The river Meuse or Maas

[notamermaid]

The Meuse is one of those rivers that you can sail as part of a round trip from Amsterdam or from Brussels as you can use canals. Those canals are wide enough to accommodate a river cruise ship so this is not an area restricted to barge cruises or small, old river cruise ships. Avalon Waterways is not doing a round trip but is incorporating Amsterdam and Brussels, embark in the first and disembark in the latter. On the Meuse they stop in Maastricht, Liège and Namur: https://www.avalonwaterways.com/river-cruise/tulip-time-in-holland-belgium-for-garden-and-nature-lovers/WAX-T1/?season=2024

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Just to give you an idea what else is possible on the Meuse and nearby if you have a small enough ship I am posting this itinerary of a Swiss company. It sounds like a travel agent but it is not one. The Excellence Pearl sails from Brussels to Amsterdam via Tournai and Namur: https://www.mittelthurgau.ch/reise/excellence-pearl-bruessel-amsterdam-elbru2

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

A look at marinetraffic.com reveals river cruise ships sailing the Meuse. At midnight local time 11 April these are the Avalon Tranquility II coming back from Namur, the Viking Kvasir sailing towards Maastricht and the SE Manon on the return leg to Düsseldorf. This Dutch flag ship sails for SE Tours, a German company. And there is the Switzerland docked in Mook. The German "Reise Riese Prestige" is currently in the Maas-Waal Canal headed for Maastricht. So there is more than the occasional bit of river cruise traffic on the Meuse. Very few ships go as far upstream as Namur though. Itineraries often also do not stay on the Meuse for long if the next port is Antwerp. Then river cruise ships go through the Albert Canal from Liége.

 

Another ship will also be on the Meuse in summer. Saga returns to the river to see the highly popular concerts of André Rieu in Maastricht. The ship leased by the company from Lüftner Cruises, the Amadeus Elegant, will take passengers along the Meuse to and from the concerts on three dates. This is the long Dutch and Belgian waterways itinerary: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/dutch-and-belgian-river-cruises/the-andre-rieu-hometown-experience.aspx?availability=2&boardbasis=AI

 

notamermaid

 

Edited April 10 by notamermaid

[notamermaid]

From Namur ,Huy and Liége river cruise ships have those two main options of diverting into the Albert Canal or staying on the Meuse and sailing into the Netherlands. Sailing via Maastricht and Venlo you can head to Nijmegen via the Maas-Waal Canal (see post above) or - again - stay on the Meuse. That is what Uniworld appear to do. The company offers this intriguing, somewhat unusual itinerary: https://www.uniworld.com/uk/river-cruise/central-europe/rhine/holland-and-belgium-at-tulip-time/2024-brussels-to-amsterdam

Brussels to Amsterdam would be a normal route but this one after a more standard sail through the Albert Canal arrives in Maastricht and the following day stops in Cuijk! This is the port from which you can take a tour to Nuenen where the painter Vincent van Gogh lived. Here is some info:https://www.vangoghbrabant.com/en/home/nuenen/exhibitions/vincents-life-in-nuenen

The afternoon takes the ship to Heusden a place I only know in connection with a shipyard. What a fascinating small town, I mean, look at this: https://www.visitbrabant.com/en/locations/248755060/the-fortified-town-of-heusden

The next stop is the more conventional Kinderdijk excursion. Nice of Uniworld to combine something new with the familiar stops.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Notamermaid that last place Heuden wow!

[notamermaid]

It does look good from the air, doesn't it? Apparently the bastion bits are recreated according to the original and the architect was not Vauban, but it is still impressive. As the Meuse was a frontier there exist several fortified places in the area.

 

Much further upstream and almost a century later a water-related place came into existence. Quite a different use of it in these gardens: http://www.annevoie.be/en/

I see one online German website calling the palace between Namur and Dinant the Belgian Versailles. May be a bit of a tall order... Not sure that the place needs to be compared to anything else it just looks good to me. As I have noted in a past year, you could sail to Dinant on a small ship but it is of course not far from Namur so easy to do as an excursion.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Looks beautiful although I do wish some of these places could get someone more used to the English language to check their websites, it’s not really a complaint and I for one wouldn't but some most certainly do. It’s now on my ‘oh dear’ ever growing list.