2017 (8) Ghent, Belgium

Arrived in the outskirts of Ghent for 2 nights to recover and saw some interesting boats, the umbrella man, galleon cruise, sinking and a boat made totally from recycled plastic picked up in the Amsterdam canals….

then into the Lindenlei Marina where we had reserved a spot.    Luckily for us the 10 day Ghent Festival had finished on the Sunday so we were not surrounded by huge music stages, pop up cafes and  persons under the influence. They had huge lighting arcades, floating stages on the river and after 4 days, with huge crews they had dismantled most of it and carted it away on juggernauts.

Lovely city, easily walkable with many sights to see,, churches, little canals, beautiful old gothic style houses, lovely little cobbled streets, mainly for pedestrians…(that’s not saying its safe for people as bikes have right-of-way)                                                      The Castle of the Counts in the centre of the town houses a horrific torture display used in the Middle ages. Glad we didn’t live then… !!

Every picture tells a story !!!!!  The blunt ended swords are used for be-heading.

Yes, that is a fire under that poor persons bottom…

Armour, amazing double edged swords, daggers, knives, old guns, lances,,,all too much to photograph.

The old Fish Market below.

and Max found a beer Shop…..

Ghent missed being bombed in WW2 so the City is full of original gothic style houses, and old buildings and churches, still all intact.

The original Mason’ Guild House with the Moriscos dancers on the gable.

The Heart of Ghent..                       The Graslei & Korenlei, with all the cafes along the central canal. from 11c the trading activities increased and the area became the port for the trading of grain. All grain imported into Flanders had to come through this port, and had to leave 1/4 of their shipment in payment.

Along Limburgstraat, St Nicholas’ Church, The Belfry & St Bavo’s Cathedral at sunset.

Of all the beautiful churches, that are mostly in tact, The most famous is St Bravos’ Church that houses the alter piece,  The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ . This collection of 20 oak panels was commissioned in 1432  and painted by the Van Eyck brothers.   In its life it has been cut up, stolen numerous times, saved, re-stolen and now is back in the Cathedral.     Anybody who has watched ‘’The Monuments Men’ , will remember this painting and the Statue of The Madonna and Child  (Brugge)  that these brave men saved from being lost forever.   In 1934  two of the alter piece panels were stolen, known as ‘The Bold Theft’ from  the Cathedral and to this day they have never been recovered.

Of course statues gallore,  but these 3 we like the best…The girl with the head phones on a bridge at Portus Ganda, and watching over the confluence of the River Leie and Shelde, a male and female statue, ready to dive into the water from buildings each side.

and everywhere,     just beautiful……..

We didn’t realise why we felt so relaxed walking around the city, and that’s because its illegal in Belgium to hawk, busk, or have ice-cream vans etc ringing bells…..

2017 (7) Roermond to Outskirts of Gent.

BELGIUM…Long straight stretches of canals, not much to see as these were solely built for transport of goods, sand, steel, bricks and gas/oil etc from big ports to/from industrial areas. The boating maps of Belgium are not too good, and not in English but with a mixture of what we have and a new map we are doing ok. No need to rush this area as we have time.

These bunkers are all along the canal Zuidwillemstvaart, 

They were built in the  2nd World war to protect the waterways if invaded.

Stopped at Lommel, and cycled and found this amazing Summer camp, Comfort Parc, that covered acres and acres of bush, with again these big lakes from old sand pits, fed by the river. Has 600 chalets, all around 3 main lakes. Its so well set up its like being at the seaside. Most clever thing we saw was a circular zip wire, motorised so it pulled the skiers at a steady rate, no boats involved… a thought for NZ…

Nice shady spot…

and if you look closely, ((well we know they are there))                 

We had several groups of Bambi deer come past us.

Lier, lovely stop on the Netekanaal.  Went for a walk into town, and find its            National Belgium Day.

The town Council at the end of the parade, then into the Town Hall.

Lier has a 3 clock towers, the most famous is the Zimmer Tower, which has 12 dials, measuring a 7 day calender, sun and moon, planets, horoscopes, and others we weren’t sure about, as we missed the Museum, one dial shows the position of the planets, even found out that Venus and Uranus circle the opposite way to the others planets and 7 day calender is not a new concept...

And then a lovely tapas lunch…

The next bit of our journey is on tidal rivers, so after speaking to the Captainaire at Lier, we are advised to head off 1.30 min before low tide at Antwerp to go with the river flow after the next lock, then when we turn into the Ruppel River  we will be with the incoming tide going down towards Gent.

The tidal rivers flow very strongly here.

So off we go, through the lock and are flowing nicely down with the tide. First sign of what was to come, would have been when we lost the NZ flag over the back in a gust of wind (Not sure I put the flag pole in properly), So somebody will get a lovely flag wrapped around their shaft or it will wash up on a beach in Antwerp!!!

THEN we run aground……………………by the time we have even tried to go forward or backwards the water level as fallen and after about 15 mins the arse is not in water anymore…………….nicely stranded in unknown waters !!

Max was very calm but I wasn’t too happy… it was fine at first but we had to wait for the incoming tide which was about 2 hrs away… I was OK I think until the water level dropped and the

boat started to list over, bow still in the water but bum NOT.

At that point I went downstairs, closed all the windows tight (just in case), locked all the cupboards and collected money, passports etc…just in case… and wrapped them in 3 plastic bags…..Max all this time was really supportive if a little astounded at my actions……. When it listed over even more, I thought, jeez how far can she go???? so I  just sat on the floor of the wheel house wats=apping Aileen and Graham in Paris, …just incase it was our last words….

Aileen and Graham were great and supportive, even giving Max advice like…be a good time for Max to clean the bottom of boat!!!   Belgium is alive with cyclists and we realised we may not be an uncommon sight as they hardly looked at us,,, until we were fully listed over, then a few glanced our way.. I suppose what concerned me was how far we could list over… (Its not a sail boat)

Thank-god after 2 hrs the tide came in and a lot bloody faster than it when out and we lifted off.  Of course by then we had an incoming tide on the Ruppel so had to battle it up till the turnoff onto the Zeeschelde, where we once again could go with the incoming tide up towards Temse, where we moored. …………………………………………………………I had a cider or 2  at 2.30pm  and max went to sleep….

Nearly high tide and Max out with the CRC to try to stop the squeaking of the pontoon.

A good 4-5 m tide here just about 40 kms in from the north sea.

Lovely weather now, jeez does in rain and blow in Belgium. Seems as soon as we moor anywhere the rains come…(our usual luck!!).

Here at Temse we can’t leave again to go to Gent until after 50mins past LW at Antwerp to run with the tide again, so can’t leave till after 12.30..

Why and for what reason this plane is perched on top of a factory building.

Even going into a lock, this woman was not going to stop using her sewing machine,

( and I thought I was mad !!)

And an easy way to moor your boat in                  a tidal river so you have access at all times….

As we were cycling past a pet shop,,, This is a special for all those animals lovers….only in Europe, the land of bicycles and dog lovers..

SO if you don’t have a carrier on your bike, and can’t leave your dog at home, or its too lazy to walk,  …then this is a must have !!!

Feel like this comment is not true only of NZ as the weather has been horrible in Northern France, and UK.