Day 33 – Sat 12 Jul 14, Ypres to Ghent (Belgium)

Forecast: 15-22 deg C, cloudy with rain; Listed distance: 71km; Actual distance: 89km; Cumulative distance: 1368km; Av speed: 18.9 km/h; Max speed: 30.7 km/h; Ypres: 15 deg C, Wind: WSW, 11-14 km/h; Ghent: 19 deg C, Wind: W, 12-14 km/h; Start time: 8:45am; Stop time: 2:15pm; Ride time: 4h44m

We left a little later than usual due to the 8am breakfast, however we still got to our destination pretty quickly.  While there was no full-on rain, the constant drizzle was a pain; it wasn't really enough for the full rain jacket, but a little too constant for the spray jacket. 

We had nice off-road cycle paths for the first 71km and a handy tail wind which was a nice change.  For the last 8 km we had to mix it with the cars on some not so wide streets and then the main highway into Ghent. That wasn't too bad as the path was well marked and well off the road.
Check-in at the Ibis Ghent Centrum St Baafs Cathedral took a while as there was an influx of new arrivals at the same time.  Wendy eventually got to the front of the queue and we were checked-in. We unpacked, showered and did some washing and then had a quick 10 min nana nap then it was out for a wander.  

First priority was to find ice cream which we did about 300m from the hotel.  Even though it was raining we still enjoyed it as we were a tad peckish from our long ride.  People were looking at us as though we were mad though; eating ice cream when it's cold and rainy???? We came across an Australian goods shop and thought about ducking in to buy something Australian?! The other Aussie shop we stumbled on was an ice cream shop in a shopping centre - home-made Australian ice cream.  

We also checked out the various restaurants and decided on Italian - we've discovered that if you have a good feed of pasta both before and after a BIG ride, you recover better. Washed down with a couple of beers it's even better.

Ghent is a very old city going back to at least the Stone Age.  Now it is a port and university city with over half a million inhabitants.  First impressions during our afternoon wander were good. 



Bike path out of Ypres
Path on the way to Ghent
A very colourful bridge
Colourful Ghent



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