Ghent Belgium and more.....

After docking at Zebruge, Belgium, early in the morning we met our tour group for the trip to Ghent. Because we had visited Bruge in an earlier trip, we wanted to see this medieval town as well.  George was excited that it culminated with a demonstration of chocolate making.

We walked through the town enjoying the old architecture of the buildings surrounding the canals that cut through the streets.  It was very picturesque with boats gliding along sightseeing. Chocolate shops were everywhere along with waffle shops and vendors.  The smells were delicious

Because Ghent is a college town there were young people and students everywhere enjoying the day and bit of sunshine.  I loved the stepped eves on the roofs of the buildings.

After walking about 2 hours admiring the cathedrals and churches and busy streets it was time for our chocolate tour.  We entered the small shop full of delicious candy and went behind the counter and down some spiral stairs to a small room with a marble table in the center.  Behind it stood "Hans Brinker" or at least a lovely young man who could have been Hans!  Beautiful blue eyes!  He showed us the process used to hand mold the chocolates and made some cream filled dark pieces for us to taste.  Wow...incredibly rich.  G had two!!   Then he showed us how they shaped marzipan filling to dip into chocolate and decorated with nuts or more chocolate.   We tasted those as well...again delicious!!

Upstairs again we purchased a few pieces to hopefully bring home..dark chocolate, mint filled, soft caramel filled and raspberry filled, my favorite!

We had a little free time afterward and decided to enjoy a Belgium waffle at a small cafe.  Mine had cherries and whipped cream and George's had warm rum and cream.   Double yum!!

The next day was to have been Portland island in UK but it was too windy to dock so the captain cancelled and we had a sea day.  It got rougher as we sailed down the channel toward Le Verdon and the ship rocked us all day.  It was my birthday so we had a special dinner in the Crown Grill.  They specialize in beef and it was as delicious as expected.  I think Dale was happy with the nice vegetables served.  We loved our fillets!  The desserts were divine as we had a sampler of five different kinds...all wonderful. ...and chocolate!  It was so nice to celebrate another birthday sailing with good friends.

Today was another sea day, still rocking and rolling!!  Unfortunately there was a passenger airlifted by French coast guard to a hospital.  Rumor is  a heart attack.  Considering the ages of passengers that is not unexpected. Good thing we are near the coast rather than mid Atlantic.

George will be posting photos but Dennis posts on Facebook as well.  Check them out!!