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Stage 20 - Ghent to Bruges 51km (20-Jul-2019)

It was an interesting rest day in Ghent; the town centre was in the process of getting transformed into a big festival; the Ghent Festival which lasts 10 days, 140,000 people attend daily bearing in mind that population of Ghent is 80,000. Gives you some idea on the size and popularity of the festival. The atmosphere was great and the countdown for the 6pm, start had begun.We didn't go but heard from reliable sources that town centre is packed, shoulder to shoulder but very little trouble if any and it's on 24 hours a day. Wish we had the energy but alas it's not for us.
A late start to the day, after a delicious breakie, prepared by Francine, our host, we got going around 10am with a threatening sky for the short ride to beautiful Bruges (more about that later). Luck was on our side as we didn't experience any rain. The ride itself along the LF5 was one for the purist tourers, beautiful, as it is in heaven. 








A few kms out of Ghent, stopped to check out a couple barns, full of cows; after talking to the farmer, wish we hadn't as we learnt that they were being sent to the slaughter house. Not nice.



Moving along, out of the blue we see our first windmill in Belgium not far from a paddock full of brown cows (don't know the breed) with a bull in attendance,



 Moving along, in need of a break for a short rest and refreshments, stopped outside an Agapanthus nursery/event venue. Beautiful.



After Aalter, we didn't stop for the remaining 30 odd kms to Bruges, but made sure to enjoy the fabulous ride along the river with numerous other cyclists.
After checking into our accommodation and a nice shower, went into the Bruges town centre and what a town centre it is; hope these photos do it justice. It's a must visit town and should be on everyones bucket list.








We made a conscientious decision to ensure that we tasted the full range of typical Belgian delicacies, today it was the turn of the Belgian chocolates......very nice. Tomorrow, it's the turn of the waffles......got to spread the goodies over the 2 days. 
Dinner was at The Hobbit; eat as much as you can Pork Spare Ribs for me (that's me done with protein for the next few weeks) and one of the tastiest Spaghetti with Brie Cheese (she doesn't want to see another dish of pasta until our return to Sydney in October).





Then, it was off to bed; looking forward to spending another day in Bruges and surrounding area which will be captured in another blog tomorrow.
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