11 - 12 September - A meteor festival

In French, meteor is used in a generic sense to refer to any phenomenon occurring "up there" (en-haut), not just the trail of shooting stars.

Double rainbow over Den Helder

This rainbow over the pass out of Den Helder tells you the kind of weather we experienced on this day. Interestingly on the left, there is a second rainbow. Note that the order of colours are always inverted in the second rainbow!

Furthermore, note that the sky within the primary bow is brighter than the sky outside! The darker band of sky around the primary bow is called the "Alexander band". See wikipedia for all explanations!

9 September - Kiel canal

Crossing from the North Sea to the Baltic through the Kiel canal took us 7 hours, running the engine at around 7 knots. This is the busiest canal on earth according to its website. Indeed, we will come across quite a lot of boats of all sorts.

Kiel canal, 9 September

Napoleonic marinas, from Cherbourg to Den Helder...

Arriving in Den Helder, we come across Napoleon for the second time. This cannot be just by chance. In fact, the harbour of Cherbourg as well as the one in Den Helder in the Netherlands were built at the initiative of Napoleon, obsessed by his rivalry with England.  

Statue of Napoleon in Cherbourg, overlooking the harbour