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Published: August 19th 2013
Today we docked in Zeebrugge, which is one of the ports in Belgium on the North Sea. The ship got here about 7:30 AM and our tour departed at 8:15. So before that we had to get up, dressed, and fed for the morning. We went up to the buffet in the Horizon Court and sampled some of their standard breakfast fare – omelet, baked apple, bacon, sausage, pastries, juice, tea and milk. Then we headed to the Explorer Lounge for a very short wait before they called our tour.
There were multiple buses taking the same tour, so that shows us that the selection was popular. Certainly it sounded like the most interesting to our point of view. When boarding the bus they provided each person with 2 pieces of Belgian chocolate – VERY rich. There were two guides on our bus and they alternated talking while we drove around on the bus. While in town, we divided up into two groups and we followed Mia’s sign with “3” held aloft. It actually made it fairly easy to locate her as she led the group through town.
We began with an hour’s drive to
Ghent. This is a medieval city with lots of historical buildings, still portraying the ancient architectures. This was basically a walking tour and everywhere seemed to have cobble stones. The uneven surface was particularly hard on Janet’s feet, but she did pretty well and there were frequent stops. We walked through the center of town (beginning with St Michel’s Bridge) and saw many examples of well preserved – or restored – architecture. We seemed to meander around but we were actually viewing many buildings, and finally got to the St Bavo’s Cathedral. The building is being cleaned on the outside so it is heavy covered in scaffolding and tarps, which meant it wasn’t very photogenic from the outside. But we went inside and it was very impressive. We hope our parish priest does not hear about the pulpit in this cathedral – he probably would want to upgrade our pulpit. The main item in the cathedral is a set of paintings from 1432 called “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”. The originals are behind glass but there is a reproduction where you can get up close and even touch the 24 panels. About 11:00 we boarded the bus again and
drove to Bruges. It was good to get to sit down and rest our feet.
The bus ride was about 30 minutes and we learned more about the history of Belgium in general, and East & West Flanders (the two provinces with Ghent and Bruges). We also were given a lot of information about Belgian beers. There are many breweries with a wide variety of flavors resulting from slight differences in the ingredients. The beers also range from 6%!t(MISSING)o 11%!a(MISSING)lcohol content, so some of them can be pretty potent if you don’t know what to expect.
The bus arrived and we started walking again. We strolled through more cobble stone streets and past the marketplace and the Guild Halls. We also saw the Belfry, which is a working medieval bell tower that is 270 feet above the surrounding buildings. We walked past the 12
th century Gothic Basilica of the Holy Blood. Finally we arrived at a restaurant for a luncheon meal.
The lunch was 3 courses, with a Salad, Chicken and Potatoes, and a Belgian Chocolate Mousse. The potatoes looked like classic American French Fries, but our guide had
explained that fries were actually invented in Belgium instead of France (someone was cooking fish and ran out, so they sliced some potatoes and tossed them in the fryer – that was the birth of Belgian Fries). They also served a beverage of choice – Janet had tea but David tried one of the milder beers.
After lunch we were back walking the street. We quickly learned that you have to watch out for horse drawn carriages because they do not slow down and could easily run you down if you don’t get out of the way – we had a couple of near misses but not actual collisions. One of our next stops was at the canal for a 30-min cruise on a small boat. The boat provided a relief for our feet but also a different vantage point for viewing the building. It was really very interesting. We continued our tour and walked past many gift shops selling lace, chocolates, and numerous other souvenirs. Finally the tour ended with about an hour of time for us to explore on our own, except we were very tired by now and the square where we were had
David & Janet
Ghent Belgiumonly 2 shops – we weren’t going to try to navigate back long the route to finds the earlier shops.
At 4:15 the group reorganized and we walked another 15 minutes back to where the bus was parked. This turned out to be a whole lot more walking than we had expected. When the bus returned us to the ship, we checked the tour description and found that it had been classified as “strenuous” – something we generally try to avoid. However everything was very interesting, but just a bit more exhausting than we had expected.
We got back in time to kick back in the cabin for a few minutes with a glass of wine and our feet elevated for awhile. Then it was soon 6:00 and we were off to dinner. This evening Victor and Sandra did not show up, but instead another couple so we suspect they may have been “anytime diners” who were one-time-wonders as our neighbors. On the other side, Bill and Diane did come back and we compared adventures from Belgium. They had been to Bruges previously, so they only went to Ghent for a half day tour.
For dinner, Janet had the Shrimp and Scallop appetizer, Caesar Salad, and a small order of Fettuccini Alfredo. David had a seasoned sathays, Caesar Salad, and the Seafood Medley in a stew. For dessert we both had the Chocolate Fudge Brownie with ice cream. After dinner, we stopped at the Library for Janet to get a copy of the Sudoku which she finished pretty quickly. We also worked on this blog for awhile.
At 9:30 David went to the evening entertainment in the theater. It was a comedian named Diane Cousins who advertizes herself as the First Lady of Welch Comedy. The night before had been kind of disappointing so he wanted to give them another chance – this was considerably better.. Janet decided to stay in the cabin and rest after our strenuous day, but was still watching a movie when David got back to the cabin.
Tomorrow is a day at sea, but we expect to find plenty do anyway
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