We were sad to leave “Lady Lace” this morning. It was a house with so much character and so close to the centre of everything. The owners even forgave one of us (not G, G or J) for messing up the convection microwave and melting what looked like a good microwave oven cookware cover (last night). Unfortunately the cover was over the chicken we were cooking, so I suppose we had a plastic chicken. To be safe, we threw it away, then there was one (small chicken) left. We had plenty of vegies and already had nibbles, so we managed to feed all 6 of us still. Tom was generous and, during the day, had bought a selection of Belgian beers for us to try. He really had to force us. The beers were all different and very nice. We didn’t get to try the very special beer that can only be bought in one shop in the world. Probably reasonable that Tom kept it ‘til he had time to sit and enjoy it. We did savour the beers and delayed eating for a while.
Anyway, back to today. After we dropped Laura and Tom at the Bruges station, to catch the train to Brussels to have lunch with a house mate of Laura’s when she was working in Brussels a few months ago and then overnight train to Berlin, we drove to Knokke Heist to ride on the Kust tram to De Haan. Phew, what a sentence. After the parking ticket machine not producing the ticket for the time paid for, we got on the tram. The map showed the tram following the coast for much of the way. It was correct, but unfortunately there was a big dune in the way. When G&R took the tram from south to north 2 years ago, the tram did travel along the edge of the beach, but obviously the northern section was different. Any way it was an interesting ride. We did have a good coffee and waffle in De Haan and went for a walk to the beach. Warm but windy. Jan enjoyed a very tasty pastry. There was even a portable library on the beach. We got back to the car, after the expiry time shown, didn’t have a fine and headed off to Ghent.
Followed the GPS and started looking for accommodation on the outskirts. We ended up in the centre of Ghent and quickly realised how expensive Ghent is. We are now in a 1 star hotel, very close to the centre at a cost of 86 euros per room. No breakfast included. The hotel is an old monastery and only stopped being a monastery in the late 1990s. This hotel has been operating for about 12 years. The rooms are big, basic, ensuite and have lots of character. We are looking forward to walking ‘round town tomorrow and looking at some very scenic canal areas.
