Ghent Rally 2018
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The rally this year was a great success with 20 ships and 74 attendees – including us! It was brilliant to catch up with old friends and the chance to make so many new ones …. there was far too much drinking and activity, and we were exhausted before it had even ended. Janos and Rachel stayed with us on board for the duration of the rally and started to push the boundaries of Belgium beers to an unhealthy limit; that combined with Noel and his crew from Coole Swan rafted up next to us) who also did their bit to drain the local vats (but not in a noisy way).
The days and nights were quite hot with the occasional thunderstorm in the evening, but nothing that impacted our enjoyment of the event especially with our new bimini to keep us dry.
The Saturday night meal for the DBA rally was quite a gathering – it could certainly have been a lot better as we were crammed inside the restaurant in very warm conditions with very poor service. It transpired that five of their staff had not turned up so the rest were struggling to cope. But that said, Nicki’s meal was excellent and the company was superb. Over and above the meal, our organisers had also arranged various events, including a walking tour of the city, beer tasting in a local small brewery, barbecues and picnics plus numerous other get-togethers. All of which were fun and enjoyable.
Beer tasting in a local brewery – the interesting art exhibits were left by the previous occupants of the building. After a brief talk about the brewery’s history and how it brewed its beer, we had the chance to try out several of the products ……
<—— An old canal being brought back to life
The local animal market – This was all too much for poor Milly and in the end I had to carry her in my arms just to get through, there were just soooooo many chickens and furry things everywhere she looked!
Flower market Bicycle Market
The old post office hosts a department store and rather nice cafe in a beautifully cool environment and in the basement is a supermarket.
The day after the rally there was a mass refuelling with a tanker delivering fuel to each barge in turn. Barges began to depart and everything seemed to calm down a little after all the excesses of the previous few days. Janos and Rachel had agreed that Janos would stay with us a little longer, so she headed off back to the US and we carried on with our visit to Ghent for the last time. In the afternoon we walked into the town again to visit the Belfry. (Belfries were a sign of opulence for the cities and functioned to regulate daily activity by marking the time. They also acted as early warning against invaders and keeping a watch out for fires in the city.)
And so the last day in Ghent draws to a close as we sit outside drinking and chatting, with a pleasant view down the harbour of Portus Gandus.
