Europe 2018 - July 22 - Lokeren to Bruges

Sunday - July 22
We had a leisurely breakfast since we wanted to visit the inside of the church, St. Laurentiuskerk, which opened at 9:00. We had ended up in Lokeren purely by serendipity because we wanted to avoid Antwerp and Brussels so chose a route from Diest that went between the two cities. This morning Lokeren had some more surprises in store for us. 

We were greeted by some amazing wood carving artistry.

Lori and Donna could certainly appreciate the artistry but, as a hobby wood carver, Doug was especially in awe. 

Mass was not until 11:00 and we had many miles to go. We spent some quiet time in this amazing place before heading west.

Approaching a school in the village of Peerdeke. Nice Safe Routes To Schools infrastructure!

U rijdt = You are driving
Dank U = thank you

Te snel = too fast
Vertraag = Slow down

We zijn er weer = We are back

We stopped at a market in Ghent to get some snacks. Doug stayed outside to watch our bikes and was talking to these 3 young people when Donna and Lori returned. Francisco, Santiago, and Sophia are originally from Argentina but currently live in Spain. This is their 6th bike tour as a family and talking to them was a delight.

Lunch found us in Lovendegem. Our host, Mark, totally spoiled us by explaining the menu, then cleaning and filling our water bottles. Then he insisted on taking our picture before we left. The side story is that the neighbor's freezer caught fire recently and burned up the restroom and the roof of the restaurant. Reconstruction was still in progress.

The afternoon proved to be long as we lost our route a couple of times and had to backtrack.

It was already 5:00 when we reached this spot with 9 miles to go. Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun on the water on this warm afternoon.

Bruges at last! We really only had energy for eating dinner by the time we got checked into our hotel. BUT there is a laundromat across the street and our room has a private deck with a nice view of the canal. AND we are staying here 2 nights so will have lots of time to explore tomorrow.