A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That . .: Day 7 of the Bike Barge Trip - Brugge to Brugge - Friday

Today I had a decision to make to ride or not to ride or to ride a shorter distance. Since I was not the only one to want to come back early I decided to ride a shorter distance. Hah it didn't turn out quite like we had planned.

After breakfast we headed out toward a town called Damme. We left soon after 9 am, thinking that we’ll be back by noonish or soon after. Before getting out of Brugge we stopped to see a Belgian windmill. There were actually 4 of them, but we took a closer look of only one. We rode along a country path that had canals and sheep grazing along the way. Once we got to the town of Damme we saw another windmill and Tom told us a story about a mermaid they caught a long time ago and once they got tired of it they tossed it into a well. The mermaid put a curse on the town and that’s why Damme doesn't have a harbor anymore. We arrived at the town center and heard a story about a dog that was killed a long time ago. Then we went to see an old church from the medieval times. They've torn out part of the church and now only pigeons live in there.

Brugge windmill

Sheep feeding along the bike path

Bike path from Brugge to Damme

Damme windmill

Damme City Hall

Stork on the roof of the Damme Museum

Medieval church in Damme

Damme

On the way from Damme to Lissewage

Waiting at the drawbridge on the way from Damme to Lissewage

We were originally thinking of turning back from Damme but wanted to see this 13th century barn that is on Ter Doest Abbey grounds. The Abbey is not there anymore, but some of the buildings and grounds are used for art shows and private functions. So there we went for a coffee break and some of us had lunch also. We looked around the statues that were on show there. Tom had promised to take us a little bit further and then they would turn right and go to the North Sea beach and we would go left and back to Brugge. But before we did that we had to stop and see a church in Lissewege, that had something to do with the Campanile de Santiago.

13th century barn at Ter Doest Abbey

Ter Doest Abbey grounds

Art work on the Ter Doest Abbey grounds

Art work + Jeff on the Ter Doest Abbey grounds

Church in Lissewege

We finally arrived at the crossroads. By then we had ridden just over 14 miles and it was 1pm. So we turned left and with me were Katie, Kathy, Nancy, Lynn and Mary. On our way back to the city we saw some alpacas and kangaroos/wombats. It took us a lot longer to get back than we thought. By the time we arrived to the barge it was 2:30 pm. When we looked at the map we had ridden just over 15 km which is about 9 miles. So today’s total is about 24 miles.

Alpacas on the way back to Brugge

Wallaby on the way back to Brugge

Ponies and goats and wallabies on the way back to Brugge

Pulpit in a park on the way back to Brugge

We had a quick rest and change of clothes and headed first to the train station, because some of us had to get train tickets for the next day. Then four of us went to see the Groeninge Museum while the other two went to climb the clock tower. The museum was pretty good, mostly all paintings. But I do have to admit I like the Dutch masters better than the Belgian. They advertised having Van Eyks, which they did and Magritte’s but I only saw one of his. The others wanted to go and see other stuff but since I was staying an extra day here I just wanted to go back to the barge. It was a short walk and when I got back I found out that the rest of the group was already there, but they had only arrived about 15 minutes earlier, around 5pm.

Brugge

Jan van Eyck''s Portrait of Margareta van Eyck,Groeninge Museum, Brugge

Jan van Eyck's The Madonna with Canon van der Paele, Groeninge Museum, Brugge

Brugge

We had dinner at 7 pm. Tonight Ramon had made us shrimp salad, pork medallions, potatoes, salad and for dessert we had some time of fruit smoothie. After dinner we had a meeting again, but before it started the group of nurses, with Katie as the master of ceremonies did a roast of Tom. She was pretty good at imitating his accent and sayings. After that both Tom and Captain Karl explained what was going to happen the next day. Then we played cards, Chase the Ace.