Marina Facilites:
Berth: 19 Euros only takes cash
Electricity: Included in the marine fees
Water: Included in the marine fees
Shower: Free with push button
Back in Belgium on day 89, one day to spare, just as well, the marina only takes cash and we didn't have any and there was no bank in the village or supermarket to get cash out. Closest bank was back in Maastricht, 10-minute bike ride to the bus stop, 20-minute bus ride and 15-minute walk to ING bank, only to find they don't have cash and to use the ATM.
End result here is that it cost us 10EUR for 2 x return tickets on the bus + EUR5.95 as the ATM fee + ~ EUR 4 for exchange fees, so all up it cost us about EUR20 to exchange EUR400. Really happy we don't do that very often!
The marina's position isn't very protected, when a commercial or hotel boat passes the marina on the Albert Canal, there is a lot of water movement in the marine and makes all the boats berthed rock. |
| Entry into the marina |
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| Two commercials passing at the same time. |
Back in Maastricht for an hour, day 90, 22nd July 2025.
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| The role of the fort was to guard the bridges over the Meuse and the Albert Canal in the region of Vise, Maastricht and Lanaken, to prevent the German army from entering Belgium. |
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| Map of the fort. The underground military complex is excavated in a limestone hill on three levels. The fort has a network of corridors of more than 5 kms. |
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| Behind the iron gate was a wooden drawbridge coving a four-meter-deep hole, then you enter a heavy armored door into the gas decontamination room. |
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| The fort has its own power plant, workshops, shower block, kitchen, ground water pump, sleeping for up to 1200 soldiers, a hospital including an operating theatre, barber |
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| Commanding officer's office |
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| Officer's mess |
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| Barber |
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| Stairs to the first level |
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| Germany carried out a surprise attack at dawn on the 10th May 1940, war had not been officially declared yet. Transport was 10 large DFS 230 gliders with an elite unit of German paratroopers on board. It was the first glider assault ever in world history. Immediately after landing, one of the assault teams disabled the anti-aircraft machine guns using a new type of explosive called a shaped charge, most of the observation domes, machine gun bunkers, artillery bunkers and artillery cupolas were neutralised in a very short time. Around noon on the 11th May 1940 the fort surrendered |
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| For centuries, limestone was mined underground, this created a vast network of tunnels. |
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We entered through door 3
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| This map shows what we saw in our two-hour tour. |
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| An old working area, Tools use to mine the Limestone on a half-mined wall, shows the size of the blocks they were caving out. The tunnel system was excavated entirely by hand. |
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| Our guide, the tour was all in Dutch, he was nice enough to explain the important stuff in English for us. |
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| Young Mosasaur skull and other fussels found in the Limestone. |
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| Mosasaur skeleton, measuring 4 meters long |
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| The limestone in the Kanne caves was deposited about 70 million years ago on the bottom of a shallow subtropical sea, the Cretaceous Sea. The caves are not mined now because of a cave-in at another site that killed 13 men. it's now used as a museum, beer cellar for Mosasaurus beer which we also get to taste. |
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| Wine and beer are stored in some of the tunnels |
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| Some of the tunnels are now used to farm mushrooms |
Time to move on.
Our lock buddies
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| Our lock buddies, in front is the size we are used too, the barge on the right is twice the size in length and width. |
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