Columnist | Opinion Leader
Rivers and canals open the doors to nordic dreams
 I’ve had just one experience of river boating. It was on the river Saône in France and I have very fond memories of it. River boating is a pleasant experience: you get aboard, you cast off and detaching from terra firma is the first of many pleasures, just as it always is in any kind of navigation. Then you glide along on the tranquil majestic river, winding your way amid fields and woods. Every now and then you have the diversion of a lock. The lock-keeper does his bit and, while the lock is filling or emptying, offers butter, cheese and wine for sale. My trip was in Bourgogne, home to many renowned bistros. We didn’t have the sea, of course. The sea means infinite space, distant horizons, adventure, emotion. There’s always a slight shadow of preoccupation at sea too – you might after all be hit by a sudden squall. But on a river, you really relax. There is zero danger. Whether that is a good thing or not is entirely personal.
To me it seems that river boating offers boat lovers a nice interval between one sea voyage and the next. I envy the yachtsmen of the north who decide to navigate their way to the Mediterranean by river and canal, leaving behind them grey cold seas lashed by wind and rain. They take down their masts and stow their sails below and then set off on a tranquil trip through the most hospitable land on earth. They chug along and dream: the Mediterranean awaits and we that live on her shores know that charm of our glittering warm blue sea. They dream about the Côte d’Azur, Corsica, Greece, the Balearics. They cycle to the three-star bistro and know they’ll soon be jumping in a tender to go ashore at the Marina Piccola at Capri. Wasn’t it Admiral Nelson that said the whole Mediterranean along with Toulon and Port Mahon is one of the three safest ports in the world?
They will get a few surprises once they arrive. No doubt about that. Even here, the wind does blow sometimes, the sea gets up and the breakers throw up icy spray. Our friends from the north won’t always find berthing in our ports or maybe they’ll just regret ever asking for it when they’re kept awake all night by idiots making noise and being silly. The reality is never as lovely as the dream. But, in the meantime, as they glide so peacefully down the rivers and canals, they do dream. Because isn’t it a fact that expectation is the best part?
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