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……