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
Continue Reading →
5
JAN
JAN
2
Share
Categories: Blog
We continued up the twisted, overgrown and, at times, shallow Canal du Vosges. In the past I’ve commented on how curious people were when they saw Rabelo especially the children. As we were exiting a lock I noticed a woman taking a video of us. When you consider all the pictures taken of Rabelo it was not a big deal. The next day we met Joey. Joey was a typical twelve-year-old, but with an oversized pension for boats.
Before I tell ...
Continue Reading →
19
SEP
Share
SEP
Categories: Blog
Tags: Author of The Wave, Author Tom Miller, Barge, Barge Adventure France, Barge Travel, Barging, Canal du Vosges, Chateau, Chateaus, Corre, Corre France, France, La Rochere, Living Barge, Port de Fouchecourt, Rabelo, Rabelo Barge, Rupt-sur-Saone, Saint Jean de Losne, Saone Valley, The Wave, Tour de France, Vosges Canal
We had come to the end of the navigable portion of the Petit Saone, and entered the Canal du Vosges. Our adventure continued, as this was a new canal for Rablo. The village of Corre was our first stop. There was not much in Corre, but there were plenty of things to see in the area.
La Rochere is the oldest Art Glassworks in France. Founded in 1475 by Simon de Thysac his factory has perpetuated the traditions and knowledge of ...
Continue Reading →
12
SEP
Share
SEP
Categories: Blog
Tags: Author of The Wave, Author Tom Miller, Barge, Barge Adventure France, Barge Travel, Barging, Chateau, Chateaus, Corre, Corre France, France, La Rochere, Living Barge, Port de Fouchecourt, Rabelo, Rabelo Barge, Rupt-sur-Saone, Saint Jean de Losne, Saone Valley, The Wave, Tour de France, Vosges Canal
As we continued up the Petit Saone the scenery just got better and better. There were times when the river was quite broad and other times when it was, well it was rather petit, very narrow. The villages with their red tiled roofs, and ancient stonewalls were as pretty as any we have seen. The pastures were green, and the forests were even greener. There were plenty of cows munching away at the grass as we lazily passed by. On ...
Continue Reading →
6
SEP
Share
SEP
We said goodbye to Randy and family. They were headed for Positano, Italy, and it was time for us to continue our voyage up the Petit Saone. We had never been on this part of the river, and I have to say it was without a doubt the prettiest part we have ever seen. In fact so far as rivers go this may be the nicest river we’ve ever been on. What a wonderful discovery as it is just a ...
Continue Reading →
29
AUG
Share
AUG
Categories: Blog
I forgot to tell you about a particularly exciting event that took place while we were on the Regent Seven Seas Explorer. Apparently a young woman became quite ill, and they had to evacuate her to a hospital. We were in bed and heard a loud noise coming from outside our cabin. Lisa went out to the balcony to see what was going on. There was a helicopter hovering over the ship. We watched as the helicopter first lowered a ...
Continue Reading →
22
AUG
Share
AUG
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 ...
Continue Reading →
16
AUG
Share
AUG
Categories: Blog
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 ...
Continue Reading →
8
AUG
Share
AUG
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 ...
Continue Reading →
1
AUG
Share
AUG
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 ...
Continue Reading →
25
JUL
Share
JUL
Categories: Blog
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 ...
Continue Reading →
18
JUL
Share
JUL
Categories: Blog
