2025-08-17 The Netherlands and Paris: Aug 22 (Friday)

No excursions today but one never gets away from the Sail Fest. Paul started the day with breakfast and Mary started her day with another massage on her calves. Still not perfect but getting better.

The boats passed our balcony all day. On rare occasions, the number of boats was rather small but most of day the stream of boats is pretty heavy. It is amazing that it isn’t bumper boats. But everyone goes at a slow pace. The boat police seem to have a steady presence and everyone is just having a good time.

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Time-lapse Video of flotilla
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Video of flotilla
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Paul took a walk around the promenade outside our hotel. It is lined with ships so he decided to toured a couple.

There were a lot of revelers out in the crowd.

We both spent most of the day working on our computers, Mary working on photos and this blog, and Paul working on various work items, including dealing with some credit card fraud. And we would stop every so often to enjoy the pageantry out our window.

We opted to hit the bakery at the hotel for lunch. It was very crowded, and they were out of a lot of stuff, but we didn’t starve.

The hotel restaurant was packed for dinner, so we wandered outside. There are no restaurants around but there was a concert venue at the end of the island, just outside our hotel. And a number of food trucks have set up in the area, so we investigated. Paul found a French fry truck (the fries were good) and Mary opted for a crispy chicken sandwich (billed as an American Food Truck with KFC style chicken…pretty close).

The bar at the top of the hotel had good views of the fireworks through the colorful Ferris wheel.