The copyright on all photos which appear in the pages of 'Itineraries' belongs to the original creators, and photos are shown here solely for our personal use. Many are our own photos, but we gratefully acknowledge especially the use of some photos, in accordance with the terms of usage, which are stored on "Panoramiofrom Google" (www.panoramio.com) and which appear on "Google (TM) Earth". We express our gratitude to all the original photographers for taking such lovely images, and for sharing them. We must give particular mention to a photographer identified on "Panoramio" only as booh: thank you, booh, we have enjoyed many, many more of your images than just the ones we have borrowed here. We would also like to acknowledge and thank VNF, without who's care and assistance our travels would be impossible. We place this acknowledgement in the context of having heard occasional grumbles from fellow-travellers about the standard of service provided by VNF, especially by their front-men, the éclusiers and éclusieres. We refute such comments. We have now passed through 1,670 locks, and only twice (2/1,670 ain't bad!) have we had any problems that could be attributed to personnel problems. Once, we met a bad-tempered éclusier - who we witnessed being taunted mercilessly by a group of teenage hooligans, and who we knew was having severe domestic problems: and once we had to wait for an hour because an éclusier had eaten too much lunch and had fallen asleep at home! But we take off our hats to all the VNF éclusiers and éclusieres we have met, who have been kind, friendly, and very helpful. Our thanks to you all.  |