Ghent to Kortrijk

Tue 24th May
Hi all,

After Ghent we went to Kortrijk which is a pleasant city. I visited a Flax Museum called VLAS Museum Kortrijk, which was so interesting & explained the process of growing the flax(linseed) seeds right though to the harvesting of the seed, making the oil etc & linen from the shafts left behind & the methods of doing this from the earliest days until modern times was all explained extremely well. It was a very important industry for the area.  / www.kortrijk.be/vlasmusem

http://www.kortrijk.be/flaxmuseum (english text)

We have had a rather busy , enjoyable & sociable time since arriving at Armentieres on Sun. 22nd May.

On Mon morning we cycled 5 km to Nieppe to the Pont D'Achelles Military Cemetary where Grandfather Charles Taylor was Buried in 1917.

It is difficult to explain how one feels when visiting these places where so many young lives were lost. Also to read about the numbers etc. I don't really want to dwell on it  but it is very moving when one learns more about what went on during the wars.

Mon afternoon we spent ages getting our French telephone & computer working on the boat. An English couple Sandy & Trevor have their boat next to ours. They had been shopping at a big supermarket where they had bought a special of french bubbly. 3 bottles for 5 Euro (Thats 3 bottles for $8.75 NZ dollar). & invited us at 6pm to sample it. 4 hours later we were having our dinner.

This morning Barry went with Trevor in their car with diesel containers to top up our tank with fuel which was great  & saved pulling our trolley along the footpaths. They made 2 trips. Then this afternoon they took us to the supermarket to stock up on groceries. We have been really spoilt. We had them over for predinner drinks. Another long session. Have learned much more about travelling down the Rhone plus visiting other places. It is now 1/4 to 11. We have just finished doing the dishes.

The marina here is set in a very large park. Tomorrow we will walk 5 km around the lake before departing. It is peaceful & quiet at night compared with the cities, with no traffic & people noise.

I had hoped to write earlier but our evenings have been longer than I had anticipated!!!.

M&B