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.