Friday 24th - Saturday 25th June 2005 Two days off at Liebenwalde.

Friday 24th June 2005  Liebenwalde.

10.5º C Sunny and hot again. All the boats had moved off when we got up. Bill had gone off into the village on his bike to do some shopping. Mike moved the boats down to the end of the quay furthest from the canal after a man had finished getting a little day boat out and on to a trailer. The latter was lucky because an unmarked (except for its blue light) police boat arrived half an hour after he’d gone – they could have fined him for using an unauthorised place for lifting his boat out and for passing a “No entry” sign with

his car! The police boat is usually on the watch for speeders and cars on the quay (they told us to shift our car last time we were there unloading shopping). They also enforce the “No camping” rule when canoeists pull into the side and put up tents etc. Strange lot these Germans - must be something in the water. Mike ‘phoned Glyn to ask him to add Havel to Werder on the postal package he will be sending us Post Lagernd (Poste Restante), as there are sixteen towns called Werder in Germany. I made a stir-fry for dinner. It was too hot to have the gas cooker on for any longer than necessary.

Saturday 25th June 2005  Liebenwalde.

12.8º C overnight. Hot and sunny again, clouding over again after lunch. I put the

aluminium foil window reflectors in on the sunny side to try and keep the boat a bit cooler. All the boats that had moored overnight on the quay had gone before ten. After lunch Mike put the gennie on and ran our PC. Bill ran Rosy’s engine to re-charge batteries. Mike’s did the last additions to his self-made Polish cruising maps. At first he said he didn’t know if he was going to do them or not, as we shall never go back to Poland. I said he

should never say never, he said that last time (a very long story, for another time). The police crew of the plain clothes boat came over and had a chat with Bill, muttering something about this being the waiting area for the lock. Bill told them we would be off to Spandau next morning. The young policeman said we would have a thunderstorm within the next couple of hours. He was right too. The grey clouds gathered and wind picked up. Mike roped the moped’s cover down and took the mast off and laid it down on the roof. We reluctantly closed the sliding windows but left the doors open until it started to really pour down with rain. The humidity level was very high, really bad for us. I sweltered cooking dinner, thought I would dissolve as it was so hot and humid.

(Note: All these beautiful dogs came past several times a day and we parked our car next to this lovely lady's house, a few minutes walk from the quay, photos taken on the 26th)