We've made it to Bruges!

The view from our last mooring

We've reached Gent and what a revelation it is. It is a big, big city with a population of 300k. It is a university town so there is a big mixture of locals, students and tourists. There's no shortage of attractions to visit. We rode right into the guts of the city and parked our bikes in the bowels, an underground bike park that holds thousands of bikes. They were all only single storey racks though, unlike one we used outside Paris that stacked the bikes two high on a pull out racking system. We were able to visit the Cathedral before finding a bar to toast our arrival at this wonderful place. We all met up again at the underground park and then pedalled the 2.5k's to where the boat is moored to take advantage of a fresh shower and change. We are all walking into town tonight for dinner but will get a bus back to the boat. I'll let you know how we get on. 

Madam found a comfortable chair for morning coffee break

Thursday (about the 7th I'm tipping)

Our night out was a success. We all ate at a restaurant a fair way from the boat and also a bit out of town. We used the tram system combined with a fair walk to get there and back. The weather was perfect for outdoor dining in a large courtyard restaurant. 

We've been riding in mid to high 20's every day with only one day a bit cooler because of the headwind. They're expecting a thunderstorm this afternoon which is a bit of a worry as we're spending the morning in Gent before an afternoon ride. It's hard to believe we'll be in Bruges tomorrow and the first two week leg of the trip will be over.

Our morning spent in Gent was ideal. We got our exercise walking in and back plus a lot of walking in town too. We climbed the bell tower (a couple of hundred plus steps) and did some shopping. The sun is shining and hopeful the rain will keep away.

The Castle in Gent

Gent is out of this world

Ok, here's where we're at. We had a grouse quick 48Km ride this afternoon. Only 5 of us took the ride option with the others content to sail to our mooring point. As it was, they got some rain where we were fortunate enough to dodge it. 
Trust me, today's ride was good. As we left Gent we biked past some outstanding properties in an affluent riverside suburb before reaching some mystical forest paths. Out of nowhere popped a medieval castle or two and some of the narrowest laneways between crops.

Amongst our highlights today was a pub stop at a loch house. The house has been converted to a pub and museum and the setting is superb looking over the loch. What a venue for a round of drinks! The loch keeper who runs the place is a real character too so it made for a memorable break. Unfortunately, the wind got up and the temperature dropped significantly. We had a final cafe stop in a small village before finally limping to the boat. For a short afternoon ride, it was pretty intense.

A castle amongst the trees that you could almost miss in the trees

So tomorrow the ride ends in Bruges. We're only 22 kilometres from there at the moment but we'll do 60 on the bikes to go out with a bang. We'll visit the Netherlands for a while before completing the ride in Bruges for a final on board meal and a few sherbets. 

Saturday 9th June 

What a sense of accomplishment having arrived safely in Bruges yesterday after one of the more interesting but long rides. We racked up 62Km on the final day and managed to get through the two weeks without any rain days. Pretty hard to believe.

Ready to ride the last leg to Bruges

We had another flag raising ceremony when we crossed the border into the Netherlands and boy are we glad that Sietse tinkered with the route to make that possible. The villages are just so noticeably different to the French and Belgian ones with mass displays of flowers in public areas. Lunch at Sluis was just a gem.

A forest ride on a nice flat track

With our guide Sietse at the Dutch/Belgium border

Lunch break in Sluis, Netherlands

We took a self operated punt across one canal which was pretty novel. I have a short video clip of it so I'll have a play and see if I can upload it to this blog along with plenty of photos of the last few days of the ride.

For anyone contemplating a bike & barge trip, you certainly have our recommendation and certainly on the Feniks. While there are several other operators  offering a variety of starting points and destinations, this was just a superb service. One thing I will say though is don't hesitate to take the e-bike option like Cheryl did. It allowed her to pedal effortlessly day after day without the workload required for the hills. I reckon I'd use one next time and appreciate the scenery a bit more.

Not a band-aid to be seen

This morning we leave the Feniks and check into an Air BnB later in the day to give us a couple of days to explore this chocolate city. Monday morning we will catch an early train to Luxembourg for a bit of a recovery so you can expect the next posting to be from there.
Arriverderci.

A few observations about France & Belgium.
1. Bocci is big late in the afternoon, especially in France. Riding into towns late afternoons you see plenty of groups out playing just on a strip of dirt.

2. Shops are never open when you need them. Everyone closes for lunch. Can you believe we even found a sandwich shop that was "closed for lunch!"

3. You don't see farmhouses in northern France. They still reckon Hagar the Horrible is going to come and rape and pillage so they group up in the safety of villages.

4. You expect to see military cemeteries in a war zone but nowhere near as many as there are. You can stand in some and look across the fields and see others in the distance; sometimes as little as 500 metres away. Each of them are perfectly maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

5. Bikers in Belgium are the real deal. While you hardly see them in France, the minute you cross the border you have all of these Lycra Lizards flying past you. You can read their minds thinking "where's a hill, where's a hill"

6. The fast rail. Boy is it well named! It's a bit like the F111 flyover at the Grand Prix. You hear them after they've gone past. We saw several in France whiz past at 300 clicks. One time we saw two travelling together. They have their own track and there are certainly no level crossings.

7. Bike helmets get you intrigued. It's mainly only the kids who wear them. If you see a family group out riding, you can guarantee the kids will be wearing them but the parents won't be. The Lycra Lizards in Belgium wouldn't dare be seen without one though. 

8. Northern France especially is a real food bowl and the farmers utilise every spare acre of land for cropping and each paddock is laid out in perfect rows. The fact that there are no fences gives the fields a really open appearance.

9. Cobblestones. There are millions of them and they sure do make bike riding difficult.

A bomb we stumbled upon in a paddock. (My phone to help with the size of it)