Welcome to Living Barge – my travel blog which will chronicle my adventures around the world and on my barge, The Rabelo! Feel free to weigh in, ask questions and enjoy the blog!
-Tom Miller
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5
JAN
JAN
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Categories: Blog
The final stop on our Baltic cruise was Stockholm. Along with the museum that housed the amazing ship Vassa, there were plenty of other things to see. One of the fun activities we tried was a visit to an ice bar. Everything was made of ice. The chairs were ice, the walls were ice, and even the glasses were made of ice. As you can imagine getting a cold drink was not a problem.
We saw the Swedish parliament, the changing ...
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16
AUG
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AUG
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We boarded the Regent Seven Seas Explorer in Copenhagen, Denmark. Without question it was the most beautiful ship I’ve ever been on. Lisa especially appreciated the huge walk-in closet in our room. Our itinerary included Lithuanian, Latvia, St. Petersburg Russia, Helsinki Finland, Estonia, and ended in Stockholm Sweden.
One of the highlights was a walk through the forest in Lithuania. During the Soviet era Lithuanian artists produced over 70 wood sculptures that were placed along a trail. As artists tend to ...
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8
AUG
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Categories: Blog
Tags: Author of The Wave, Author Tom Miller, Barge, Barge Adventure France, Barge Travel, Barging, Burgundy canal, Copenhagen, Da Vinci, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Helsinki, Latvia, Lithuanian, Living Barge, Michelangelo, Northern European Ports, Rabelo, Rabelo Barge, Raffaello, Regent, Regent Seven Seas, Regent Seven Seas Explorer, Rembrandt, Ruben, St. Petersburg Russia, Stockholm, Sweden, The Crouching Boy, The Regent Seven Seas, The Wave, Vassa
It takes a lot of hard work to maintain our cruising lifestyle. It’s not easy consuming vast quantities of wine and cheese or baguettes and pate. Frankly I’m amazed we’ve lasted this long. Lately we’ve been working so hard we decided to take a vacation from our vacation, and book a cruise.
Other than St. Petersburg Lisa and I have never been to the Baltic. We packed our bags with layer upon layer of clothing to fight off the imminent freezing ...
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1
AUG
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This past weekend worked out better than we ever dreamed. Lisa and I have been members of the Dutch Barge Association (DBA) for almost fifteen years. We’ve always wanted to go to their annual rally, but it has never worked out. This year was their 25th anniversary, and their big gala was in Auxerre, France. There was no way we could get Rabelo to Auxerre in time for the rally! To go there via canal would require us to transit ...
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25
JUL
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JUL
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The other day Lisa and I went for our 10,000-step walk along the canal. We didn’t start until almost 10:00 AM. The temperature was rising fast, and the humidity had already reached stratospheric levels. Remember we’re from Southern California. We don’t know about humidity. By the time we got back it was almost noon, and we were soaked in sweat. We were also hungry. I have to say Lisa is an amazing chef. She consistently makes phenomenal meals. My beautiful ...
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18
JUL
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JUL
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In my last blog I complained about not finding any trails with a vertical challenge. I actually like going up hill. On occasion, if we can find the right deserted road we will abandon the canal paths and head up hill. But the road has to be deserted. There’s nothing worse than walking along a busy French country road. They don’t have sidewalks, gravel paths, or even mow the grass, so you have to walk on the road, and that’s ...
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11
JUL
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JUL
Our journey up the Burgundy Canal continues. We find it difficult to exercise as much as we like. Three times per week for the last ten years we’ve been hiking five to seven miles in the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains. By now we know the terrain, and all the trails. In France we don’t know where the trails are, and can’t seem to find anyone that does. The other problem is they don’t build canals in the mountains for obvious ...
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5
JUL
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JUL
Categories: Blog
Tags: Author of The Wave, Author Tom Miller, Barge, Barge Adventure France, Barge Travel, Barging, Burgundy canal, Daniel Rose Spring Restaurant, Dijon, France, Great Comet of 1812, Hello Dolly, Living Barge, Luxembourg Gardens, New York City, Paris, Pissarro, Rabelo, Rabelo Barge, Rubicon Theater, Saint Jean de Losne, Six Degrees of Separation, The Wave, They Came From Away
We continued up the Burgundy Canal towards our ultimate destination of Vandenesse-en-Auxois (Vandenesse).There is a three-kilometer tunnel at the summit of the Burgundy Canal that Rabelo is too big to fit through. Vandenesse is the last village before the tunnel, so that’s where we stop and turnaround.
From Dijon to Vandenesse the Burgundy Canal runs through the Ouche Valley. When on a barge one must remember the journey is as important as the destination. If you ask me it’s more important. ...
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27
JUN
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JUN
It’s springtime in France. Life’s palate has blossomed, or should I say exploded into a rainbow of colors, musical birds, the smell of fresh cut grass, and so much more to savor. It’s a combination that’s guaranteed to bring joy to our hearts. With the new spring we also met some new friends on an old familiar boat.
We originally met Georgie and Greg six years ago on their boat Zambezi. We’ve stayed in touch, and met on the canals a ...
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20
JUN
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JUN
Categories: Blog
Tags: Author of The Wave, Author Tom Miller, Barge, Barge Adventure France, Barge Travel, Barging, Burgundy canal, Daniel Rose Spring Restaurant, Dijon, France, Great Comet of 1812, Hello Dolly, Living Barge, Luxembourg Gardens, New York City, Paris, Pissarro, Rabelo, Rabelo Barge, Rubicon Theater, Saint Jean de Losne, Six Degrees of Separation, The Wave, They Came From Away
In my last blog I wrote about building spreader bars to hold Rabelo off the quay in Dijon. The reason for the spreader bars was because we’ve had problems with unwanted visitors. My thought process was that placing six feet of water between the land and Rabelo would be a significant deterrent. As ominous as having uninvited guests may sound it’s been more of an annoyance than a problem. At no time have we ever felt threatened,
On one occasion a ...
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13
JUN
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JUN
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