Day 4 - Toby's Birthday!

We woke up, unfortunately, to pouring rain and gray skies.  That didn’t stop us from having a nice breakfast of muesli cereal, yogurt, eggs, and bread along with coffee and orange juice.  After breakfast, the rain stopped briefly and Toby and Norman went for a birthday walk.  They got caught in a brief downpour while they walked.  We waited around till 10:00 when we’d been told that the bridge to leave our canal would be opening.

Shortly after we left it really started to rain and David, who prefers to drive from outside, had to come in.  We came to a bridge within about ten minutes but they wouldn’t open.  When contacted by VHF they told us they were waiting for another boat that was coming.  Eventually they arrived and all four waiting boats went through.  We traveled along uneventfully for a long time – there are no locks and very few bridges on this part of the route. 

Around noon, we all got hungry and decided to have some lunch.  Toby and I put out a small “spread” of bread and crackers, two kinds of salami and ham, two kinds of cheese, smoked halibut, sliced apples and sliced cucumbers.  It was delicious!   One of the advantages of traveling by boat is that your “hotel room” and “kitchen” travel with you!

lunch!

Rainy day activities (this and next two pictures)

We were passing through a tiny town and David said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we passed by a bakery and we could just pull over, jump off and buy Toby a birthday cake?”  Not even one minute later, Toby exclaimed that there was actually a bakery just to our right!!  David pulled the boat over as close to the shore as possible.   There was actually a flight of stairs leading from the water’s edge up to the street.  I ran and got money, and Toby and I got over to the edge of the boat closest to land.  There were lots of small rocks lining the shore and they looked wet and slick.  Because of the shallow water, we couldn’t get close enough to step off the boat so I had to jump off and pray that I didn’t slip and fall in the water.  I jumped down about a foot and did slide, but managed to gain my footing without hitting the water.  Toby went next.  By then the boat had moved about a foot further out so she had to jump even farther.  She almost went down but I got her hand and she stood up.  We hurried up the stairs and found that the bakery was open!!  YAY!!  We bought a delicious chocolate and hazelnut cake and two loaves of freshly baked bread.  The bakery clerk even gave us a candle.  When we got back to the boat, David and Norman had thought of and gotten the plank that’s normally used to roll bicycles on and off the boat.  Toby and I walked up the plank back on the boat with our goodies.

When we met with the yachthaven master and his wife yesterday, we had shown them our route for the rest of the trip and asked their opinion of it.  They looked at our anticipated plan for today and told us it would take 10 hours.  Of course, that is way too much boating, even for me.  They suggested an alternate route, and so that is what we’re taking. Note to Ernst – You can follow along on your map.  We’re NOT going down the Leie River today.  We are heading directly to Dienze where we’ll spend the night.  Tomorrrow, we’ll travel north on the Leie and spend tomorrow in Gent.  Then we will make the “circle” heading to Ourdenaarde, then to Kortrijk and back to Gent.

We finally found the Dienze Yachthaven where we were able to dock our boat.  They gave us directions to bike to the Ooidonk Castle.  This beautiful castle is only open for tours on Sundays between 2 and 5 PM.  It was about 5 km from where we were.  Amazingly, I made it (everyone else did too but that’s not surprising).  The castle was beautiful and we got there just in time for a tour.  However, the tour guide didn’t speak English (except to tell me “no photos”).  We were handed a sheet with about 4 lines telling about each room we saw while the guide spoke for 20 minutes.  At one point, Toby asked about a beautiful cabinet which he’d clearly been speaking about for 10 minutes.  He looked at her and said, “It’s a cabinet.  A piece of furniture.  For holding little things”.

Ooidonk Castle

Inside Ooidonk

Inside Ooidonk

Ooidonk Castle from the back

Our tour guide

Royal family still lives here

At the end of the tour we saw the beautiful gardens and another employee said that the royal family still lives there in one of the smaller houses but uses the castle for company or special events.  Afterwards, we started biking back to the boat.  Within five minutes the skies opened and it poured on us for the entire ride home.  We were all drenched!

Halfway back and we're soaked through!

Decoration on a school building

When we got back the sun came out.  After we all changed into dry clothes, David and I decided to go to the Dienze Yacht Club building where a lot of people seemed to be.  It was a beautiful bar and we were welcomed in like old friends.  They told David that the best Belgian beer is called Omer and suggested that he have five. (He had three).  Shortly, Toby and Norman joined us.  We told them it was her birthday and they all sang to her.  We stayed and chatted for a while with the nicest people you could ever meet!  David bought a tee shirt and a Dienze Yacht Club flag.

Inside Dienze Yacht Club

Back on the boat, we all made dinner (except the birthday girl).  We had amazing sautéed chicken breast over fresh salad and fingerling potatoes.  The chicken was seasoned with a packet of spices we bought at the store yesterday and some fresh rosemary.  Yesterday while we were walking around Brugge, we passed a restaurant with outside seating.  There were large planters out front with rosemary growing in them.  David went back later that night and picked some of the rosemary for tonight’s dinner!

Birthday dinner

Birthday cake!

After dinner, Toby wanted to go for a walk so we went out of the marina and followed a path.  Right away, we saw giant sized Queen Anne’s lace flowers. Normally the flowers are about 3 inches across but these were about 18 inches and stood 10 feet high!  Walking along, we spotted owls in a cage.  And next were ibis’s.  We were in some kind of zoo!!!  As we walked along there were gorgeous flowers, including a rose garden, a giant maze and a big slide.  There were goats, deer, a yak, cows, roosters and sheep.  Also were fantastic playground rides for children (which we also used!!) The only really sad part was that we came upon a building that clearly used to be a snack bar but had completely burned down.  After walking for at least an hour, we came back to the boat and had the most amazing birthday cake that we’d bought earlier.  Toby spoke on the phone to her family too.  We took nice showers in the marina and settled into bed.  What a great day!

This was the burnt out part of the park

Our Boat

I thought you might like to see what our boat looks like on the inside.....

Toby and Norman's cabin

Sue and David's cabin

Galley

Saloon (Sitting Room)

Toby and Norman's bathroom

Inside steering area

Day 3 - Traveling to Brugge

We began today with wonderful scrambled eggs (made by Toby) and fresh bread and fruit and much needed coffee!  After breakfast, we quickly got ready to travel.  We meandered down a lovely, quiet canal, where we saw many ducks and ducklings and numerous bicyclers alongside the canal.  Norman took a turn as captain for a while.

An interesting bridge with counter weights to let it swing to the side to open

This bridge tilted up.  You can see the roadway on it in the next picture as it tilted completely up.

Looking back on the same bridge after we'd passed under it.

A pretty windmill we went by.

We went through several interesting and different looking bridges.  We also came to our first lock.  I jumped off the boat with a line but then Norman and Toby took their turns holding the boat as the water changed height.  Then we entered a small canal in Brugge, where we were met by the yachthaven master and his wife.  They helped us to dock and tie up.

I'm climbing off the boat in the lock with a line in my hand to tie up.

Toby is holding the line in front of the boat while the lock fills.

Norman is holding the aft line in the lock.

You  can see how much higher the boat is getting in the lock.

A footbridge in the entrance of the canal where we spent the night in Brugge.  This bridge had wires that rolled up around the metal cylinders like a roll up window shade to lift the bridge.

The wife of the yachthaven master helping us dock.  The funny shapes in the foreground are the seats of our bicycles on top of our boat.

Soon we were off to the Saturday market.  It was a fairly long walk but we enjoyed seeing many beautiful buildings along the way.  The market was mostly clothes but there was a food section.  We bought pastries first and then shared bratwurst.

Half a bratwurst for lunch!

After the market, we searched for and found the Onze Lieve Wrouwekerk church where there was a beautiful sculpture by Michaelangelo - one of his few works to be found outside of Italy.  The church was very beautiful with lovely sculptures, sarcophagus (sarcophagi??) paintings and stained glass windows.  Next on to the Groeninge Art Museum where we enjoyed the works of (mostly) Belgian artists.  

Michaelangelo sculpture

Sarcophagus

Sculpture inside the church

By then, we were in great need of a chocolate and/or ice cream fix, and I can assure you we had numerous choices!

Chocolates in an edible box!

Our next stop was the Belfort - a tower that you could climb to see beautiful views of Brugge.  David and Norman opted to stop for beers while Toby and I went for the tower.  Unfortunately (or luckily) there was a very long line to get in so we left.  We did a little shopping and then headed back to the boat for naps!

The Belfort tower we didn't climb.

Walking in Brugge

We went out for a late dinner but at our first choice of restaurant, we couldn't get in because we hadn't "reservated".  We had a nice, but slow meal up the street.  Then we came back to the boat to talk, play cards (Toby beat Dave and Norman twice!) and then sleep!