Merelbeke

Our day starts with coffee, breakfast at 7:45. We pack a lunch and then meet out at the bikes for 9am. Today was a 60 km ride through the Flemish countryside. We ride single file with our large group. Our guide is at the front and sometimes, if just one guide, one of our group becomes the sweep. We are a big group so they remind us often about safety and rules of the road. We stopped at a cafe and we ordered a drink, coffee or beer!! For lunch today we stopped at a pub and ate our lunch with our beer. The couple who runs the pub have been there for 50 years. The owner taught us a game called Rolle Bolle. In 2022 the Rolle Bolle Club celebrated its 100th year. There are two small wooden stakes stationary in the ground, one at each end. The bolle is a weighted disc on one side, so it can curve. Closest to the stake gets the point. We had a fresh strawberry farm stop to sample. They were so sweet and red all the way through. We enjoyed riding in the countryside with wide open spaces. We arrived in Ghent, which has medieval churches and a castle. It is now a University Center. We walked around to the castle, into one of the churches, enjoyed a waffle and took lots of photos before biking 8 km to where the ship was moored. Our dinner is served around 6:30 followed by a debriefing of the next day's ride.Read more