Saturday, September 14 - Sunday 15 th

Woke up to just a stellar day.  Beautiful blue skies and sunshine. So we spent the day wandering around the town again. It was Market day so that meant lots of people. A cruise ship had also arrived so the town was full.  We took a walk along the water and through the park. Unbeknownst to us there is a lovely sandy beach.  It was pretty busy as well.  Lots of families as well as two weddings on the beach.  We had decided to leave one day early and start heading north to Amsterdam so as not to have    such a long drive on Monday. So we got up on Sunday morning and headed for Ghent where we had visited once before. We took the train from Antwerp to Ghent and had a really nice day there.  So we booked a hotel on the outskirts of Ghent close to the freeway so we could make a quick getaway in the morning. When we got off the freeway in Ghent almost immediately I spotted the

Holiday Inn.  We couldn’t believe how smoothly the day had gone. The area that the hotel was in was called the Loop.  Holiday Inn was wedged in between an IKEA and a huge building called the Expo. So we drove around the Loop about four times following our GPS’s instructions.  By this time the air was blue and we were both sweating with frustration. We did eventually get into the hotel parking lot, check in and then went in search of a restaurant. But seeing as how it was Sunday many places were closed.  So we decided to go back to the hotel and suck it up and pay the big dough for dinner.  Well we had the same darn problem that we had the first time. It sounds impossible but the roads, roundabouts and various exits were so confusing even the GPS gave up. Once again we got back to the hotel. They had a Happy Hour with free apples from six to seven so we thought it was about time we got something for free.  Had a nice time chatting to the bartender (Vasi) who was originally from Sri Lanka.  He has been living in Belgium for 31 years now and it was very interesting talking to him about the EU and all the new immigrants.  Anyway, we finally got to the dining room and ordered a bowl of spaghetti each and shared a bottle of wine.  $95.00 Canadian.  Yikes! And that was the cheapest thing on the menu.
This morning (Monday) we got up to head to Amsterdam.  As expected it took us just over an hour to get on the right freeway going in the right direction.  I thought Ian’s head was going to pop off.  The poor guy. And to top it off he has been suffering for about four days now with his sacroiliac. So sleeping has been tough too. We also ran into roadworks which slowed us down considerably as well.  We wound up getting the car back two hours late.  Luckily they didn’t charge us extra. So now we are tucked into our hotel room looking forward to getting a good night sleep and going home tomorrow. I just can’t express how much we are looking forward to being home.