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.