Day 6: Sint Armands to Gent

Sint Amands to Gent 62 kms

It was a five layer day this morning, and it didn't really get any warmer. The whole group road to a small town, Dendermonde, with an impressive church, and then the Brazilians rode off to see what they could see. We to went into the wind for about an hour, stopping at a little cafe for morning tea and a pit stop. Unfortunately the place was closed, so we had to cross our legs (which can be awkward when riding) for another 15 mins until we found a bar.

Our picnic lunch was enjoyed in the wind and cold, then we rode on to Gent. We were expecting the boat to arrive before us, however, we received word that it would be at least two hours late, so we had time to ride into the centre of the city. Our 45 km ride was turning into a much longer ride. 

We had to park our bikes and walk in search of a bar and toilets. Always the two most important places on a group ride. Gent is full of amazing buildings, lots of crazy bike riders and trams, with accompanying pesky tramlines. 

We found a bar on the main canal, and proceeded to wait for confirmation that the boat had arrived. We were still in the freezing wind, with the sky getting darker by the minute. At least the bar provided some rugs, and Ray was able to warm up with hot chocolate and a delicious Belgium waffle.

One of our group is diabetic and took a turn for the worse. She had to catch a taxi to the boat, which we discovered had just arrived around 6pm and was 7 kms away. It had docked in a remote place. The Brazilians, who we had come across in the city centre, made it back to the boat before us, but had great difficulty in finding it. We arrrived at 7.15 and hoped that dinner wasn't all eaten.

All turned out well in the end. Sharon, the diabetic, made it back to the boat, and didn't die, the chef, Emile (appropriate name don't you think?), did not serve dinner until after we arrived, and rather than raining, the sun came out as we stepped on board. Last riding day tomorrow.

It was f%@*#*@! freezing! And it never really warmed up for the entire day.

Every dock is different, this one a lot different.

They just keep coming. More town squares. It's impossible to keep up!

Some random church in some random town that we didn't even bother to ride in to.

The mechanics of flood proofing. This scene is repeated thousands of time in different forms across The Netherlands and Belgium. An unbelieveable series of dykes, bridges, lochs and channels, plugging up every hole in the protective wall against the water. It's being moved around from level to level on an ongoing basis to ensure that flooding never occurs again. Some of the channels are sitting in dykes and are as wide as big rivers.  It's an incredible achievement.

 

I think these buildings date back to the 16th century, although the bit on the RHS end looks like it was added much later, probably the end of the 19th century. This was taken whilst I was waiting for my order of ......

My first real Belgian waffle. Delicious. I'm glad they were able to remind me where I was. We are obviously crap at taking photos of food on plates as I had to hold up the plate and stop the waffle from sliding off.

The Belgian architecture is distinctive. The umbrellas are kept close together to make sure the warmth does not escape.

Ride Notes

We actually started a few kilometres just south of Sint Armands as the dock was not available.

Unusually, we landed on a dock just outside of Gent, instead of in the city centre.

This was a particularly crappy dock, which caused quite a bit of unhappiness with the riders. Particularly because our finishing spot changed about 3 times during the day.