The day got off to a good start with a decent breakfast, Greek yoghurt and fruit, bacon& sausages, pancakes and maple syrup and pastries, all washed down with copious quantities of tea and water. Rather like a camel I was fuelling up just in case of shortages.
The hotel got full marks for insisting on filling my water bottles with bottled mineral water, clearly they discerned I was a man of good taste, or more likely they knew that the local tap water was undrinkable. Something that the waitress confirmed at my lunch stop !
The day wasn’t overly warm, but it was dry and with no navigation issues I quickly made my way up the very pretty coast to Oostende, passing on the way a very large and intact section of the Atlantic wall defences from WW2. Fortunately the Belgians have improved the welcome for us Brits since then.
Getting through Oostende and it’s industrial zone wasn’t very scenic, but again cycling infrastructure was great. Although I did get stuck at a traffic jam.
Once clear of the town, the route followed well surfaced river and canal paths.
I skirted around the outskirts of Brugge as I wanted to get to Ghent at a reasonable time. I’ll put it on the list for another time.
Around 12 I started to get hungry, been in the middle of the countryside I thought I‘d need to detour to find a place to eat. A few minutes later though I passed a house with an open sign outside, peering over the gate I could see table and chairs, but no other signs or people. I walked around making as much noise as I could hoping someone would appear. Eventually they did and it was a restaurant, although rather oddly Romanian.
After a very pleasant lunch I was on my way again, but not before I was surprised by the sight of two Bromptons whizzing past, the first I had seen on the trip.
I rode after them and caught up for a chat. They were a German couple from Bonn who kept the Bromptons in their camper van, for short trips. After a few kms our paths diverged and I was back on my way to Ghent.
I rolled into Ghent around 4pm after 80 fairly relaxed kilometres. Home for the night an IBIS budget hotel, although prices in Ghent were anything but budget. Unlike Premier Inn, they don‘t allow bikes in the room, so I folded the Brompton up before entering the hotel in the hope they wouldn’t really notice it. If they did, they were too nice to mention it.
A quick stroll around Ghent failing to find most of the historic centre and a tasty Moroccan meal and the day was done. Oh yes and it stated raining again !
Steady Pedals 