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AROCKES Trip to Ghent
May 4th, in 1974 Waterloo by ABBA was the new No 1 but Friday May 4th 2007 was the day that some members of AROCKES set out for a weekend visit to Ghent.
The section had previously had a similar weekend in nearby Bruge and the feeling was that Ghent might not measure up; how wrong we were!
An early start, by the Cotterills at least as they had to pick up Peter and Marion before heading for Cheriton and the Channel Tunnel; Mrs C concerned in case the Folkestone earthquake of two weeks previously had caused the tunnel to spring a leak. The Feltons joined up at the tunnel and in no time at all we were emerging on French soil. A gentle run on two lane autoroutes soon saw the group in Belgium and passing Bruge as they turned South Eastwards to Ghent. Ghent is currently undergoing a few road works and road priorities are not as shown on any map, or known to Peter's TOM TOM, confusion reigned, not helped by a laid back Belgian cop's twirly hand signal and stroppy "What don't you understand by turn around and go back?" question. "Where?" was our response. We did eventually find the four star Ghent River Hotel, and very pleasant it was too. A wait for rooms to be readied led to a brief stroll to the adjacent Vrijdag Markt to partake of food washed down, for some, by Trappist beer. In Bruge this had been described as `falling down water', and at strengths varying between 6% and 11%, it is. A boat trip on the rivers and canal link provided a good introduction to Ghent, a one time river port of fine houses, churches and the castle of the Counts of Flanders. Back to the hotel for a little lie down and wash and brush up before venturing out for an evening meal.
If you go the Ghent do try one of the two Amadeus restaurants; we ate in Ghent II, a book lined, library-like room. No menus but sample meals laid out for viewing and choosing, delicious steaks or huge prawns or veal (shame David). Saturday after a good breakfast was a general stroll around the town, shopping, much to the disgust of Mr Francis. After lunch, and more beer, the Feltons and Cotterills took a two-hour guided walking tour and saw the landward side of many buildings seen the day before from the river. Much information was also added and we were shown the `famous' painting `The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb', by the Van Eike Brothers (which I for one had never heard of), in the St Bavos cathedral. If you go to Ghent and want to eat on a Saturday night do book yourself a table before time! The city has very many restaurants, and we were turned away from most of them, all fully booked. Eventually we did get in to an Italian place where the food was good but in my view it was a little disappointing to have to eat Italian in Belgium. The after dinner stroll revealed Ghent in all it's night-time glory, the lighting of the old quaysides, the Grasbrug, and the Castle of the Counts on Burgstraat was really wonderful. Another good breakfast and booking out of the hotel before a walk through the pet market on the Vrijdag Markt to the flower market at Kouter, a riot of colour and varied shrubbery as well as incredibly cheap prices , 50 roses for 10 Euros. The route back to the cars also took in the flea market at Bij St Jacobs. If we had thought the `adventure' of finding our way through Ghent by car was fun, better was to follow. Getting out of Ghent proved quite simple but put us on the road towards Lille so a cross country route was opted for. Belgium is pretty flat, more flat than pretty. Our route now took us through Tielt to Duiksmuide, where we elected to stop for coffee. We parked on a side road near the 20 storey Tower of Peace, where some sort of local gala seemed to be in preparation. On leaving the café we were confronted by literally hundreds of push bikes, filling the road on which we were parked, and which was now closed to all traffic. It transpired that we would have to wait until the 18km cycle tour started and then follow them. To cut a long story short our attempts to turn off and be rid of the pedalling hordes were frustrated at every turn by intransigent marshalls and we continued our tour of rural Belgium at a stately 8kms per hour. At last they turned off on their circular route and we were free to return to Alfa pace and head for the Channel Tunnel. In all, a very enjoyable weekend, not without frustrations and comedy, good food, better beer and good company, I am glad that we went. |
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