HAMBURG !

From Caen we sailed with mostly good winds via Honfleur,Fecamp and Dunkerque in France, Blankenberge in Belgium and Breskens + Vlieland in Holland to Cuxhaven in Germany were Peters parents came to visit / crew. From Cuxhaven Peters father sailed with Sampo via Borsfleth to Hamburg. Here we arrived last friday and since then we are busy meeting family and friends.
On the trip the first highlight was Honfleur, an incredibly nice old little town were most of the houses haven´t changed in 2-3 centuries. We just had to stay 2 days !
The next stop Fecamp had high cliffs around and a long wide beach of big round stones . As in the last 4 habours we came here right for market day... Denise enjoyed the many playgrounds on the beachfront promenade.
Dunkerque felt a bit like home with the big industrial park, otherwise it was just a nightstop for us.
In Blankenberge we stayed 2 days again and visited the nice old town of Bruegge with train for a day. Loads of history again. We enjoyed the Belgium beer and fries but it was quite expensive there.
The next stop was supposed to be Vlissingen but the habour was already full, so we stayed overnight in Breskens. Free showers !
After Breskens we had to sail outside the sheldearea, and cross Europort entrance, Europes busiest habourarea which I did not like too much, but everything went well so we went on sailing the next night to Vlieland.
Vlieland then is a fine place to stay again, many nice old boats, lots of children in the habour fishing crabs, and the superb nature of the lowland north sea islands. We enjoyed specially the walk on the beach and in the dunes in hot summerweather.
We´ll tell you later about Hamburg, the pearl of all habourcities.
Cheers

Some nice time in France

Ciao!

We spent a wonderful time in Cherbourg, St Vaast La-Hougue and Caen with our friends Alejandra, Patrik and Emilia. Denise was very happy of course that her best friend came to see her. We visited some playgrounds, old churches, the Cité de la mer with its aquarium and submarine, ate lots of ice cream, Chinese and French food, went for a swim, took a walk on the tidal flat and visited some oyster cultures, did some shopping etc. It was very nice anyway!

We also got a visit from Daniel, an old friend of Charlotte from the time she was studying at a lycée in France. He took the train from Paris to Caen just over the day to visit us on Sampo and we spent a nice day in Caen together. Denise was shy the first half hour and then she was holding his hand and wanted him to play with her.

Now, after a short visit at home in Stenungsund to get some more warm clothes, we are in Honfleur. This is a nice little town with lots of old buildings and nice architecture which were not destroyed during the wars. It is really a place that we can recommend to visit if you are in this area. And now when we have enough warm clothes and sleeping bags here on Sampo we got some nice and sunny summer weather again. It was actually quite hot the whole last week until tonight when it started to rain...

Take care and see you soon!
Charlotte, Peter and Denise