Day 0 saw no bike riding. The Gang of Four did a little more sightseeing in Bruges, including having a beer at the brewery famous for having a 3.3 meter underground pipe to ship its beer from one facility to another.
With plenty of time we boarded a city bus to get to the BRAG boat. What we didn’t realize that we boarded the bus on its way out out the center town, so we wound up being late.
In one of those weird life coincides out hashing friends Andrea and Miles have been traveling in Europe too, so we said hello at the train station, and may run into them again in Amsterdam.
Today’s Destination: Ghent
Wordle: five, my starter was DAILY
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > X > Purple > Green > Blue
Hope you are having a great time! I look forward to hear all the stories when we visit again.
Thanks! We shall.
I think you mean 3.3K meter pipe, right? At least that’s what it said on Sally’s FB post. Yay, Ghent!
Yesterday was a loooooooong and tiring day for me. In the morning we had our fall Convocation where we officially installed our new dean and the president and provost participated in the ceremony, then a massive lunch for the community and a small lunch for big donors, then in the late afternoon the provost hosted a swank reception to honor the new dean and the president and provost both gave speeches. I was so tired when I got home I could not cook dinner so we went to Surin.
I’m grateful for the long weekend, but not the start of it. Finn has been obsessing over Dragon Con so we caved and got tickets for tomorrow. We will watch the parade and see some sights. The whole thing is NOT my cup of tea. Then we are going to the cabin for the remainder of the weekend.
3.3, 3.3k, what’s the difference? 🙂
Oh wow, you are going to Dragon Con?
I ( like you) have zero interest in going into those crowds of people.
but, i’m sure the crowd is entertaining.
I am NOT looking forward to it. But a couple of hours there will be great fun for Finn.
I plan to continue my quest to make Jenka’s life even more hellish by taking my son to get his driver’s permit tomorrow. I mean hell, all of the Paideia traffic is my fault anyway, so in for a penny, in for a pound, right? 😉
I am slowly decompressing from the massive sprint that started in June when I decided to unload my house. Adrenaline hangovers are very much a thing for me. Today is good, though. I’m sitting by a pool that has a lovely mushroom fountain and working on the final stages of this year’s edition of QuickBooks Online for Dummies. There’ll be no rest for the weary, though, I’ve already signed a contract for my next book, which is a title I *NEVER* expected to get to write, especially from scratch. My long game that started about 30 years ago when I started answering forum questions about Lotus 1-2-3 on Compuserve has paid off.
NOOOOOOOOO! Not another Paideia driver! AHHHHHHH! 🙂
Is it a fountain made of mushrooms?
LOL, you have been warned. 🙂
It’s a mushroom shaped fountain that makes a very soothing waterfall sound.
Day 1 is over. It’s 6:30pm here? “Details” tomorrow.
Hello from our side of Ghent.
1st day was a long day, made even longer for me by having a bike that was t working tight. The front brake had something going on so it wouldn’t spin worth a shit. The 1st 16 miles I really thought I can’t believe I’m this out of shape! So at the break at 16 miles I asked Allan to look at it. We discovered the issue, but really no real way to fix it. Allan & Bert (one of the trip leaders) got it a little better, but not that much better. The sweep (Stephanie) traded bikes with me. 2nd half of the ride was much more enjoyable.
Ghent is a lovely town, we went & saw “The Mystic Lamb” – that was in one of the 1st seasons on Monuments Men. The church it was in was incredible as well.
We decided to sign up for the next trip- Croatia in July 2026. (For my 60th birthday).
I’ll definitely be renting an e-bike for that trip.
We will sail in some sort of yacht.
Btw- the barge is really nice.
Wait, is it 2025 or 2026?
2025
Still working on the Wordle!
David, check to make sure they are open on a Saturday before a holiday.
The tree is down. They tied it high and tried to pull a big limb off and were well on their way when the rope snapped. Try #2 had 2 ropes and they were cutting on the trunk and it gave in. All sliced and ready to burn in someone’s fireplace…
I need to get off my ass and go ride, but it’s already hot, hot, hot. Well, it is 12:30.
-FP
Good point, thanks Steve. And oh yeah, Wordle in 4. My first word was JOUST (which I do not recommend today) and so it made me chuckle when I figured out the actual word.
Steve, I owe you a beer the next time that I see you. The DMV is indeed closed tomorrow. Fuckers.
I’ll take you up on that!
Croatia in 2025 on a yacht? Hmmmm.. I was wondering if the barge is all yours or you’re sharing it with muggles?
Just the Brag folks. I can send you the link, but would Debbie go if there’s no horses involved?
Don’t know. She does plenty of horse thing without me. Maybe not travel to Europe, but…
It’s all you, Steve. I’ve decided that it’s out of my budget/time. I hope to make a Canada trip next year, and that will be the extent of my long distance travel.