Boating in Belgium: 06/25/12

We took off a bit late, at 10 am, and headed up the Leie River towards Gent. We were told by our new friends at the Dienze Yacht Club that it would be about a two or three hour ride.

Getting ready to leave Dienze

The view of the Dienze Yacht Club from the water.

At about 10:30, we came to a very small bridge which was closed. We waited a bit for it to open – we could see that there were men painting the bridge- when one of them yelled to us that it wouldn’t open till noon. Now we had an hour and a half to kill. So, we got off the boat and walked up the nearby street. We were in a beautiful, clearly upscale, neighborhood. The houses were beautiful and very well kept. We continued on till we got to the “main drag”. Surprisingly, this area was a bit seedy. There were several strip clubs and a few stores selling sandwiches or automotives. We did see a bakery where we stopped by and bought a yummy pastry! We walked on for a long time and finally went through the upscale house neighborhood back toward the boat. As I write this, we still have about 20 minutes till the bridge opens!

Waiting for the bridge to open.

This speaks for itself.

Pretty pastries!

Selecting my pastry


Lockkeeper manually opening lock Once we made our way through, we followed the Leie River for about three hours. The scenery was gorgeous – beautiful mansions and stunning flowers, trees, hedges, etc. One interesting thing we saw – robotic lawn mowers – like a Roomba for the lawn!! Norman said that we had a great day but “I’m a little miffed about the shortage of turtles….We’ve seen one, but we have seen 6,200,000 ducks and ducklings of various colors”. We had a lovely lunch on the deck of the boat in the first good sun since we’ve been here. The next two pictures are typical lovely homes along the Liei River.

An interesting statue in front of a house

Lunch on board

Eventually we made our way to Gent and found the spot LeBoat had reserved for their boats to dock. Then we explored Gent for a while. Toby and Norman went off in search of a laundry and David and I explored two beautiful buildings – St. Bavo’s and the Belfort in Gent. Then we wandered all around the city looking at the stores and beautiful buildings. David and I stopped in a little coffee/waffle shop. I had a vanilla latte and a waffle with whipped cream. David had a beer and helped me with the coffee. The waiter was a lovely guy and we chatted with him the whole time. Toby and Norman explored the same two places – the church and the Belfort we had seen and also ended up with clean clothes! When we met up, we stopped in a grocery store to buy some more provisions for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. We stopped by the Irish pub which had been recommended by one of the folks we met at the Dienze Yacht Club yesterday, to make a reservation (which we didn’t need). Then, back to the boat to relax for a while before dinner. I’m writing this, as I said, from our table in the pub. Dessert is on its way!