2013_05_18 Brussels

This may well be the only images of all 29 of us as I was usually taking the group images each time.  There ay be others but I haven;t seen one lately.  We had just finished our breakfast and went outside where The Manifique was moored in Bruges/Brugge.  The old core of The Rediker Travel Group along with new friends that we had just recently met.  There seems to be some function of six degrees of separation in action here.  all of these people knew someone and probably none of us knew everyone before the start of this trip.

Had our last breakfast and walked to the train station.  Missed the earlier train by one minute.  We are now sitting on (hopefully) the correct train to Brussels Centraal Station.  Peter just walked back and verified that we are on the right train.  Train left on time.  1 hour ten minutes after this we will be in Brussels.  We actually has a conductor punch our tickets this trip.  First time that has happened.  I guess it's a good thing we didm't try to not buy one  We have been told you have to pay a hefty fine if you have the wrong ticket or none.  We purchased class 2 tickets - about half the price of 1st class.  We were in the right car so no worries.  Hoping for free internet on the train like there had been in Holland.  10 Euros and hour on this train!  I think I will wait for Brussels.

On the platform waiting for train to Brussels.

Cool uniforms for the conductors.

  

Brussels train station.

First of MANY chocolate shops.  Dipping strawberries.

First view of the Grand Platz

Incredibly detailed buildings!

John, Richie, Bobi, Mardy, Peter and Connie with bridal party in background.  

Small room - very comfy

Bath right there by the window,

Made it to our hotel - Very nice boutique hipster hotel a couple blocks from main square.  Room not ready so we headed out for the Grand Platz.  BIG Gay Pride Parade right down the street from out hotel .  LOUD music.  Sounds like one of our other trips?  

Lunch here.  Mussels in Brussels for most.  Pork chop for me.  Yum!

Mannequin Pis 

We're meeting Richie and Bobi and the Shaplands for dinner here in a few minutes.  Everyone knows where this statue is.  This seems to be an incredibly big deal in Brussels (pun intended).

Had a waffle with powdered sugar from this place right next to the Mannequin Pis statue.

Found the others PLUS John (brave soul that he is) and had dinner around the corner from our hotel (and The Marriott where Rich will be staying).  A Vietnamese/Thai Restaurant called Reve d'Asie.
John had some soup and then bolted back for Peter and Mardy's hotel to grab his bag and head for the airport.  He was cutting it pretty close but he did come a week early!  I had some pho bo (beef) and the others had other Vietnamese and Thai dinners.  I tasted some of Connie's chicken and eggplant and it was really good.

We brought Peter and Mardy to see our rooms and we walked over to see theirs.  Twice as big as ours and pretty swank.  AND in the quieter part of town.

The museum steps right around the corner from our hotel was the center of the music!

Yikes!

Who knew that we would be in the MIDDLE of Brussels Gay Pride Weekend?   Back in our room and we can hear them "pretty, pretty good" as Larry David would say.  Earplugs?  I think so - hopefully they will stop or pass out soon.

We walked back to the train station to get our bearings for the morning (track 3) and buy some last minute chocolates and cookies for the folks back home.  Saw the sunset over the Grand Platz - beautiful pink sky and clouds (yes the sun was out today).

Grand Platz at sunset.

2013_05_17 Bruges and vicinity

Early on this morning the weather forecast was for rain in the afternoon (4:00).  Imagine that!  The vast majority of the group wanted to do a long trip to the North Sea (33 miles round trip).  Somehow the idea of going to the ocean in a rain storm was not a good thing!  So a group of 6 of us decided to do just a portion of the trip and turn back much sooner to see a bit more of Bruges.  

Here's the group at the start of the ride.

Along the path to Damme - this is the outskirts of Bruges

Damme City hall building detail

We got to the town of Damme (The Dog town).  Apparently, long long ago there was a big storm and a bunch of flooding.  The townspeople heard a dog howling against the wind.  The town people blamed the dog for the storm and flooding.  So they killed the dog and stuffed him into the dike to stop the flooding.  The storm stopped so they thought they were correct in their logic.  A lot of sad stories were told about the "good old days"!

We stopped to look at the city square and a church.  Big church for such a little town.  The splinter group started back towards Bruges by a slightly more meandering route IN THE RAIN!  Yes, it had started sooner.

We got back to the boat just before noon - had some lunch and headed into town.  We took the bikes to town and were stopped by "no bikes here" signs although nobody BUT us seemed to pay attention.  We locked up our bikes and went on foot.  First stop lunch for the others.  Strawberry crepes for Connie and Richie, Bobi had banana crepes and Carol had tomato soup.  Hot chocolate for me!  Bad deal - no WIFI in this restaurant.  

View of Bruges from the bell tower

Went to the central area of the town and we decided to walk to the top of the bell tower made famous in the movie In Bruges.  336 steps up to some wonderful views from the top of the tower.  Traipsed back down and headed back towards the bikes.  I raced ahead to a "free' WIFI place I had seen.  It turns out you had to buy something (another hot chocolate) and I was able to read my emails.  I tried to message Sarah and Mackenzie but they didn't respond.  I told them we would be in Brussels tomorrow and we would try again if and when we had WIFI.

I actually went back to this place later in the afternoon and the girl working there didn't charge me again.  What a sweetie!  Still no connection with Sarah.

We had our last dinner on the boat tonight and everyone said their good byes to the crew members.  Salmon puff with salsa garnish, white sole with mashed potatoes and chocolate brownie. We're supposed to be packed with suitcases outside the rooms by breakfast.  The crew will start moving our bags outside while we eat.  

10 to 15 minute walk to the train station - we already bought our tickets to Brussels tonight ahead of time.  27.60 Euros (less than half of what I was told). More chocolates!  

Grabbed 150 more Euros from an ATM so we're stuffed with cash. We still have to fill an envelope with tip money for the crew members and a bit more for Tom the bike leader.  Like I said, more chocolates.  Also, we have cash for lunch and diner tomorrow as well.  If we don't spend it all we'll exchange it back for $ at the airport.  

We hope to be in our hotel in Brussels before noon tomorrow.  The trains takes 1 hour 10 minutes from Bruges - we hope to take the 9:36a.m. train.  Our hotel in Brussels is supposed to be a 10 minute walk from the train station.  We'll see! 

2005_05_16 Ghent to Bruges

Raining to beat the band this morning.  Had another nice breakfast and suited up with the rain gear.  Time to make the best of the day.

5 of us decided to take off from the main group and try to finish the 26 miles in a reasonable amount of time. Pete and Liz had a good map and we figured we couldn't do to much to get lost as we were basically following the canal all the way to Bruges!

We made it to a castle - off limit to visitors so we just took a couple of pictures.  The pelaton caught up to us at the castle just as we were leaving.  After a short time we found our way back to the canal and saw our boat chugging along.  Connie was staying on the boat as she had a sinus/sore throat problem with a slight fever. So I waved to her as we got ready to take a short loop through the countryside away from the canal.  We missed a turnoff and went about a mile out of our way before we realized our mistake.  Heading back we were blocked for a bit as a school bus was dropping some little ones off at a local school!  Cute!  Back on the "right" path there was the rest of the group again!  We stopped at a local bar for a few minutes and had a small bite to eat.  I went inside for a minute and there were about 5 local older guys pounding back Belgium beers at 11:30ish.  I sat outside while a bunch went inside (not much room at all in there).  The 5 of us bottled off again and rode parallel to the canal for a while more.  It was really too bad that it was raining all of the time!  Not too much, but just enough to make it a bit unpleasant.  The wind was way down and the riding was pretty easy.  

We all stopped at a local marina for our lunch - again some went inside to eat while the rest of us stayed outside to eat our bag lunches.  Tom said that the marina was pretty "stuffy" with rules about having to eat something, etc.  So, most of us stayed outside - at least we found a bit of shelter.

We were off again and about 5 miles later were found the boat docked a bit outside of Bruges.  Most everybody stayed on the boat in the afternoon.  We only took about 3 hours of riding today - we agreed this was the way to do it.  Drawbridge opening for us to pass thru into Bruges.

This evening the boat moved to the very south edge of Brugge before dinner.  We had veal tenderloin with Belgian French Fres (with mayonnaise).  That's how the Belgians eat them - pretty good.  When in Rome.

Tom took us out for a walk around Bruges tonight - beautiful.  We got a feel for the place - we will be taking a short ride tomorrow morning, returning to Bruges for shopping in the afternoon.  Most are going all the way to the ocean for a bit of beach but we decided we need to shop.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a pleasant day for our last day in Bruges.

Saturday morning early we will leave the boat and head for Brussels.  The train station is less than a mile away so we can schlep the gear for the 1 hour train ride to Brussels.

2015_05_15 St Armand's to Ghent

When we woke up this morning it was pouring and I though there was no way I would want to ride i that type of weather.  Once we ate and the boat had moved a bit further south it was fine!  

Bikes at the ready in Sint Armand's

Way up at the top is the horse with 4 brothers riding

Inside small museum - old poster of the 4 brothers on horse.

There actually was sunshine and the wind was not too bad.  We went into the town of Dendermonde and Tom told us the story of the horse and the 4 brothers.  Every 10 years there is a festival where a large horse is carried around the town square with 4 brothers riding.  Tom said that the four have to be brothers born in a row with no sisters interspersed.  Their father and grandfather's must also have been born in Dendermonde.  It is quite an honor to be selected.  A nice city square for a while and we were off!  

We rode along the Schelde river until we got to one for the famous ferry boats and crossed to the other side.  Rode up to a "hill" (not really one at all) called the Donk.  Stopped for a coffee in Donk and then headed on to the castle.

We had coffee in a restaurant behind this statue of a farmer harvesting peat in Donk.

This castle was pretty sweet - we stopped for our lunch and then walked around the grounds for a while in Laarne.  

Eventually after quite a bit more pedaling we finally arrived in Ghent.  Ghent is really a big city relative to where we have been lately.  There is a famous cathedral, a city hall and a bell tower (belfry) all within sight of each other.  Walked to the river and went a bit further to a castle.

Ghent

Another story from Tom in Ghent

The Castle

Main cathedral

We changed some dollars for Euros (quite an experience in it's own).  Then back to a cafe along the river where we had hot chocolate for me and a beer for Connie. 

I finally got some free WIFI outside the restaurant and was able to send a message to Mackenzie!  Did a bit of Face Time with Mackenzie and Sarah sent a couple of images and a video.  Nice to see them!  I hope we will have WIFI tomorrow in Bruges.

Crossing a bridge leaving Ghent.

Back to where the boat was moored on the south of Ghent. There is a new captain on the boat (Karl - Walter has gone off to run a sailing cruise).  Karl helped to shepherd us back to the boat.  Dinner Salmon on potato salad, Fish with carrots and rice, apple pie. We watched the Europa Cup Final from Amsterdam on the t.v.  Chelsea defeated Benfica 2-1 in extra time - John from London was pretty happy.

2005_05_14 Antwerp to St. Armand's

Sun is shining and the wind seems diminished (a bit) this morning in Antwerp.  Hah!  We will bike around for a bit of shopping and sight-seeing in Antwerp including the top of the modern Bonaparte Museum.

 We head off on a 26 mile ride through the Flemish countryside.

Museum we went to the top of in Antwerp

Town square in Antwerp.  Statue of legend of dragon chopping off hands.  Another Tom story!

Entered a cathedral and saw 4 paintings by Peter Paul Rubens.  Quite impressive!

Main altar in cathedral.  Huge church!

Crossed under the river Schelde through a tunnel built in the 1930's.  The tunnel is 90 feet down and we take either a escalator or elevator back up to the ground.  Half took the elevator and I tried the escalator.  Just had to make sure you squeezed the hand brakes so the bike didn't "run away".

Along the trail to Bazel.

Lunch in Bazel at The Dove Tower restaurant.  Old family castle with dove tower that told the status of the land owner.  Way back when, a family could have a pair of doves for each hectare of land that they owned.  These guys had a lot of doves.  Connie and I ate outside on the patio (the bagged lunch we prepared this morning) with Tom the guide and a couple others.  The rest at a for real meal inside.  After lunch Tom took us into the castle where we were able to see how a rich family lived back in the day.  

Young Mercator and old Harvey

We then stopped at Ruplemonde (Mouth of the Rupel) where the courtyard had statues of Mercator (who developed the Mercator maps) - I have a large on in my study.  The was also a tidal mill that captured water from the river at high tide and then returned it back to the river at low tide.  When the water was being returned to the river a paddlewheel operated to grind grain. 

On to Temse where we will crossed the river on a 1,000 meter long bridge (longest wooden bridge in Belgium.  This is where the "two Richies" adventure really began.  RIch Rediker and Richie Steingart had been lagging behind us for most of the day.  They stopped to talk about their fathers' roles in WWII right under that bridge that they were supposed to cross.  They somehow thought that they could continue further on on the "wrong" side of the river for a while and cross over later at another bridge.  They took their time a stopped for some strawberries and D cell batteries (Don't ask).  When they reached what they thought the map said was another bridge they were really at the confluence of the Schelde and Monde Rivers. They now realized that they either had to backtrack to the right bridge or figure out how to take what turned out to be two ferry boat rides to get to the correct side of the Schelde.  

We had all finished at the quaint village of St. Armand's for quite a while before they appeared!  St Armand's sits at a beautiful bend in the Schelde river and is quite a tranquil little town.  The Manifique was waiting docked when we arrived. All was well that ended well, I guess.

It rained pretty good for the entire ride after lunch and we were all pretty wet and tired.  Dinner was tomato soup, chicken with new potatoes and green beans strawberry crepe for dinner. The wind was up pretty good for most of the day as well!   Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  

So, 26 miles today and a scheduled 26 more miles tomorrow ending in the town of Ghent.