Day 9 - Leaving the Boat

We woke up this morning and had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon along with whatever leftovers we could find in the fridge. 

 

Last breakfast on the boat

  

Right after we ate, we had to start packing and cleaning up as the LeBoat people would be arriving by 9AM to take back the boat.

 And in fact, the guy arrived at exactly 8:55 AM.  After a brief chat with him, we grabbed our bags and headed back to the Irish Pub we’d had dinner at when we were in Gent a couple of days ago.  Toby and Norman were heading there to meet up with Elaina, a lifelong friend, who now lived in Brussels.  We got to the pub and sat outside and had coffees.  Just wanted to mention here how much I miss very large US coffees!  What you get here comes in the size of an espresso cup!

Anyway, their friend met up with all of us and told us about life in Belgium.  She works for the US Federal government as a member of the US Mission to the European Union.  It was fascinating to listen to her!  After about an hour, it was time for us to say goodbye to Toby and Norman and get going.  They are going to be staying in Belgium and then going on to France while David and I are heading back to the US tomorrow. 

So, David and I headed to the bus stop to take the bus to the Ghent train station.  When we got on the bus, we realized that we had needed to buy a ticket to put into the “reader” on the bus, but we hadn’t known that.  Belgium buses are on the honor system, and clearly, we aren’t honorable cause I guess today, we rode for free.  We did buy train tickets, even though no one looked at or collected them and traveled back to Brussels.  Our hotel for tonight, The Royal Windsor, was just a block from the station and is very luxurious!  We checked in and dropped off our stuff in our room and headed right back out for lunch, which we ate at a street café.

The train station

This was on the tv screen in our hotel room (except it had our actual name, which I've blotted out)

Then we went to the Museum of Musical Instruments in a beautiful building just blocks from our hotel.  They had all kinds of instruments from hundreds of years ago from all over the world.  And there were listening stations near many of the instruments so you could hear them being played.

Taken at the Museum of Musical Instruments (this and next two pictures)

This (and the next picture) is the view from the restaurant at the top of the Museum of Musical Instruments.

Then we went to the Bellevue Museum where they have an underground display of the archaeological finds they made under the Royal Palace.  It was amazing to learn about what used to be under the Palace as well as learning about how they discovered and unearthed  these rooms.

Taken in the Museum underground from the Royal Palace (this and next four pictures).

Finally, what trip to Brussels would be complete without finding the Mannekin Pis!  There are models, keychains, bottle openers and advertisements all using the statue of this strange little boy peeing.

The statue is so much smaller than I would have expected.

I decided at this point that I needed to buy just a little bit more Belgian chocolate and David told me he had just the place for us to go, but it would be a walk (even though there are chocolate shops on every block).  After walking for about 10 minutes, he looked around and said that we weren’t where he thought we’d be.  He then asked me if I remembered the store where I’d gotten coffee and a waffle the other day, because the chocolate shop he was thinking of was next to that.  I realized the place he was thinking of was in Ghent, and we were in Brussels!  Duh!  By the time we got to our room, we were both pooped!  However, one of us napped while the other one wrote this blog!

A building we cut through in Brussels.

Selecting my chocolate!

Chocolate mannekin pis!!

Waffles anyone?

Last dinner in Belgium




Video shows a look around the Grand Place in Brussels.

After a bit of relaxing, we went out to dinner on the same street where we had our first dinner in Brussels.  It is a street of one restaurant after another and the maître ‘d comes out to try to lure you in.  David has wanted paella and mussels since we got here so we ordered both and shared.  After dinner we strolled back to our hotel and around 9:00, I decided I needed one more Belgian waffle before we left so we went to a local place and I had my last one.  I have decided that the best waffle, however, was the one I had in Ghent at the coffee place.  Tomorrow morning we get up early and fly back home.  This trip has been fantastic, but I miss my kids and I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed!

Day 8 – Last day on the Boat

Today began really early, just after 7, and even earlier for some of us as we all discovered that we’d each had a poor night sleeping.  While yesterday was the shortest day of traveling on the trip, today will be the longest.   However, yesterday, with all the locks took much longer than anticipated and today was a shorter trip than expected as well.  Our plan for the day was to leave Kortraijk early in the morning and head back to Gent.  The traveling was quiet and peaceful and even Toby and I took a turn being captain.  

 We only encountered two or three locks and of course, we’ve now become experts in navigating them.

Waiting for a lock to open

Entering our last lock

Inside a lock (this and next picture)

Peaceful, pretty traveling

Sue at the helm

About ten miles outside of Gent, Toby and Norman decided to “jump ship” and go by bike so we let them off under a bridge where they could easily reach the bike path.  This time they were able to disembark without me hurting myself!

Norman getting the bikes off the boat for a ride.

The only moment that was a bit scary for us was a point when a barge was coming towards us on the left side of the canal and then another barge decided to pass the first one.  The width of the two of them took up almost the whole canal, leaving little room for us.  We slowed down and the barge was able to pass the other one just before we got there.   This is kind of like driving down a road when one car passes another car but has to go into the oncoming lane to pass and you’re in the car that’s coming in the opposite direction of the passing car.

This is what we faced when the barge in the right side of the picture passed the one on the left.  Not much room for us as we were moving towards them!

In any event, we arrived safely in Gent and tied up the boat in the same spot as a few days ago.  Toby and Norman met us there just minutes later.  We were all hot and thirsty and a bit hungry so we went to a nearby outdoor café for a snack.  After that, Toby and Norman headed off to the Fine Arts Museum, I headed to the Gravensteen (I’ll explain later) and David just wandered around.

Our marina, where we would return the boat tomorrow.

Fine Arts Museum

Painting from the Fine Arts Museum

The Gravensteen is a medieval castle/fortress from the 1100s that has been restored.  It was fascinating to see the place and the stone fortress was so cool on a hot day like today.  They also displayed old armor and weapons along with instruments of torture and a guillotine!  And the views from the top were amazing.

The Gravensteen

Inside the Gravensteen

Guillotine from the Gravensteen

View from the Gravensteen

On the way to the Gravensteen, I passed through some amazingly beautiful neighborhoods and decided to recommend the area for our dinner.

The Three Towers of Ghent

Trying to get wifi

I wandered around Gent for a while and then headed back to the boat where I met David.  He was talking to some American (!) people who had also rented from Le Boat.  We compared notes on our trips for a while.  Then I showed David a couple of stores that I had found that I thought he’d like.  We went back to the boat and found Toby and Norman.  We were all very hot – it’s unusually hot today in Belgium- so we spent some time showering and talking.  Later we headed to the area I had found earlier for dinner.  We sat at a nice outdoor table and had a wonderful last dinner together.

Our last dinner together (this and next three pictures)

Celebrating an upcoming 30th anniversary early!  (Ours isn't till October!)

Then I found an area where there was supposedly free wifi (most pages like facebook and gmail were blocked), got a gelato and headed back for the night.

  It is still very hot out (and in) and the open windows are letting in mosquitoes.  I’m starting to think about my central air at home……

Day 7 - Locks, Locks, Locks, and no Bagels!

 

We left our lovely marina in Oudenaarde before 9 this morning and headed south.  The canal was quiet and wide and relaxing. 

Eventually, however, a large double barge came up behind us and passed us just before we were going to enter a lock.  The barge pulled into the lock first and tied up on the port side.  The captain of the barge and the lock master both motioned us to tie up on the starboard side up in the front of the lock next to the barge.

 

This was taken from the back of our boat.  You can see the barge behind us and on the right of the picture is the double barge on our left.

Then another barge pulled in behind us.  When the water levels changed and the lock opened, we were the first to exit, and we were able to pull out ahead of both barges. Soon, the first large barge caught up and passed us.  The barge that was behind us stayed pretty far behind us.  

Inside the lock with the barges (this and next picture)

After about twenty minutes, we came to our turn off, to the right.  Immediately at the turn off, we were facing another lock.  The lock was very large and closed so we radioed the lockmaster.  He said we should wait five minutes.  We circled around for a while and then it was another 15 minutes.  When it got to 30 minutes of waiting, we took out our lunch and picnicked on the boat.

Waiting for the lock to open

Lunch while we waited

Naturally, as soon as we got the food out, we radioed again and this time the lockmaster asked us where we were! It turned out that his camera was broken and he didn’t see us over on the side of the lock.  He told us to come right in, which we did and found two other small boats like ours inside.  Well, this was the biggest lock I’d ever seen!  The walls were about 35 feet high and we had to put our line around a cleat that was on a track that moved up and down.  We held onto our lines as the cleat moved up and before we knew it the boat was on the higher elevation and the cleat had reached the top of the lock.

Pulling into the large lock with two other boats already inside.

We moved on for a while and then we came to another lock.  This one was a bit smaller and we were alone in it.  We spoke briefly to the lockmaster.  This lock was not quite as high as the last one.  Again, we cruised for a very short time until we came to the third lock.  We found that the lockmaster was the same guy as at the last lock.  He came out to chat with us and was talking with us for several minutes when David asked if we were moving.  It turned out that he hadn’t started the lock – he was busy talking to us!  But he was very friendly and after he started the lock, he came back and continued chatting with us.  He was very interested in hearing about why we came there and our impressions of Belgium. 

Our friendly lockkeeper

Holding the boat steady while the water rises or lowers (this and next picture)

He also explained to us that the next three locks were manual – the lockmaster for them would actually have to turn the crank to open and close the locks by hand and it’s one single guy who does all three – if he’s not there, we just have to wait for him.  When we got there, it was an extremely narrow lock to enter, but it was closed.  We waited for about half an hour and then Toby and I got off and went looking for him.  We went into a nearby bar/coffee shop and she had a coffee, but no one knew when the lock would open.  We crossed over to the other side of the canal and asked some people sitting there but they also told us to just wait.  We went back to our boat and while we were waiting, a bunch of kids arrived for kayaking.

We tied up to the yellow boat to wait for the lockmaster to arrive

The white boat is ours.  We wondered if we'd be able to fit in this lock!

Toby and I are relaxing while we wait.

Kids kayaking across from where we waited.

Finally the lock guy got there and we were able to enter the lock.  I can assure you that one must be very patient in this part of the route because the lock master was not one to hurry.  Well, we had a total of three locks with this guy and at one point he stopped turning the crank and ate an apple while he took a call on his cell phone. However, he did let us take turns turning the crank and opening the lock.

Lockmaster turning the crank to open the lock

Kayaker kids waving to us

Inside a lock

David's turn as lockmaster

My turn - not easy!

One woman, two lines holding the boat

Traveling between locks

Toby holding the line

In a lock

In one of the several locks

Toby taking a turn as lockmaster

When we had entered this canal of locks it was about noon.  At one o’clock, David informed us that we’d surely be in Kortraijk by 2:00.  Well, we arrived in tonight’s marina just before five! Just before we got there we encountered an extremely low bridge.  We fit, but David ducked down just in case!

Going under the very low bridge.

When we got to this marina, a lovely older gentleman met our boat.  We asked if he could speak English, he said not much – just three words, “I love you!”  So I said, “I love you too!!”  We paid our 8 euros and he also gave us a comprehensive brochure about this town all in English!  So we set off to see what we could see. 

Around Kortraijk (this and next two pictures)

The thing this town is famous for are these two medieval towers.  They were just down the street from us, but they are being renovated and completely covered in scaffolding.  The next area we saw was the Magdalene Beguinage. We had learned earlier that a Beguinage is a place where religious women who’d lost their husbands at war could chose to come to and live a pious life together as lay nuns.  When we entered the Beguinage, we were in a small, beautiful, cobblestone courtyard.  This place was on the  UNESCO designated heritage list.  The sign said that the Beguinage was an invitation to relax, and it was true!  This small “town within a town” was so peaceful and pretty you just wanted to sit and read or something. 

Inside the Magdalene Beguinage (this and next three pictures)

Just outside of the Beguinage was a huge square where we found the Belfry (I guess each town in Belgium has one!) and two large churches.

Belfort in Kortraijk

We liked the name of this street.

Kortraijk Town Hall

Sculpture inside a church

Inside a beautiful church

Toby's raspberry framboise, chocolate, and other goodies!

There were restaurants and shops all around the square.  We wandered around for a while and then ate in a Chinese restaurant on a side street.  The food was good and beautifully presented.  Then we went elsewhere to sit and watch the people go by.  David, Norman and Toby had waffles.  I had wanted something else to eat and asked for fries (Belgium is famous for their fries) but the rude waiter told me I couldn’t have them.  Apparently I could only have fries WITH something else, but not alone.  I don’t get it.  I finally realized the value of tipping a waiter in the US……You can NOT tip one if they’re rude like he was.  Unfortunately, I had no way to express my displeasure with him except to scowl at him, which I did.  Often.

Waffle served by a rude waiter.

Then we headed back to the boat where we relaxed and talked on the deck for a while before bed.