We are finally in the Hudson River after motoring through the Oswego and Erie canals. Both canals have a total length of about 235nm or 437km and we had to go through 30 locks of which the most impressive was definitively lock E17 with a lift of 40.5ft. You can see the massive door of E17 on the picture on the right. Before it open, you can hear a big "bang" banggggg" "bangggggggg". It felt as if a monster on the other side of the door was knocking at it! That was impressive!
This trip through the New-York Rivers and Canals was a very nice ride with nature on both side of the narrow and something very straight waterway.We stopped at many of the villages with European names along the waterway to spend the night since locks were open only from 7am until 5pm.
Of course the fact that we just couldn’t seem to get up and leave sooner than 10am every morning definitively didn’t speed things up! But hey! Aren’t supposed to be in vacation? Well you should have seen us in Amsterdam NY, where we took our folding bicycles and went to Wall-Mart and the grocery.
We asked people where was the grocery store and they told us to keep going for about 2 miles. After a while we couldn't see any stores or groceries so we asked again, well they told us to keep going for about 2 to 3 miles again. Ouch! another 2 to 3 miles? Let's say that Amsterdam is literally built on a hill and the slope was so steep for our office legs that we had to walk haft the way up beside our bicycles. The way back was quite ride though, downhill all the way. Hill was so abrupt that Danielle's bike started to do some strange noises when she braking and she was braking all the time!! Anyway, we found the grocery and the Wall-Mart after a long bike ride/walk!
