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Vancouverite67

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  1. And then...she woke up. I was so focused on getting the car from the nearest and easiest pick up point (which was either going to be Oostend or Dunkirk) that I lost sight that if we are going to be able to squeeze in a night in Brugge, then getting the car right from Brugge is going to be the easiest. The Europecar depot is right on the canal, so this is all around the best option yet. Goodness these details take a long time to sort out.
  2. Thanks Tim. We are doing that on the way to collect the boat after a hotel night in Brugge, but I looked into renting a car and just parking it for the week and the insurance cost was an extra $300 CAD which wasn't worth it. Or are you suggesting that someone leave Brugge on Friday morning by train to go and get the car, drive it back to Nieuwpoort...hmmm...ok, that is one solution I haven't considered (and I have been through several options - getting the car from Dunkirk, getting the car in Lille after a train trip, getting the car beforehand and parking it). That has potential. I presume they could take one of the rental bikes with them on the train, then this person wouldn't be stuck hanging around in Nieuwpoort all day afterwards. And then the boat doesn't have to detour up to Oostend. Or someone gets off the boat with the bike and rides up to get the car. Of course, the big assumption here is that you will be able to get the rental bike in the rental car. I haven't decided what I'm renting yet. The train from Brugge does solve that problem. And that would be great, Tim! We love meeting people on our travels. Really, its the best part. I will keep my eyes open for Deep Thought.. and I will mine you mercilessly for information! lol
  3. Thank you so much. This is coming together nicely. I have one more question. I am now planning to use the boat to get to Oostend to pick up a rental car. It looks like we can comfortably get from Oostend back to Niewpoort on the Friday (as we have to be back at the dock on Friday night to clean out the boat and turn it over in the morning.) Originally I was trying to figure out the logistics of getting it on Saturday morning, but now I'm thinking it looks much simpler to just put in at Oostend (spend Thursday night? Come in from Brugge on Friday morning?), pick up the car, one adult takes the car back to Niewpoort (and perhaps one of our rental bikes so they can cycle back to meet up with the boat somewhere on the way and enjoy the last day on the boat) so that we can transfer our stuff directly to the car when we unload the boat. Given the logistics with the tidal crossing (this will be on Friday, August 3rd if anyone has a tide chart?), what time should I plan to collect the car and still have enough time to get back to the Niewpoort dock (the timing stuff on this boating thing is really challenging me! I want to keep the pace reasonable). I have no problem with being out on the boat until 7 or 8 in the evening if that's how it ends up.
  4. Captain Birdseye - yes, that's the trip we are doing. I only just caught this post. Thanks for your input. I was considering a full day in Iepre (so two nights) to tour the war sites and possibly cycle or bus out to one of the cemeteries (although I am much further along with my planning and we will be doing several in France, so perhaps that will be enough). But as we are doing a hotel night in Brugge, then one night there in the boat would work too. I am familiar with most of your stops except for Middlekirk, so I will open up a map now and have a look. One of the things that has come up in my research is pre-booking moorage. Is that something we need to do on that route.
  5. Fabulous. I can be a bit of an obsessive planner, but I think these details can really make the vacation. Thanks again all.
  6. Yes, we are basing it on the Peace Cruise plan, but it all looks pretty flexible, so I wanted to just do some sniffing around the options. The whole three week trip is pretty busy (four countries in three weeks!!), so I'm looking forward to this middle week being a bit more relaxing and quiet. I don't want to make the mistake of trying to do too much. Down to Ieper and back is the main objective. Just trying to figure out what else will fit in the week. You've all been so very helpful. Thank you.
  7. Interestingly, its pretty much equivalent to Google maps walking times! Now I know! Plans are all rough and there are several possible versions. I started with my most hoped for, but nothing is set (just the dates), and I wanted to get this part plotted out so that I didn't mess up the planning on either side. I'm now leaning towards just getting a train to France (probably Lille) and collecting a car there after we return the boat to Niewpoort, rather than spending a day or two just trying to get to Dunkirk and back. So so very glad I asked and didn't assume what we could accomplish in the time we have. Le Boat's itinerary seems to suggest 4-5 days to get down to Ypres and back and suggests you can do a spur out to Bruges and back in the 7 day plan. That website looks like exactly what we'll need to sort out the specifics. I now just have to figure out if we will visit Bruges (one of my "checkboxes" for this trip) before, during, or after the week on the boat. Thanks so much for all your invaluable help on this. I could have been setting myself up for a real disaster!
  8. That is excellent information. Thank you. I really had absolutely no idea. Can you give me a sense of what sort of daily distance you consider reasonable?
  9. Hubby suggested I look at the cycling times on Google maps, as car times are probably much faster than a boat, but walking times are probably too slow. Can any one look at a trip they are familiar with and compare it to the cycling times given for the same trip on Google maps? Just to give me an idea? Or how many km per day you plan on for a journey? I just have no idea what so ever what is possible. EG. Niewpoort to Bruges is just over 2 hrs by bicycle, so hubby is saying that we can probably expect it to take somewhere around 3 hrs on the boat? That seems quite reasonable. Any guidelines at all would be so helpful. I was hoping that we could just relax and go with the flow on arrival, but there are some other logistics that need to be sorted out that mean I have to get a better idea now about what we can reasonably do.
  10. Hi all, Thanks to your very helpful earlier comments, we have booked a week with Le Boat out of Niewpoort, Belgium with Iepre being the primary destination. Now I'm trying to figure out what else is reasonable so far as time and distance is concerned. I don't know how far we can reasonably get in a day and I need to make some decisions around what we will do before and after the boat trip that will depend on what we can do while we have the boat. I want to be able to cruise comfortably without rushing, we have no problem with a day that is primarily cruising and don't need to moor up for the day in the early afternoon, but we also don't want to do that every day. We have rented bikes and want time to use them. So, with that in mind, how unrealistic is this plan? -- Sat Jul 28. Pick up boat. Expecting to spend that night docked in Niewpoort, get groceries, get settled in cabins, review books and maps. -- Sun Jul 29: Cruise to Bruges. How long would this take? I have to decide if we are going to see Bruges while we have the boat, or on our way from Amsterdam. Timing is an issue and I would prefer to include it here, but don't have to. -- Mon Jul 30: leave Bruges mid-morning, 10 or 11? Is Diksmuide reasonable? Too far? Yes, this is a double back. Only way to make it all fit. -- Tues Jul 31: Iepre. How long would it take to get from Diksmuide to Iepre? Spend two nights here so we have a full day to tour the museums and sites. -- Thurs Aug 2: cruise to Veurne. If we are away by 9 am or so, what time could we reasonably expect to arrive? -- Fri Aug 3: This is the other variable. Tell me if I'm crazy here. It will cost us ~40 Euro to get a permit to take the boat to Dunkirk. If we go to Dunkirk, I can pick up a French car that I can return to Amiens for a few hundred Euro cheaper than bringing a Belgian car over the border. Right now, its making sense to cruise from Veurne to Dunkirk, get a rental car, hubby drives the car back to Niewpoort and I bring the boat back. Can we get from Veurne to Dunkirk and then back to Niewpoort, even if we arrive in the evening? We have to have the boat ready to be returned to Le Boat by 9 am on Saturday morning, so need to be back in Niewpoort the night before. I'm pretty sure I have to drop either Bruges or the plan to pick up a car in Dunkirk. I have a plan B to cover each of these off, but I thought I'd just see if this is possible. Please tell me if its silly and I will alter the plans, either spending time in Bruges in a hotel on our way or using trains to get to Lille and picking up a car from there to avoid those drop fees. Thank you kindly.
  11. Great to know, thanks. I just did a search for online reviews of BWH. I found very little (usually a good sign - bad companies have LOTS of online reviews) but I didn't find any reviews saying exactly what you've said above. I did some more playing around with everything last night and I can make it work with Le Boat. I just needed to adjust my dates a little. I wonder what the advantage would be of going with BWH vs booking with Le Boat directly. I think you are correct that BWH is acting at a broker for Le Boat holidays, but I have to wonder if the support in case of problems would be better if booking directly with Le Boat? We've never done this before, so I'm inclined to play it very safe this time. All the Le Boat reviews seem to suggest that, when there are problems, they deal with them as promptly as possible.
  12. Ok, update - if I adjust to to a Friday to Friday itinerary instead, then I get more options. I think I will go with Le Boat if I can make it work. So many variables!
  13. HI again! Ok, so I've booked our flights and I have dates nailed down. Now I go to look at the Le Boat availability for my dates and the only boat they seem to have for the week we want to do our trip is over $6k for the week! Yikes! I was hoping to keep it under $4. There are boats on that itinerary for that price, but not on our dates. I thought I would see if there are other providers and it looks like Blue Water Holidays does them, but the photos and listings suggests BWH is a broker and while I didn't find much in the way of reviews for BWH, what I did find doesn't inspire confidence. I have emailed Le Boat and I have my fingers crossed that the options provided online can be adjusted so that we can get a slightly less expensive boat on the dates I want from Nieuwpoort. I guess now I need to go and look at the options in Holland as well, just in case that's what we have to do, and then we'll just have to fit in the Belgium stops in our final week on our way to Paris for the flights out...if it comes to that. SO! My question for you lovely people is this: is there another reputable hire company other than Le Boat I can look at? A friend uses another company in France (Nelson? Something like that), but they don't have boats in Belgium.
  14. Thanks so much Capt Birdseye! That's a reassuring endorsement. I do think that's the way we are going to go. I like the idea of doing the loop first and just seeing how long it takes us and then deciding if we have time for Bruges as well. Canadian beer is also stronger than most UK brews at 5%. The Belgian beers can run up to 7%. Oh, hey, what's the legal drinking age? The kids might sleep well!!
  15. Ok, one more question for you all on this particular topic. Nieuwpoort, Belgium or Vinkeveen, Netherlands? From what I can tell, Nieuwpoort is fairly close to the nearest train station, but Vinkeveen would be more difficult to get to without a car. Given there will be luggage (although we are good at packing light and always use wheely bags so that we can walk with our bags), I think it will be a taxi either way, but my preliminary research suggests Nieuwpoort will be easier. However, as there's been quite a bit of negativity (both here and on Trip Advisor) about Flanders, Vinkeveen (Amsterdam) would also work. I'm not going to consider Friesland this time. That's another trip for us. If I stick with Le Boat (and I will just shop around for other companies), then these would be the two options I think: http://www.leboat.ca/en/vacations/destinations/belgium/cruises/the-peace-cruise We would only have 7 days, so I don't think we'd include Bruges, but do that before getting on the boat. http://www.leboat.ca/en/vacations/destinations/holland/cruises/the-dutch-capitals-cruise/itinerary-and-activities Although I'm not entirely sure, as I haven't spent as much time looking at the Dutch itineraries yet.
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