Portuguese

A lot of interest from Portuguese speaking people lately.

Firstly there was a family from St. Palo Brazil,

One forgets how big a population they have.

And an intrest in Driving Porsches around a race track.

I am looking at the possibility of adding this as an option on all cruises if there is an interest. ( let me know)

and now an inquiry direct from Portugal, for this year.

And an ex Portuguese family from America, for next year.

It must be the year for them to go barging.

Vegetables

AS spring turns to summer on the European cruising waterways, its time to revise

the menu. As usual assorted salads remain of the lunch table, but for the garnishes

on the evening main courses, we introduce a variety of mashed vegetables like peas or

broadbeans, cauliflower or roasted mashed beetroots, and pre-roasted mash of sweet

potato all great accompliments to the beef, veal, pork, duck and fish dishes offered on

the evening menu on AB2.

A stack of ships

This was seen in Rotterdam harbour ... 13 ships all welded together & to the barge .

Built in China to fuel the explosion in cargo needs. before the recession... now they are all lying around unfinished & un paid for. But it is impressive to see them stacked up like this.

French Internet

Sitting on the deck getting our new French internet working properly.

Even though we all live in the vast new Euroland.

Every country still has technology that can not pass borders.

But I feel sure that its only a matter of time.

So we have to have phone contracts & Internet contracts for every country that we cruise through.

Still it does all work.. WiFi all over , even from the deck of a moving ship.

And it gets cheaper every year.

So Life is great on the cyber waterways.

Chelsea flower show

As parents of adult kids, isn't it a pleasure to take pride in some of their achievements.
Last week was the week of the Chelsea Flower Show in London
and our daughter Jaci exhibits her art ( huge canvases Georgia O'keefe style)
and a wonderful range of giftware decorated with her original designs.
art@jacihoganart.com
Onboard Absoluut2 we love to feature flowers in many ways, especially the spring flowers
on our dutch cruises in April and May. There are some spectacular desplays of all varities
of flowers as well as the garden designs. But for us, one of our favourite displays in the pavillion,
was the gold medal winning vegetable stand, spectacular indeed.
One of our eco-efforts for this year on AB2, is to source our produce from the local producers
in each of the areas that we cruise through, both in Holland and France. Thus we really appreciate
the European way of merchandising, where they are focusing on offering, in fact competing for
the products grown closest to where they will be sold to us, by giving provenance by the kilometer.

Historic car rally Ypres

It never rains, that it pours.

I have just been asked to be the mobile hotel at the Ypres Rally

So I have to decide if I would prefer to be at a Jazz festival or a Historic car rally.

Now I love Jazz, and have been to many Montreux Jazz festivals.

But CARS....

My ideal house, would be a 12 car garage with a view & somewhere to live.

So lets see what pans out.

Jazz festival.

Ab2 has been invited to be present at the 31 st. Django Reindhardt Festival.

June 23 - 27 in Samois sur Seine.

And we are thinking that this would be a good way to spend a week , tucked in behind the island on the Seine, with all the music wafting over the decks.

Local produce

Ab2 has always been "LOCAL"
i.e. when in Holland ... buy Dutch
& when in France buy French.
But I am getting a lot more serious about sourcing as close to home as possible.
Mainly to reduce the amount of fuel the trucks use to ship produce all over the world.
& secondly to promote local producers.
We operate in their area ... enjoy their scenery... we should put our money in their economy.
And that way they will still be there producing next year .
If we all did this ... world wide ... how may litres of fuel could we save P.a.

And how much flavour we can get with in a 50 Km range of the boat.

A few notable exceptions will be seen...

Keukenhof

absoluut2 completed her tour of Holland for 2010.
And every one was very happy.
The weather was unseasonably cool,
but the advantage was that Keukenhof remained in perfect condition .
see photo taken in last week.

We are now preparing for the trip South to France.

Portuguese.

Ab2 had an interesting, last week.
Cruising around Holland, unfortunatly in the rain,
But with a very happy, sunny family from Portugal.
Un fortunately my Portuguese is non existent.
But fortunately Caroline a student at Newcastle University (International Relations Major)
was very able to translate back & forth between English & Portuguese.
Everyone enjoyed the week, & they are planing to return next year, with enough people to fill 2 barges.

Canapes

Each evening there are canapes served with pre-dinner drinks easy to make healthy,
instead of potate chips and cheesey biscuits, we offer bite size canapes of smoked salmon
and cream cheese on cucumber slices, or baby black figues stuffed with goats cheese roasted, topped with Parma ham,
mini vegetable Springrolls, grilled Halloumi cheese squares topped with roast sweet potato, roast chillied chicken sticks,
and always bowls of olives, big black as well as glossy green are both healthy and very popular.
I do believe that telling people that certain foods are sooo good for them, can actually put them off and have
them thinking that because its good for them automatically means it will not have good flavour. This is a pity
because in my experience the opposite is true. So we don't mention the healthy element, we just let the great
flavours of our food speak for themselves...and enjoy the positive reactions from our guests.
What more can I tell you... Oh yes just to finish up... Thank goodness Chocolate is so healthy and good for us,
we use only the best 70 percent cocoa chocolate in our desserts and they are always a big success.
For more on our menus there some photos on our website.
Hope this covers the subject for you...
Warm regards ienka Baker
www.absoluut2.com

more nutrition

As to the question regarding the onboard chef verses the eating out option. Well yes, for us its simply
not a question of having to watch our profit margins as it is in restaurants, because we have better control
as we know exactly how many people we are catering for each week and so we buy the best quality produce
and our costing is constant. But for the guests eating out, well before they arrive on Absoluut2 for their
cruise I suppose they will be eating out and enjoying a huge variety of good food too.
Just to give you a brief description of the Menu onboard Absoluut2 ....
We commence the day with platters of fresh fruits in season, always colourful and always favoured by our female
guests a little more than the guys. But the guys often ask for oatmeal, again Organic Scottish Oats,
which we serve with marinated prunes, cream and organic honey.
We also serve a variety of low fat yoghurts again favoured by the ladies to combine with the fresh fruits.
There is always the option of egg dishes which changes daily ...sometimes poached or scrambled, omelet
or eggs Benedict always served on delicious freshly baked daily onboard whole grain bread, or for those
who prefer it toast. Fruit Juice, tea and coffee are available for self service, and of course a variety of
Herbal teas.
Lunch is a buffet featuring a speciality dish incorporating food combining, each day and variety of interesting salads,
the salads are served without dressing so that our guest can choose from olive oil and lemon juice vinagrette
or a creamy mayonaise dressing or just Olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Or if they prefer to savour these
salad vegetables undressed, they can do so.
We have developed the evening meals to be well balance both flavour wise and, the size of the serves is
something we watch carefully. As some guests have bigger appetites so we change to accommodate these
as we recognise the differences.
More on Dinner soon.

Ienka's note on Nutritious food

I first developed my interest in nutritious foods 25 years ago, when my husband John was diagnosed
with Hypoglycaemia because he had given up the adrenalin sport of Parachuting, and the dieticians'
recommended diet changes were too boring for my husbands exotic palate.
We must all agree that exercise is a big part of maintaining our health.
Thus onboard Absoluut2 we have an elliptic exercise machine. But rather than having this inside a gym,
we have placed it on the aft deck along side the Jacuzzi. This way our guests can enjoy the scenery
passing slowly by as their exercise time passes all too quickly. We also keep Yoga mats for those who
have brought along their preferred yoga DVSs. A natural feature of decks are the safety rail which make
ideal stretching bars, again exercising outdoors. And for the guests who love to run or bike ride the
tow paths alongside the canals are perfect as there is no traffic and its often out in the countryside or
through small villages.
And getting on and off the boat at the locks on the canals offers long or short distances to run, walk or bike.
During the past 5 years we have found that most of the guests whose company we have enjoyed
have been health conscious without being fanatical. And they have enjoyed the style of food that we offer.
Firstly, we provision Absoluut2 with Organic food wherever possible.
And these days I am pleased to tell you, it is much easier to source these Organic products from the
wholesalers than it was 5 years ago. And we never buy farmed fish, only locally caught fresh fish.

Volcanos & Barging

Who would have thought that a volcano in Iceland could affect all the barges cruising in Holland & France.
And it has,
There are barges sitting ready, with their guests stuck at home.
There are barges with their guests, still on board, as they can't get a flight, home.

As Barbara Streisand said, " we are all down wind"
I am sure the world will return to normal ... one day.

Lemon Cheese cake

Lemon Cheescake Souffle

Pre heat oven to 200 deg.
Butter & sugar a 250 mm spring form.

Separate 5 eggs whites in larger bowl.

Beat Yokes in smaller bowl
Then add 150 gm Sugar
Beat till creamy
Add 50 gm sifted flour
Zest 2 large lemons + juice to taste
Mix well p
Add 400 gr fromage blanc
Blend well

Half whip egg whites
Add 25gm. Sugar slowly
1 pinch of salt.
Whip till soft peaks.

Slowly fold egg whites into egg yoke mix

Pour in spring form & bake at 200deg. C for 40 min

Perhaps cover the top with baking paper to stop burning the top.

EAT. & Enjoy

Flowers & Food

The Spring sunshine has arrived just nicely in time for the first of the charters in Holland...
The markets are filled with colourful flower stalls brimming with an
abundance of golden daffodils, narcissus and of course tulips in every colour of the rainbow.
On Absoluut2 we love to display the spring flowers and our guests, the ladies in particular,
love that we even put flowers in the ensuite bathrooms.
Just cruising slowly past the vast fields of tulips really makes the dutch holiday unique...
One could only be in Holland, to appreciate the old and the new of the Antique windmills
contrasted with the tall white modern electricity generating windmills.

And did I mention the menu... this is Holland so the fresh fish is superb.
We offer Salmon and Turbot for the fish lovers.
And as they say when in Rome...
On the buffet at lunch, there is always a selection of the typical traditional Dutch Cheeses, fresh Herring and Smoked Eel
and Rye bread to choose from along with a variety of salads.

Continued Spring Preparation

Spring has finally arrived here in Holland. It has been trying to come for a few weeks, but was unable to break through. So I took the opportunity to  work in a t-shirt, instead of a sweater, and assembled Ab2's new deck furniture.
It looks great, but I think will require a lot of attention to keep the tempered black glass tops looking smart. The new chairs are very comfortable letting air circulate & fully recline in case any one is in need of a nap after lunch.
The day before I laid the new deck carpet ( Grass). This year I opted for the traditional green astro turf, as last years trendy grey carpet seemed to gather dust & water & encourage  moss to grow.
That's it for this entry... one more good wash down & we are ready for guests.

Visiting Captain & Depth Gauges

Jan Meijer ... Friend, Owner & Captain of  La Nouvelle Etoile. Came to stay for a couple of days (he is doing a Radar course, in Rotterdam) and needed a hotel room... It's a pleasure to have him onboard and gives us a great chance to catch up... as normally we get an hour (2 or 3 times a year) as  & when we are moored in the same town. So it was real good to have many hours to discuss life on the waterways.
I rang Novio Nautic, the Co. that supplied the Depth meter, on Mon. morning... they rang the manufacturer. Who rang me on Tuesday & sent a technician on Wednesday. A 10 min examination, resulted in a swap out. The old (3 mths.) depth meter out & a new one in. So all working  again... something in a circuit board.
Starting to put the finishing touches on the web page. Well I am doing a lot of copying hand written comments from the "guest book " in to "word" doc. So that Edward can HTML them... or what ever that foreign language is...and I thought the French was difficult.
I'm sure it will look great. I will send you a link when it is up there. Back to my painting.

River Maas to Schiedam

Well, after a grey drizzly start to the day. We, that's Nico & I, slipped our lines at 11.15 am and headed out and down the picturesque river Maas. All went very well, with oil pressure, water temp's and all systems exactly as they should be, Incident free... as all boating should be. Nico is quite impressed with how quite & maneuverable Ab2 is... I'm glad he is happy with her as he is doing most of the steering. Not that it is tiring to move that tiny little electronic lever. We moored up out side the last lock. , & I put a dinner , that I had prepared in the oven and had a celebratory beer. ( I should have had a scotch... it doesn't take as long to drink) So dinner was a bit over warmed, but that's life when Ienka is not on board.

Early night, and early start... but our new Depth meter is not working at the gauge, It is relaying the info on to the radar screen, but not on to the Depth gauge its self. Will look at it on Monday. Have moored up out side the lock at Schiedam. So will be on the generator again tonight. Back on shore power tomorrow.

On the Road Again

We have set the date for Ab2's departure, as Saturday 27 th,with only Nico and I on board. Sailing down the Maas and across the Nord and then through Rotterdam harbor. The forecast is not as good as it could be ... but that's spring in Holland.

We are feverishly working on our new web page... well when I say we... I mean
Our web master (long time GOOD friend Edward) Now living, perhaps forever, in Florida.

I will email you all a link to the new page, soon. It is looking fantastic and should work a lot better. So Supplies are all on board & all systems checked again, will continue on Sat night from some where down the Maas.

Absoluut2 Spring Preparation

Ab2 has finally had all the work completed on the new wheel house. All the new electronics & the color radar will be a treat to use, but more importantly for our guests...seating in the wheel house. For those of you that have cruised, & spent a lot of time up there, helping to navigate, you will love the extra space & improved vision.

We will slip our mooring any day now, preferably on a sunny day and head west across Holland to our winter berth in Schiedam. I must confess to being a little nervous about this trip. Even after 20 years of cruising all over Europe in all kinds of ships (Barges) a single accident makes one a lot more cautious. However, our many shake down cruises to calibrate, instrumentation over the years have gone smoothly, so it will be good to be seriously "On The Road Again"

I should be joined by Nico, who is also a ship's captain, and our tour guide from last year, provided his work load allows for it. Margreet our hostess from last year (who is also a capable ships captain) may join us. Hopefully she will be finished piloting her tug boat, as it is reed cutting time in Holland and they have to get it done before the birds start nesting)

So I will have no shortage of very able people on board... but who is going to do the cooking. They say too many cooks, but in this case... too many captains.

more when are under way.