DENDERMONDE

Dendermonde is probably another Belgium town that most people have never heard of. Should I be more correct and say non Belgian people have never heard of? Once again it's a surprisingly good little town with lots of history, now obviously quite well off and a commuter town for Brussels and Gent. It's only ~30 minutes to either city by train and judging by the size of the bicycle and car parks at the station this is the case. The main square or should I say curved wedge shape is a delight with at least 12 bars, cafes and restaurants. Take a look on this link, make sure you pan around. https://goo.gl/maps/jurbmnyMcVw if it works!

Flags on the exterior of Belfort van Dendermonde.

Dendermonde regionally is known for the once every ten year event of the 'Ros Beiaardommegang'. Briefly there were lots of medieval feuding between local lords, France and Spain. Various wars were raged, marriages and treaties confirmed, children born to hopefully join families together. You know the story, all good European stuff. The once every ten year event to celebrate a victory the Ommegang, the festival, involves a 4.85 metre horse parading through the city with lots of other spectacles, performances etc. The reason why I am telling this story is so that I can pass on the rather strict criteria for being one of the 4 riders of Ros Beiaard, the horse. Just is case you have aspirations. Applicants must meet the following conditions as detailed in the official publications:

1. They must be four brothers.

2. They must follow each other in age, no interruption by the birth of a girl.

3. They are required to be a minimum of 7 years and a maximum of 21 on the date of the festival.

4. They have to be born in Dendermonde.

5. They must reside continuously in Dendermonde.

6. Their parents must be born in Dendermonde.

7. Their parents must have lived continuously in Dendermonde.

So no problem with applicants out of a population of 45,000! That aside the next appearance of this strange spectacle is May 2020, so make a note in your diary.

Ros Beiaardommegang in the Grote Markt.

Apart from historical events, they are keeping up to date with recent relandscaping part of the town centre, with all new paving, plants, furniture etc. Cycling past I noticed some unusual bench seats. Why have they got built in solar panels? This could be the future. The benches have solar panels and both contactless mobile phone charging as well as normal USB! I'm sure the cynics will say if you sit on them there will be no solar power. They do have an internal battery so it even works at night. We need these everywhere.

Solar street furniture. The future?

AN AVERAGE DAY IN GENT

We are both really enjoying Gent, bicycle theft aside. The mooring is very central, free and adjacent to two other sets of friends on barges. People sometimes say 'what do you do all day?' What does anyone do all day? We normally start with expresso followed by a run or exercise of some sort. Whilst out running you always come across interesting things. A previous morning whilst running along the cycle track that follows the canal I came across the device as photographed below. It's a bicycle counter. The day's figures were 1610 that morning at 8.00AM and 52260 so far this week, up to Wednesday AM. On Saturday AM it was over 67000 and still rising. This is just one direction into the city centre. It just shows that if you put in the right infrastructure, in this case proper dedicated bike routes they will be used. It's interesting to see that in many places car traffic has been severely curtailed or completely removed in favour of bicycles. Excellent.

Solar powered bicycle counter.

There's always a bit of sculpture around, if you look for it. Sometimes it's monumental and historic other times a bit avantguard. The piece photographed below definitely needs work. I have no idea what it is trying to express in the middle of the canal and I'm into this stuff.

I feel this sculptor needs to try harder.

A good local facility at the end of the moorings is a chip shop, a 'frituur'. The Belgiums are renowned for their chips and this one is no exception. It has a great range of food on offer and it also does have, for us, the inviting name of 'Frituur de Bargie'. Evening meal sorted.

'Frituur be Bargie' close to our mooring.

There is always plenty of socialising. We were invited onto Elodie a barge owned by Australian friends. They had friends who work in Gent over so we were invited for an aperitif, well a few beers. Later on after a riotous evening discussing pretty well everything, the conversation got serious. Which is the best Marmite (British) or Vegimite (Australian)? The conversation did get quite hectic! I could not express a favourite as I don't like either. It seemed to boil down to what you're brought up with. Margaret definitely preferred the Marmite. Well there's a surprise.

Emma and Margaret with their own favourites.

A TALE OF TWO BROMPTONS

We rode into the centre of Gent the other day for a few essentials, a bit of retail therapy and a coffee. Nothing unusual so far. On returning a couple of hours later to our bikes we were confronted with the sight of our helmets on the ground but no Bromptons!!! At best this was very inconvenient as we are moored a good walk across the other side of the city. The bikes had been locked together and to the bicycle rack so someone had been determined to steal them.

Margaret looking pensive at where the bikes had been.

OK what do we do? Take the tram back to Soraya and work out where we can buy a pair of new Bromptons. I telephoned the insurance company and asked the procedure. After a short conversation they said we should get a police report, buy the new bikes and submit all with the claims form they would send. All very efficient but still hugely annoying. Fortunately we had the Bromton bag with us so it was literally only the two bikes plus locks etc that were missing. We thought 'no time like the present' so we googled where the local Police Station was and off we went. Upon arrival it was closed, so it's back tomorrow morning. Walking back across Gent from the Police Station to our tram we passed by a large modern covered market/performance space lovingly called the Sheep Hut. In the distance I saw a couple of bikes parked and as I rushed off I mumbled 'there's a couple of Bromptons and one is green'. Margaret couldn't work out why I'd suddenly veered off the route to the tram but as we got closer we saw they were our bikes!! Amazing. They were locked together with a new lock. Fortunately and stupidly there were not locked to the railings that they were leaning against.

Two locked Bromptons.

What now? We decided to move them quickly to a new location. They had, however, been locked in opposing directions so movement with peddles clashing and the steering was almost impossible. After a bit of shoving and pushing we managed to move to a very central area and we flagged down a large people carrier type of taxi as the bikes had to go in as one piece. We're not sure if he believed our story or just thought we were the people stealing the bikes. We got them back to Soraya.

Angle grinding off the lock.

Next morning it was out with the angle grinder to remove the thieves lock then on the bikes to a bike shop for two new locks. So whilst it was all a bit of a hassle, it all ended well. We were incredibly lucky. We did decide to go to the Police Station to report the incident. Asking whether the area was covered by CCTV we were told no! CCTV coverage was only in the red light 'prostitute' area and the area where students drink. We were not in either. He did comment that if someone was stealing a bike and there was a choice of a regular bike and a Brompton they would steal the Brompton. Two Bromptons together I suppose you would say 'were a steal!'

NUTS IN GENT

You sometimes by chance find a little gem of a shop. This was the case yesterday in Gent. It was a shop that only sold nuts, plus a few dates from Saudi Arabia. The owner was rightfully proud of the shop and the nuts, they were free to sample and were some of the freshest we have ever tasted.

Spoiled for choice, which shall we have?

The choice was huge. We tested the slightly spicy cashews, they were seriously yummy. We definitely need some of those. We came out with lots of nuts, more than I thought we would eat in a few months. We had friends around for drinks on Soraya that evening, the nuts were well liked. So much so that I think a return trip to the shop before leaving Gent will be required!

Designery display of nuts in an area of Gent that otherwise has very ordinary shops.

BACK TO GENT

We're back on Soraya after a great summer which included many friends staying at Kerloc'h, Kerloc'h put up for sale and sold, a lovely wedding in Devon, several trips to London and a short time in Bath! 

After a two day trip to Gent we found out that we'd arrived just in time for the Flanders Music Festival which started the next day. There were 16 music venues in the city throughout the day with a great variety of music, both classical and modern. I felt I was being seranaded by this musician in his boat who went round and round in circles just below me. Great fun.

One of the many musical performances on the river.

In the evening, the opening night of the festival, there was a continuous performance with orchestras and choirs playing on a large stage built on the water in the centre of the city. The light show with it was amazing.

Concert and light show.

The finale of the evening was a fantastic firework display which lit up the whole city with all its beautiful buildings and façades. We were so lucky to be in Gent on this particular day.

The fireworks were spectacular.