Ghent

The Kanaal Gent-Oostende leads us from Bruges to the Ringvaart with a lot of commercial barges, until we turn into the Leie to the center of Ghent. Our destination is the Lindenlei Marina which is located close to the center of Ghent at the former Law Courts. The site is spectacular!

Lindenlei Marina at the former Law Courts

Harbour master office of Lindenlei Marina

Boats along the Leie at Lindenlei

Within a 5 minute walk we are at the Graslei site with its many cafes and restaurants and its unique row of historical buildings. We enjoy not only  the wonderful cathedrals and the Castle Gravensteen, but also active street life, an open-air piano player and great shopping areas.

Shopping Mile of Ghent

Town Hall of Ghent

Castle Gravensteen

Open-air piano music

We leave late the next day since we have only a short trip of one hour to our next destination, Yachting Merelbeke, close to the Merelbeke lock to the tidal Boven-Zeeschelde. Before we left, a traditional rowing regatta came along our boat, and we had a front-row seat with coffee and cakes.

Boat excursions and rowing regatta come across Lindenlei marina

In Merelbeke we were friendly welcomed by harbour master Rocco. The moorings are spread over the two sides of the Schelde, but the next bridge was some distance away. We moored at the "wrong" side so that I had to walk a while to register at the harbour office. Rocco, a nice and spirited italian guy wanted to bring me back to Fiona by car but was not aware of a soccer game which was just going to start in a football stadium close to the marina. Some streets were closed, and so was the street to the other side of the marina! Imagine a hood-blooded italian guy, arguing with the belgian police about going to streets in his own harbour - they didn't let him go, so this poor guy had to drive me back through the traffic of Ghent for at least fifteen minutes until we came back to his office.

Merelbeke: Two Sealines at the "wrong" side of the harbour