31 May We had originally planned to go to Leuven on the boat after Mechelen. But due to me being sick we decided to skip it. But we had heard it was a delightful university town, so we decided to take a day trip there on the train from Lier.
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29-30 May We arrived in Lier on Wednesday 23rd after a trip on the tidal waters of the Rupel River. We spent a quiet time that afternoon and Thursday (although I did visit the doctor on Thursday morning about my presistent cold - accidentally going to a different doctor than the one I had booked). Friday morning Howard had arranged for the second hand store to collect our old furniture, but they were unable to work out where to go, so he had to moved the furniture back onto the boat.
We were in Gent Friday to Monday for the DBA Rally, so we didn't get to have a good look around Lier until Tuesday. It is another lovely city. 25-28 May We are members of the DBA, the barge organisation and they were holding a rally in Gent. We were too late to book in Moondance (as they only take 20 barges), but we went along anyway as "visitors". Jo and Tim whom we met last year were happy for us to stay on their lovely barge Maria of Zaandam.
23 May On Wednesday we travelled to Lier. This time we had checked the times of the tide, so we were OK to go through the tidal lock leaving at 9am.
15-22 May We have now been in Mechelen a week. When we arrived on Tuesday evening and moored in a 24 hour mooring. But my cold developed into a bad virus and we ended up spending a whole week here. Most of that time I spent in bed.
Howard was able to take advantage of the break and did some jobs around the place, as well as doing a couple of rides. 13-15 May Our trip from Gent to Mechelen was mostly on tidal rivers. The Scheldt River is tidal for over 100 km. At Antwerp the tide height is 5.24 and Melle near Gent the tide is 4.83m, so the land is very flat.
I had done a bit of research and planning to plan our trip to match the tidal flows. It was all a bit complicated as the tides were delayed from Antwerp tide times by as much as 4 and a half hours, and I had to work it out at each spot. We stayed at Merelbeke lock on Saturday ready for an early start on Sunday. 7-12 May We arrived in Gent on Monday afternoon and left on Saturday afternoon and we packed a lot into that time.
10 May People kept recommending that we visit Oostende Voor Ankor (Oostend at Anchor), so we took the train there on Thursday.
There were about 130 historic ships moored there. 6-7 May Our trip to Gent from Bruges included a deviation through the town of Deinze so that we could come up the Leie River, which is supposed to be very beautiful.
4-5 May We had beautiful weather for our stop in Bruges. On Friday we took a bike ride to the nearby village of Damme,which used to be the port for Bruges but is now inland. It was a lovely little town.
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AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
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