Lepod's Blog

Our big trip – by pod

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  • Famous French sailing ship Belem navigates around Ireland

    https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0731/1462881-sailing-ship-belem-ireland/

    This is quite a cool article about the Belem that we visited in Douarnenez.

  • Pootling about on the canal in an electric boat

    It’s a lovely day today so we hired this little boat and went for a gentle pootle.

    Cruising past the castle
    Heading upstream to the first lock
    The other side of the river from our house, some ruins.
    Heading back down stream

    The boat was fun and very quiet.

    It’s going to be hot this week, 33 on Monday. That’s quite warm for Brittany.

  • Moules et frites at La Sarrazine!

    We had a great day today, the market this morning was really busy, we bought veges and talked to people, the cheese man was there so I got some compté and trois laits cheeses (three milks), then in the afternoon we went biking so this evening we thought a nice dinner at La Sarrazine was in order. Pauline had an omelette and frites, but for me there was only one option!

    The mussels were so magnificent, I was obliged to say “vive la France”
    Ooh yeah!

  • Maritime festival at Douarnenez, nice weekend, thanks Pauline!

    Having spent a week lying low and getting over the covid we hired a car from the local super U supermarket, as you do, and drove to Douarnenez for the weekend. While discussing the car hire on the phone, the very nice man also asked me about some onions I had ordered online. This doesn’t usually happen at car hire places in New Zealand!

    Pauline parking Le Belem
    One of the rooms on the Belem. It’s very much a working ship.
    Le Belem, a three masted barque, made her maiden cargo voyage in 1896, bringing cargo from the West Indies, Brazil and French Guiana to Nantes in Brittany.

    Le Belem has had quite a career, being bought by the 2nd Duke of Westminster in 1914 who used her as his private yacht, then purchased by one of the Guiness family in 1922, she finally came back to France in 1979 and was recommissioned as a sail training ship. In 2008 she took 60000 bottles of Bordeaux to Ireland, saving 18375 lbs of carbon emissions. In 2024 she took the Olympic flame from Athens to Marseille.

    There were some very pretty boats.
    I particularly liked this one.
    Some of the fleet, you could go sailing in these ones.
    The Hydrograaf, launched 1910 and used for hydrographic purposes.
    There was also a sardine festival as Douarnenez was a famous sardine port, at one time they had 5000 sardine fishers. Oddly, they ran out of sardines and had to fish further afield. I believe that the fishery is more sustainable these days.
    We tried some, verdict was “delicious!”
    This man was smoking sardines, mackerel and salmon the old fashioned way. Pauline had some salmon for lunch on Sunday, she said it was excellent.
    Gratuitous boat photo.
    We stayed at a nice little place called Les Résidences d’Armor right on this rather nice beach, Plage des Sables Blancs. It was quirky but perfectly comfortable and the area was perfect.
    Retour de pêche at the Restaurant Le Dz just across the road. Pauline said it was delicious. I had fish and chips, not feeling very adventurous but they also were very tasty.
    On the way up I had noticed this aircraft on the side of the road, unusual. It used to be a disco, Le Moulin. Unfortunately it has closed and it looks as though the aircraft has seen better days.
    Lockheed Super Constellation from the early ’50s. Seems a shame, they are very styley!
    Back home to find the Posankka is looking after the place for us, good to see!

    It was nice to get away after being stuck in the house isolating, possibly a bit ambitious as we are still somewhat washed out but a very nice weekend all the same.

  • The best laid plans of mice and Bastille days.

    Josselin is staging a medieval festival today. We had great plans to hire medieval costumes and join in the fun, there were tents selling food and actors and villagers dressed up to the nines. We’d been invited out for drinks and to watch the Bastille day fireworks and then we had planned to go to Brest on Monday and Tuesday for the international maritime festival. However. Pauline had contracted what she thought was a cold on the way back from Brussels, she’d tested negative for the dreaded lurgie and I thought I’d managed to look after her and avoid catching anything, until late yesterday. D’oh!

    I did a test this morning, sure enough. There was very little evidence of covid in Finland but apparently it’s going around in France at the moment.

    As Pauline thought she was over her “cold” we did manage a bit of a walk up the canal yesterday.

    The village was looking resplendent for the medieval festival. They’ve really done a great job preparing it.
    The castle always looks pretty good of course.
    We spotted this boat coming down the canal so we walked to the nearby lock to watch it going through, always entertaining.
    Approaching the lock, first gate already open.
    Waiting for the water level to drop.
    This is the controls for the pump.
    Water pumping out.
    Heading downstream to Josselin. The dog in this picture was at least as excited about the whole procedure as we were.
    Lock keepers house, they’re always rather cute.
    We talked to the owner of this raised garden on the way back, nice guy.
    Classic VW kombi in the Château Hotel car park.

    We had a charmed existence in Finland but back to reality here, need to wear our masks on public transport again obviously. It doesn’t seem nearly as bad as the first time thank goodness. Not complaining, but it’s a shame about the medieval festival, Pauline did manage to wander about a bit this afternoon as she’s pretty much symptom free now and wore her mask. Meanwhile I was sleeping it off, seems the best thing for me.

    I hope everyone back home is getting through the winter ok, I see it’s been quite chilly at times and stormy as well.

  • Settling back in in Josselin.

    I was pleased to be able to finally unpack my Tin Tin glasses. Haven’t christened them yet though.
    The town is looking nice, they’ve got the decorations out for an upcoming medieval festival.
    I bought a little bottle of pastis to add to my collection of odd French memorabilia.
    An AI kit has been released for the Raspberry Pi 5 which piqued my interest, so I ordered a Pi 5 online. Arrived today. AI kit still to come.
    It’s quite a good starter kit.
    Setting the Pi up for remote access using the TV as a monitor.

    Pauline is very fond of the TV program “Vera” and we found that it was avaliable in Sweden via svtplay.swe but only in Sweden. However if I set up the Pi as a wifi access point and connect it to Sweden via a VPN we can connect the Chromecast to the pi and stream to it with our phones via the VPN. Works like a charm, and a good use for the Pi. Also helps keep my hand in.

    It’s very nice to be back in the village and to settle down to our routine here. Visits to the bakery next door for example!

  • A few days in Cologne

    I had a nice apple pastry while waiting for the laundromat
    We walked into town to visit the cathedral. Third highest cathedral in Europe apparently. The black colour is caused by acid rain, they’re fixing it but it’s a huge job.
    Inside is a impressive as you’d expect.
    It was a hot day, this dog was taking advantage of the nearby fountain.
    I had a very nice currywurst at a local bar. Lindenthal was the area, it was very green, with a lovely canal.
    Lidenthaler canal. Not what you’d expect to see in the middle of an enormous city!
    This nice Renault Twizy was busy charging in the neighbourhood. They have these charging points on the footpath for people who don’t have off street parking.
    The botanic gardens, similar to the Dunedin ones in some ways.
    Gardens
    Naturally they had a sun dial.
    And a pond.
    We had brunch the second last day in this nice street.
    We went boating on the Rhine. This is one of the enormous cruise boats turning around. We did not go one of these!
    This bridge carries 1200 trains a day as well as cars and pedestrians.
    Interesting apartment building and offices.
    Cruising on the Rhine
    Back in town.
    The bridge
    They are football fanatics here. They even had a viewing place in the station.

    We took the train to Brussels, arrived about 8:30 pm, spent the night there. I’m now at Montparnasse waiting for my train to Rennes. Pauline is off to Antwerp for a conference. It will be nice to be back in Josselin shortly for me, Saturday for Pauline.

    Nearly at Le Mans already!

  • Svendborg to Cologne, on our way back to France.

    Yesterday we spent a fair while on trains, we left on the 9:22 am to Odense and arrived at our hotel in Cologne about 9 pm. Today Pauline is working and I am doing admin tasks like visiting the laundromat.

    The 9:22 commuter train
    Off to Hamburg!
    You’ve got to love those Danes!
    We didn’t get a hot dog
    Because it was too hot!
    The train from Hamburg terminates in Basel but we got off in Cologne
    They’re not high speed these ICE trains but they are faster than NZ trains
    Cologne from our hotel
    Still 26° at 10pm so G&T time

    It’s good to feel we are well on our way back to France and I’m pleased to be back in the euro zone as at least I can understand the prices again. Everything in Denmark seemed to be at least 100 kroner.

  • Stockholm, Svendborg and biking on Ærø

    It’s been a busy week or so as we left Uppsala and moved to a small apartment in a suburb of Stockholm. It was midsummer holidays for the Swedes so two days of public holiday. We had a very nice day out at Skansen, the open air museum with our friend Louisa who lives in Stockholm. Thanks Louisa, it was great fun!

    We thought this sign was amusing in the nordic wildlife area of the museum
    I was rather taken with this very nice Volvo
    This is one of the escalators in the Stockholm rail system, styley!
    I think this is an antique telephone box
    Pauline and I jumped on a ferry to Ekerö as we had a 24 hour metro card which covers the ferries as well, it was a lovely ride
    We took the train from Stockholm to Copenhagen, this was taken on the bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen

    It was a long day, left about 9 am and arrived at our hotel about 9 pm, changing trains several times along the way.

    The view from our hotel in Svendborg
    This is the Hotel Ærø we stayed at on the way to Finland, it’s the only hotel I’ve been to where they have an eye opener as part of the breakfast buffet
    There’s some cool old buildings in Svendborg
    Built in 1682
    I liked this freighter, you can volunteer to crew for it, the crew are mostly retired people. If I lived here I’d do it!
    One of the museums in Svendborg
    We took the ferry across to Ærø

    I’d arranged for some hired bikes on the island so we picked them up and then had a strategic lunch before biking to Søby via the scenic route along the coast.

    Lunch was quite flash, unexpectedly so.
    Getting ready for the off. The bikes were 7 speed, typical Danish bikes. We liked the upright riding position but they were heavy.
    I was surprised to see this rather nice mini ute on the way up the island.
    The guy was working on his boat
    It’s very pretty here.

    We biked back to Ærøskøbing via the opposite coast, and took the ferry back to Svendborg, leaving the bikes at the harbour. The next day we returned and biked in the opposite direction to Marstal.

    Marstal
    Marstal
    The island has a large solar water heating plant at Marstal, one at Ærøskøbing and some wind turbines, they actually export electricity.
    Typical thatched roofed houses along the way were very cute.
    Back to the square in Ærøskøbing

    It’s been a very nice stay here in Svendborg, the biking on Ærø was fun but hot. I’ll be glad to get back to the hotel for a beer! (Writing this on the ferry back)

  • Gammla Uppsala (old Uppsala)

    We took a fifteen minute bus ride to old Uppsala where there are Royal burial grounds, a museum, and fortuitously when we arrived there, a Viking festival.

    I liked this poster of one of the runes from about 600 AD at the museum.
    Viking festival, lots of people dressed in Viking clothes and showing the technologies of the time. Was a great day for it.
    Viking food.
    You can see one of the burial mounds in the background.
    Vikings getting ready for a battle. I felt for them in their chain mail, it must have been hot.
    This rune is now embedded in the church wall.
    Translation is: Old Uppsala church
    Uppland runic inscriptions 978
    Rune stone with inscription from the 11th century AD.
    futharkhniastbmlr
    Sigviðr [ræist]i stæin þenna Ænglandsfari æftir Vidiarf, faður . Sigvid Englandfararen [raised] this stone after Vidjärv, [his] father ….
    The rune stone used to be an altar table in the church. In 1856 it was moved from there and walled into its current location in the church wall. When the stone slab was shaped to fit as an altar table, a large part of the runic loop was lost and the end of the inscription disappeared.
    England was the destination of many Viking voyages. Sigvid has probably been there several times, as he was nicknamed the Voyager of England.
    The National Antiquities Office
    From wikipedia: “The old cathedral was probably built in the 11th century, but finished in the 12th century. The stone building may have been preceded by a wooden church and probably by the large Temple at Uppsala. After a fire in 1240, the nave and transepts of the cathedral were removed, leaving only the choir and central tower, and with the addition of the sacristy and the porch gave the church its present outer appearance. In the 15th century, vaults were added as well as chalk paintings.”
    The clock tower is separate and somehow very Swedish looking!

    It’s an interesting place with history like we just don’t get in NZ. I always thought that places like Sweden were probably discovered by the English in Victorian times but that may have something to do with the british biased history we were taught when I was young, well that and my shocking ignorance of course 🙂