Pick your cliché: It's "darkest before the dawn", but "hope springs eternal" and it's now either "the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end" in our quest to complete some maintenance and improvement projects on C.A.R.I.B. III. Since the last posting there has been progress--the exterior painting is about 90% done; electrical work is maybe 75-80% there, and most significantly, the interior refit has started.
The photo below shows what the boat salon has been like since we purchased her in 2018.
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| What we want to do: Make the galley U-shaped; remove the table and install new countertops with a breakfast bar; remove the futon and add a built-in L-shaped couch |
Last Wednesday the "fun" finally began.
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| Cabinetry has been torn out, countertops and ceramic tile are gone. Existing cabinetry will be maintained where possible. |
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| A slimmer radiator will have to be installed to accommodate a new built-in couch |
Poor Frank. Not quite the "luxury" cruise he had no doubt been hoping for when he booked his trip, but he was a good sport about the mess and disruption.
We escaped the mess when possible, but work seems to move along faster when we're here, and we wanted to be available for questions, so our outings were kept relatively short. Nevertheless, we took Frank to a couple of places that we enjoyed when we were in Maasbracht last fall--the white town of Thorn and the city of Maastricht (both described in more detail in blog postings from September 2021).
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| Frank and Lon walk a quiet path in Thorn |
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| A streetscape in Thorn. Much quieter on a weekday than it was on the Sunday we visited in September 2021 |
In Maastricht we just meandered through the old part of town and stopped for a leisurely lunch. What was fascinating to discover on this visit, however, were some amazing churches that were no longer being used as churches, but had been repurposed in interesting ways.
Example 1 is the former 15th century monastery (Kruisherenklooster) and its associated Gothic church, which is now a 5-star hotel called the Kruisherenhotel. The building complex is one of the few fully preserved monasteries in the Netherlands. The monastic order of crusaders (crosiers) in Maastricht was founded in 1438, and the monastery buildings and the church were constructed during the remainder of the 1400's and into the 1500's. The fortunes of the monastic order and its buildings waxed and waned (mostly waned) throughout the subsequent centuries. The physical location on the then-fringes of Maastricht subjected the buildings to damage during numerous sieges of Maastricht over the years. The post-Revolutionary French occupied Maastricht in the late 1700's and, continuing with the same anti-religious fervor that was affecting many churches in France, decreed in 1796 that the monastic order must be dissolved. The buildings were subsequently given over to military purposes, and served as an ammunition warehouse and barracks, among other things. During one period in the 20th century the buildings housed an agricultural research station. After temporary service as a parish church in the late 1980's while the Basilica of Sint Servatius was undergoing restoration, the building complex was sold by the city of Maastricht to the hotel development group that created the hotel that exists today.
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| The 60 hotel rooms are in the monastery portion of the complex (one wing seen at left) |
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| An interesting copper-lined entry to the church, which now houses the reception area and hotel restaurant |
Example 2 is another former monastic church, the Dominicanenkerk. This church was consecrated in the late 13th century as monastery church for the order of preachers, the Dominicans. Like "Example 1", the order escaped dissolution in the Protestant Reformation only to be dissolved by the French. The church was briefly a parish church, then served in a variety of roles over the years, from city warehouse to school to exhibition hall to concert hall to bicycle shed. After archeological investigations in 2005 and 2006, the church was transformed into a bookstore. Fun fact: In July 2015, CNN put the bookstore in seventh place on the list of the eighteen "coolest bookshops." I have to agree--it was interesting and beautiful and definitely "cool".
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| Overview on lower floor |
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| Vanity of vanities: you die thinking your tomb is in a place of honor, but now the stone is under the feet of people browsing leaflets |
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| The bookstore's cafe is where the altar would have originally sat |
And after all of that, Frank was successful in locating "nettle" cheese at the outdoor market in Maastricht. That alone made the outing worthwhile!
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Frank left us to our mess on May 13. We were busy that day with workers on the boat, but used a beautiful and warm weekend for some R&R. On Saturday we retrieved a new purchase we'd made earlier in the week, and that we'd been thinking about since our cruise last summer-foldable e-bikes. We'd found that regular bikes were too large to stow aboard easily, and depending solely upon our own "pedal power" placed too many limits both on our range and our ability to traverse the hillier terrain we'd encountered along the Meuse/Maas. The bikes are rather heavy, but they will work well for us. We put them through their paces during a trip to nearby Roermond on a summery Sunday.
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| Using my new e-bike on our Sunday trip to Roermond. The tires are small, but the gearing makes it pedal like a full-size bike. And the electric assist makes travel a breeze! |
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| Sunday seems to be garage sale day. We saw lots of them in the residential areas we biked through on our way to Roermond |
Our route took us by the National Remembrance Park Roermond. It contains the National East Indies monument 1945-1962, which commemorates more than 6200 Dutch servicemen who died in either the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) or New Guinea. The park also has a monument to civilians who died during that same period, and the National Monument to Peacekeeping Operations, which recognizes Dutch servicemen who died in missions since the start of the Korean War.
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| The Dutch East Indies Memorial. The metal columns bear the names of the servicemen who died |
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| Part of the peacekeeping monument; names of the dead are inscribed on tablets |
Roermond was an historically important commercial and religious center for which town rights were granted in the 13th century. It's geographical location means that it has changed hands numerous times throughout the years. Most recently it was occupied by Germany from 1940-1945, and by the time it was liberated, 90% of all buildings were either damaged or destroyed. In 1992, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred in the vicinity of Roermond, causing damage to many older historical buildings in the Netherlands and adjacent Germany and Belgium. We are happy to say that on this beautiful day we could not sense any earthquakes.
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| In the restored St. Christoffel Cathedral (dating from 1410), Lon does his best to make me look angelic |
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| Sightseeing is thirsty work. We took advantage of one of the many cafes around the Munsterplein (the square adjacent to the Munsterkerk). A talented brass group was playing music in the nearby bandstand |
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| The center city has this small area of covered shopping in addition to its vibrant street-level shopping. Across the river is a large outlet mall (which we did not visit) |
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| The Markt, or market square. The tower of St. Christoffel Cathedral is visible |
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| The Munsterkerk, a 13th century church that belonged to a Cistercian Abbey of that period. It is now part of the Dutch Reformed Church |
Finally, two updates: 1) Lon is now 4 weeks into his recovery from his shoulder injury. He's doing pretty well, but still has occasional pain and his range-of-motion and strength still needs improvement. So, he still needs to be careful and we both need to remain patient while he continues to heal; and 2) I have found that our French bank card--which has "tap" capability--works in some Dutch stores and machines that our American Visa credit card does not. So--yay!!--one headache at least partially solved.
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