London to The Hague via Dunkirk and Dover, cycling - Day 8, Bruges

Bruges...

Well that was covered in the previous day’s post.

London to The Hague via Dunkirk and Dover, cycling - Day 7, Ghent to Bruges

London-Gillingham-Dover-Dunkirk-Ieper (Ypres)-Ghent-Bruges-The Hague-London
GPS route (.gpx) available here.

From, memory, the route to Bruges was almost all along canal paths, so easy riding. It was very picturesque, just like one expects western Europe to be in summer. It was interesting to watch some of the cargo traffic down the canals, just to see what they were carrying. Most of it looked like waste. Maybe there was some grain. Most of the boat operators carried their car with them on the top of the boat.

Once again, the Flemish countryside was really nice, and the houses in the country villages were really nice too.

I stayed in a camping site that had caravans so it was actually a caravan park. Somebody ought to point out to the continentals that camping refers to camping, not caravanning. Anyway, there was a rat in the caravan park creeping around near my tent, which was ok because it wasn’t getting into my tent. It was more likely to sneak into one of the tents parked within 1 metre of mine. They really like to cram in the tents in this ‘camping’ place.

However, the showers were the best of all the places I stayed at (except the ferry, but more to come late about the ferry).

A few highlights of Bruges:

Bruges boasts a short list of attractions... the Friets museum, and the choco story museum where I learnt about the life story of chocolate, and a church that claims to have a vial of Jesus blood. The bad thing about the vial church was that it was tucked in a corner of the main square, and there was a delivery van in front of it so one couldn’t take a good picture.

To get to see the vial of blood you had to  line up, and then you climbed up some steps on to a platform where there was a lady sitting behind it so no one steals it. It was pretty disgusting. Imagine blood with lots of solidified fat in little droplets like from bacon or sausages or a roast. And all the droplets were clumping together at one end of the vial in a fatty beige mass. It must have been coagulated proteins or something. If my calculations are correct, it would be about 2013 years old if it’s real. It almost made me vomit but I felt so much pity for the lady who had to sit behind it all day protecting it and looking at it. It was so disgusting.

This thing may not actually be Jesus blood. Somebody might just have whispered that it was the blood of Jesus during communion, and someone kept it one day and it developed from there as Chinese whispers.

Bruges:

London to The Hague via Dunkirk and Dover, cycling - Day 6, sightseeing in Ghent

Some photos from Ghent. It was old, medieval, and a little bit dirty. It was also quiet damp, and I got fairly wet. Riding back I just stayed under a road bridge like a tramp for a long time. Nothing else really comes to mind, except perhaps observations of a north/south European divide  - a French couple came into a trappist beer cafe, spread themselves around on the seats and settling in for the day, ordered the beer, and the beer came out without any accompaniment (as one would expect), they made a great fuss between themselves, and called the bartender over and asked if there was any bread – he looked at them blankly and gave a stern “No.” They looked shocked.

The one above is called Turkish Street because back in the olden days, the Middle East was called Turkey, and there was some kind of connection between the Middle East and this street.

London to The Hague via Dunkirk and Dover, cycling – Day 5 – Ieper to Ghent

GPS route (.gpx file) available for download here.

I remember it as  fairly easy day, but about 86 km. Almost all along quiet canal paths, and some bike paths alongside roads. The route first goes southeast to the border town of Menen. If I had remembered, I would have gone a few streets further in Menen and crossed the frontiere into France, just for the novelty of crossing a border.

I highly recommend the place that I stayed in Ghent. Actually, it was well outside of Ghent, but that’s fine. It was a cycle-friendly hostel at a village called Laarne. Had a school camp vibe to it had many dorms, and empty corridors. When I arrived there was no sign of activity, and it was all dark, and then I saw that there was an envelope on the door, with my name on it. Inside were keys to my room and a note saying 'sorry, I'm not here this week, so here are your keys', so I found my room, and then went exploring around the place and found bar, which works on an honesty system. It was quite amazing to have an entire school camp all to myself. Later that evening I discovered that there were actually other people staying there, they were part of a an amateur cycling team from around Manchester, and were basing themselves there over summer (the connection to the north of England being via the ferry to Newcastle from Zeebrugge). There’s a supermarket about 5-10 mins ride from the hostel, quite convenient.

Before going to the hostel, I headed into Ghent to look around and felt the place was rather dirty, dirtier than London. This was particularly the case because I came in from the south, through the suburbs that tourists don’t get to see. Parked my bike at the train station Gent-Dampoort, used the coin lockers to store my bags there, and then went sightseeing.

This is a picture of the grotemarkt in Menen (town square):

They have trams in Ghent, so if you're a Melbournian you know not to get your wheels stuck in the tram tracks.