21.06.08 In Ghent

We are now slap bank in the middle of Ghent. We’re as near as you can get to the centre on what remains of the old canals. Believe it or not they are filling in some of the old cuts and building over them! In the UK we are renovating and refurbishing our old canal network: here they are still such a part of commercial life that when they have built a “Kanaal bypass” the old canal becomes redundant and no longer wanted! We didn’t book the mooring here, which we understand we perhaps should have done, and we were extremely lucky there was a space.

We are moored opposite the Courts of Justice, which is about ¼ mile from the city centre. We have no idea how much these moorings will cost, but as we have to collect our PC Navigo software disc from the Post Office to which it was sent, we have no choice. The Post Office, of course, was shut on Saturday and doesn’t open again until 10 am on Monday. So we are here for a minimum of 2 nights.

We met a Dutch guy (American father, so good English) on the street who has been to Hull and who loves England: he gave us a street map of Ghent: and the Dutch boat moored behind us has given us a rudimentary map of the Dutch waterways along with plentiful advice. A passing Englishman on a weekend rail package tour advised on the best railway internet site (reiseauskunft.bahn.de - a German site but apparently good for all countries. This was great for Belgium though we haven’t tried this out for anywhere else) and also told us about the IBIS hotel, just round the corner where there is Wi-fi. Aren’t people kind? In this mooring however, we also have ‘The English Commodore’ with his English acolytes, in two enormous navy blue and white gin palaces. They simply can’t bring themselves to look our way, let alone speak!

So all in all, today has been a pretty good one, and we did get on the internet via ‘Orange’ at the IBIS hotel just round the corner - Euros 15 for 10 hours over the next 30days - but not too bad – though Alex then managed to find free access on the boat, so even better.

On Monday we went to the post Office at 10 am – opening time - only to find that the incoming post does not arrive until 11 o’clock. Eventually, however, we got the new software.

We discover that mooring here is not so costly - Euros 14 per night, although this sounds like quite a lot in terms of cruising it is quite cheap as it only represents 1½ hours of motoring! So, it’s cheaper to moor than to cruise, for an average short day.

We have, I must admit, been rather taken aback by the expense of fuel. When we planned this current trip about a year ago, fuel in UK was 35p/litre and at that time white diesel cost 80p/litre in France. You could still buy red diesel in Belgium and Holland. Now, we can only buy white diesel and it is about Euro 1.40/litre and the exchange rate has gone from Euro 1.40 to the £ to Euro 1.20 to the £. In effect, we are paying 4 times what we were paying a year ago in UK and twice what we had envisaged, worst case scenario, here in Europe.

I am afraid that this means the blog is going to be less boat-cruising-related and more scenery-related than we had imagined, and most probably more money-saving-oriented than we had hoped. Sorry kids but we have to be realistic here – capital expenditure only goes as far at it goes - right now we are SKI-ing already!

Off to the Netherlands tomorrow – Bergen Op Zoom (we hope) to find a short term mooring where we can leave Riccall for a week while we come back to the UK to catch our breath.

It is a two-day trip with some very big locks. More when we get there.

The one thing we haven’t had time to do is have a good look round Gent – apart from dashing hither and thither. Better luck next time!