Each day we seem to get better weather (against predictions of huge headwinds). After a couple of days of riding there is a day off ( but some people seem to want to ride on - they are obviously not saddle sore ). I choose to stay on the barge for the morning and go through several locks and see the countryside. Jann, one of the locks we went in was 250 metres long and fitted 8 huge barges! Amazing. There is even safety first here, people barges are not allowed in the lock with petrol barges so we had to wait.
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| algal bloom (and thumb) |
We cruise along towards Antwerp, leaving Holland behind and entering Belgium. There is a heap of industry here and power generation - nuclear, wind turbine and fossil fuel - all in one photo! We sail through the algal bloom under clear skies.
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inside lock
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power generation
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We visit many towns, have lunch in delightful spots, visit sites such as Rubens House, a chocolate museum, town squares (to sample local specialties and beers). Well not so much sampling for me as most local specialties include flour, but I did poke most of them and even sip a few. We have wandered through cathedrals, streets, shops, had coffee with Advocat, been lost (due to tour leader not us). But then again there was a little incident.... one of the younger girls had been testing her map reading against the tour leader and thought that she could direct us to where the boat would be moored that afternoon. She asked for volunteers to go with her and (thinking that Catherine had already said yes) I agreed. Well 3 of us took off. We were soon lost and did probably 10kms more than the rest of the group and even managed to get behind the main group at one stage and had to ride quickly through them pretending that this was part of our plan! We did get there before the main group, by about 2 minutes and were pretty pleased with ourselves.
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lost - trying to understand the locals
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Gouda was a place for sampling though. Cheese abounds of course and we now know how to say Gouda. It sounds like Howda and the 'h' needs to sound like you just choked on a fly.
Well that is probably enough words for the Bike/Barge part of the holiday, but following are photos that will enhance my words.
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found - three musketeers, susanne
and shirley
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bruges canal
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dordrecht
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| peaceful |
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two birds in the hand........
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cheese in gouda - check out the shop
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