybe we should go back out onto the Rhine and go to Strasbourg that way rather than on the canal. When I got up, I checked our Rhine guidebook and found that the first of these larger locks is actually just after Strasbourg so gave up on the idea.

Karen went for an early morning run and some time later I set off on the boat and met her further downstream. The first half of the journey was through open fields with very little shade but we remembered that the latter half would be mainly in the shade from the large plane trees that line the canal. After a couple of locks we passed a Le Boat hire boat base. We found it odd when we saw it last time, practically at the end of the canal. Hirers wouldn't be allowed to go out onto the Rhine so would have to travel 30 kilometres before reaching Strasbourg and then even further to get to the beautiful areas around Saverne and Lutzelberg. The base looked full with only three empty spaces which must have been worrying for the people that ran it. As we came out of the next lock we could see a boat coming towards us and it turned out to be one of the missing hire boats. 

Before the plane trees started, there was a long line of horse chestnut trees whose leaves were already turning autumnal. I was later informed by friends on a wildlife group that they were probably diseased. 

Thinking about it it’s likely they were right as the trees weren’t bearing any conkers. When we reached the plane trees we were able to breathe sighs of relief as we knew we’d be in the shade for the rest of the journey.

We neared where we’d planned on mooring but saw that it was in full sun as it was by a lock where there was a break in the plane trees so we pulled up where we’d still have shade. 

Regular readers may have noticed that there’s been a lack of lavoir reporting recently. As we’ve found before, the border areas do seem to have a dearth of them. We have seen a few, including a couple in Colmar, but didn’t feel they were worth sharing. 

Later in the evening we made comparisons with when we cruised the canal three years ago. We'd visited the weed hatch four times during the day but didn't remember it being weedy before. It was also disappointing that we'd only seen the one boat on the move as it's difficult to understand how the canal can be kept open with such little traffic. The dozen or so liveaboards we saw, mainly converted péniches, all looked to be the same ones as we'd seen previously. Not that that matters as it must be akin to moving house when someone wants to change to a new location somewhere else on the network.

On Sunday we cruised 24.5 km, down six locks and just saw the hire boat.

MONDAY 14 JULY 

We were hoping to reach Strasbourg during the day so we could join in with the July 14^th celebrations for what English speakers call Bastille Day but most French seem to call 14 julliet or Fête Nationale. We’d had an early night on Sunday and were awoken by fireworks at 11pm. It seemed to be quite a show continuing for 20 minutes and I was a little worried we’d got the wrong date for the Strasbourg event. I checked as soon as we got up and found that it wasn’t the Strasbourg event and concluded it was Colmar’s. We set off after breakfast with a threat of rain in the air. After a little while it did start to drizzle so we were glad the plane trees continued to line the banks thus keeping the worst of it off us. It wasn’t long before we saw the road sign indicating we’d reached the outskirts of Strasbourg.

Once we were in the last lock, which was practically in the centre, it started raining hard. It didn’t last long and fortunately stopped by the time we were tying up or trying to tie up. I say trying as we couldn’t find the two bollards we were looking for, where we’d stayed when we visited Strasbourg before. It soon became obvious that boats hadn’t moored there this year as it took us ages beating back the rushes and undergrowth before we could find the bollards.

It’s actually a really good mooring as not only is it free but it’s much closer to the city centre than the pleasure port. 

Strasbourg has many waterways running through and around it as can be seen on this picture of our guidebook.

The Rhine runs to the east of the city and has many commercial ports leading off it. We came up from the south on the canal du Rhône au Rhin and moored where the green arrow is pointing. When we leave, we’ll travel on the canal de la Marne au Rhin off to the north. The lighter blue waterways in the centre is an area called Petite France (not Little Venice for once) that is no longer open to private boaters but used exclusively by tourist trip boats. There are also several smaller rivers running in the city that are used by rowing boats etc.

The 14 julliet celebrations and fireworks were happening opposite our mooring so we would have a grandstand view. That was until a police boat pulled up alongside us and showed us a notice (that we’d missed somehow) prohibiting mooring all day along the section we’d stopped in because of the fireworks. Clearly we agreed to move and set off anticlockwise around Strasbourg to a mooring we’ve also used before by the European Parliament building, shown by the red arrow on the map above. On our way around we went through one of the many Strasbourg ports, this one is mainly used by Rhine river cruisers but none were in when we went through.

Next we passed the European Court of Human Rights…

…and then one side of the European Parliament building

We moored up and then set about checking how to get a tram to the celebrations. It’s not a particularly pleasant mooring but it was handy when we visited the European Parliament building when we first came and not too far to walk into the old part of town.

The trams run until 2.00am past the European Parliament building so we knew we wouldn’t have any difficulty getting home after the night’s festivities. It was a bit weird getting the tram back to where the police had moved us on. The area around that particular port was thronged with people as were all the bars and restaurants but we found one where we could sit and wait for the fireworks. It was the first time either of us had been to a drone assisted firework display and it was certainly very impressive and we would have had the best seat in the house if we hadn’t been moved on.

Being the French national day the fireworks and drones were very much biased to red, white and blue as would be expected. There was an impressive showing of the tricolour with Marianne superimposed in the centre followed by the national motto. I missed liberté but here are égalité and fraternité together with an obligatory firework shot.

On Monday we cruised 11.5 kilometres, down four locks, through one lift bridge and saw one boat on the move, a hire boat.

TUESDAY 15 JULY 

As we covered our previous trips quite extensively in the blog three years ago I'm not including more pictures of Petite France and the other touristy spots of Strasbourg. I'm you want to see them then please click here to see the Strasbourg blog in a separate window.

We had an easy morning then after lunch moved the boat back to our ‘secret’ mooring where the police had moved us on from yesterday. The mooring is opposite the Austerlitz basin from where the fireworks had been let off.

As you can see, we certainly would have had a brilliant view of the spectacle. The basin has been closed off for the summer and is being used for the hire of pedalos, kayaks and rowing boats and was busy all afternoon with a continuous queue of people waiting to have a turn. On the eastern side of the basin, under two old wharf cranes, a plage had been set up which was also doing a roaring trade.

We’d left the car down near Basel airport and decided that I should fetch it on Wednesday and move it 100 kilometres further along our planned route. It will be quite a convoluted journey involving a train and a bus to get the car. I’d then have a three hour drive to leave the car at Gondrexange station and then take a train to Sarrebourg where I'll change and catch a train back to Strasbourg.

On Tuesday we cruised 4.5 km through no locks and saw no boats on the move.

WEDNESDAY 16 JULY

Wednesday was car move day for me and a well-earned Neil-free day for Karen.  I left the boat at 6am to walk the 2.5km through Petite France to the station. It was a really pleasant walk at that time of the day as the tourists and commuters weren’t around and the only shops open were boulangeries. It wasn’t particularly quiet though as there seemed to be binmen and their lorries everywhere. When I reached Saint-Louis which was next to Basel-Mulhouse airport I followed the signs for the bus station but couldn’t find any reference to the line number I needed. I then realised that there were two bus stations so it was back through the station and out the other side.

I had 10 minutes spare so ample time to buy my ticket but I had no data signal. This was really surprising as we’re constantly amazed at how strong data signals are, even in remote places. I walked further into town until I got a signal and successfully bought my ticket. As is usually the case on my bus journeys I was the only passenger and after 20 minutes I was back at the car. The plan was to leave the car at a place called Gondrexange and on the way there to stop and charge the car so that it would be practically full when we set out on our next return to the UK. My journey took me through the old silver mining area in the Vosges mountains, an area we hadn’t been to before. The scenery was so stunning that I avoided a tunnel and took an old mountain pass. I stopped at a bricolage in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges that had fast chargers so I could get some painting supplies whilst the car charged.

Arriving at Gondrexange station I thought it looked like a private house and soon realised it was and that trains no longer stopped there. This was so strange as I’d managed to purchase a ticket online but at 3,90€ I should have been suspicious.I called Karen who had the canal guidebook so we could work out a plan B. In the end we decided to leave the car at Sarrebourg and I caught a train back to Strasbourg from there. When I got back to the boat we spent the rest of the day relaxing in a bar catching up on our respective days. Karen was especially pleased as she'd come across a lavoir during her morning run alongside some of the waterways of Strasbourg. This one was on the banks of the river Aar.