I am barely on the internet and it is day 10 so I will
upload days 7, 8, 9 while I have the chance. I have not loaded any photos yet.
Day 7 Floating in Terneuzen, touring Ghent, Cultural Zeeland
(We were told that we will have to internet service today or
tomorrow so I know you will be getting this later, but that’s the way it has to
be.)
We woke up parked in Terneuzen, along with quite a few long
barges, and breakfasted early since we needed to be on the bus to drive to Ghent. The ride was only about half an hour and
Daniel entertained us with stories about the Netherlands
and Belgium. One comment he made was a Dutch saying of
“Behave normally, that’s crazy enough!”
We arrived in Ghent
and it was immediately apparent that it is quite a large city and has been a
powerful city for many years, hundreds of years, based on the very nice and
large buildings and churches. The three
bus loads of GCT people went off with three local guides and we walked around
the city for about an hour or so.
Insert photo of guide
One of the first memorable things we saw was an outdoor
urinal for men right on the side of the street!!
Insert photo here of urinal
We saw many of the typical straight up, tall houses and
shops all along the streets.
Insert photo of houses
The streets (and sidewalks mostly) are cobblestones, some
arranged in patterns but mostly plain.
They are redoing some of the sidewalks and making new cobblestone
walkways.
Insert photo of cobblestones
We crossed quite a few bridges over canals. Again, the buildings are built into the side
of the canals usually.
Insert photo of canals.
We saw a castle and the guide told us how death and torture
took place there. She even told us about
how when people were executed they were given a choice of whether to die by
having their body boiled in water or oil!!!!
Insert photo of castle
I noticed that Sarah MC has a habit left over from her
teacher days and I call it her ‘herd dog instinct’ because she trails along at
the end of the group making sure that none of the students, or seniors, got
lost or left behind. It’s so interesting
to watch. After about an hour we met back up with Daniel on the square with the
cathedral and shops.
Insert photo from Sarah with high up photo
We could stay there and shop for an hour or go back to where
we left the buses and visit the market, or flea market, that was taking
place. Most of our group stayed near the
square but I walked back to the market and found some old Flemish tools that I
think Frank might like. I found some old
planes and a handmade long screwdriver.
If he doesn’t like them, I’ll give them to some one else. One of the
planes is very narrow and the blade is strangely shaped to create a decorative
design. I do hope they won’t weigh my luggage down too much, but at 2 Euro
each, I just couldn’t pass them up.
Insert photo of tools
Amazingly enough, we’ve only had a very few minutes of rain
so far today. Of course, that may change
before the day is over but it’s been nice and sunny, quite cool but sunny and
we’ve all enjoyed that very much.
We had lunch on the ship. It was mainly buffet but Sarah MC
and I had hamburgers and fries. The
others had ‘strange’ foods that they enjoyed a great deal. Dessert was ice cream with raisins and/or
apple stuffed pancakes. The servers were
all dressed at Dutch sailors since we are now in Holland.
Insert photos of food and maybe servers
The activities for the afternoon include blog writing,
reading, napping, walking though the city of Terneuzen (a typical Dutch city in
which the ship is parked for the day) or touring Cultural Zeeland on the bus
(which is where Linda and Sarah R are right now).
Linda and Sarah R came back from their optional tour and
they gave us a short report for the blog.
Their first stop was a windmill that has been in operation since 1720
and is still producing all the grains for the town of Axel where the windmill is located. The grain is evenly divided among all the
bakers of the town in order to prevent competition among the bakers. They would not even allow the visitors to buy
any to take out of town!! The second
stop was a presentation of local traditional costume. The man and woman doing
the presentation got Daniel to help them and they dressed him in a man’s and a
woman’s costume. Linda and Sarah said it
was hilarious and there are photos that support that. They then went to a small
restaurant and had a small traditional Dutch pastry called a bolus. They really enjoyed it.
Insert photo Daniel in costume here
Shortly afterward, we had a stop ‘port talk’ about next
day’s activities and then we raced for the dining room. Last night, another group got our table and
said it was their table. We made a plan
and sat in the back of the lounge so that we could get to the dining room first
and claim OUR table. We were successful. We had salmon, beef tenderloin and grilled
chicken along with shrimp cocktail, soup, and apple crumb and rum ice
cream/cream sauce.
Insert dinner photo
We had a Dutch Language lesson in the lounge after dinner
and Daniel did a good job entertaining us by trying to teach us Dutch words and
phrases. Needless to say, I will not be
speaking any Dutch any time soon. It
sounds like a difficult language to me.
Our plan for tomorrow is to wake up in Veere after traveling
most of the night and then walk around the city during the morning. We will return to the ship before noon to see
a demonstration by a silversmith onboard.
Then some of us will return to see more of the city, some will stay
onboard to do whatever is desired, and I will go on the optional tour to see
the Delta Works, which is the system developed to help prevent flooding.
Today the weather was very very nice most of the day. We had about five minutes of rain on the way
back from Ghent
and then it rained for about 15 minutes during dinner. Otherwise it was mostly partly sunny. Everyone is doing well and having a good
time.
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