Sep 6, 2022 – A day in Carcassonne

Sep. 5, 2022 – A much easier day today even though we traveled a greater distance than yesterday. The reason being – There were only six locks today, and three of them were very close together. After yesterday we needed an easy day!!

The canal as it enters Carcassonne is through a deep cut. Originally the city fathers did not want the canal to pass through the city so it was routed around it. Once the city fathers realized the economic impact they were losing out on, this huge cut was made and the canal rerouted through town.

Since it is our first day on the canal, this post will be an overview of what we saw and did. Sep 4, 2022

Behind in posting, this is for 3 September.

We were onboard our flight to Toulouse, but it wasn’t easy. After the Lufthansa pilots strike yesterday, Frankfurt being Lufthansa’s main terminus and the third busiest airport in Europe, the airport was in total chaos this morning. With boarding passes on our phones, we only had to check our bags at the self service baggage check station. But the line to security was unreal. We estimated the line was in the vicinity of a quarter mile long, winding back on itself from one section of the terminal to another. Because of all that was going on all flights were delayed, though we actually boarded on time.

Eventually our flight took off and soon we were over France on our way to flying across the entire country.

Even with the delay in our departure from Frankfurt, if everything worked out we would arrive at the Le Boat base Castelnaudray with about an hour to spare. The bus from the Toulouse airport to the train station arrived a few minutes after we got to the bus stop, so we really could see everything working out.

Unfortunately our bad luck was back in spades. We bought our train tickets and hurried out to the platform, which was the farthest one from the station, only to have the train leave just as climbed the steps. We got a quick bite to eat and got on the next train to Castelnaudry that would get us there with about 45 minutes to spare, only to discover I had got us on the wrong train and it was going in the opposite direction we needed to go. Late doesn’t begin to describe when we finally got to Castelnaudray.

We did smile a few times during our problems. Once when this pigeon landed on our table while were having a snack at the train station. The other time when we met a wonderful young couple on the right train to Castelnaudry. We had a great time talking with them and it really was just what we need at the time.

We made it!!! Everyone was wearing the tee shirts with our Canal du Midi emblem that Linda and I designed and gave everyone as a gift.

Nothing like an appetizer our two to start of Happy Hour.

Our Bon Voyage meal prepared and grilled on board by our shipmates.

Night settled over the boat basin and with it we just knew our bad luck was now a thing of the past. Tomorrow morning we set off on our way down the canal toward the Mediterranean.

Just when we thought our travel problems were over, they got even worse.

Breakfast, a banana and half of an enormous pretzel each at the train station. Up at 5, arriving at the station before 6, all was well. The high speed train came on time and we were off to Brussels where we had three hours to catch our flight to Madrid, Spain.

20 minutes out of Frankfort this was our view out the train window. The problem was, it was our view for the next 2 1/2 hours. As the Germans might say, our train was kaput. Given travel time we would only have 30 minutes to get from the the train station in Brussels to the airport, check-in and board the plane. There was no way that was going to happen, and even if by a miracle it did, there was no way our luggage would make it. Bahn solved that problem by announcing the train, when it would finally get going, was only going as far as Köln (Cologne). We received an unexpected kindness when two fellow German passengers told us in English all that was happening and even got us the required documentation that would allow us to receive a refund on a portion of our ticket. They also told us to follow them and they were getting of at this station and catching the next train back to Frankfurt.

It looks fast and goes fast, when it goes.

Hooked up to the “tow train”. We waited about an hour for the next train back to Frankfurt, then went to the ticket office to get our refund processed. Finally we boarded an S-Bahn train for the two minute trip back to where the hotel we had stayed last night was located. Then it was a two minute walk from the S-Bahn station to the hotel. As we were checking in I noted it was a little over 6 hours since we had check out. We now have a flight out of Frankfurt to Toulouse that should allow us to be in Castelnaudry, France around noon tomorrow, just in time for our canal boat trip to begin in the afternoon. The way things are going, don’t be surprised if you read on these pages about something happening to our canal boat, lol. Could we be like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comic strip with a dark cloud over our heads? Surely not. I hope.