Day 2 Cycling

 Stopped to admire this fairy tail perfect castle on our way to morning coffee break:

This town has a policy to be bee-friendly and ensures flowering plants in public spaces in all growing seasons:

Wonder what the sculptor was trying to convey here?

We ride past a begonia farm still blooming:

Lunch beside a lovely lake:

We all pile onto a little ferry for a short ride over the river:

The next 3 photos are the town square in Dendermonde:

Now we go into their City Hall filled with artwork,  old furnishings and beautiful wood trim.

Some chandelier:

Next, we cycle to a Benguinage that is now a museum.  It once housed beguines, lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world.

These women did many chores in place of their accommodation and meals.

This is a wheelchair that was in the building.

This room is where the butter was churned, loaded into cans and put into this wagon that was pulled by a dog:

Kitchen stove:

The stove for heating the irons in the laundry room:

There was a room with printing presses:

The sewing room. Looks like a lot of leather sewing: shoes, harnesses:

There was a small general store:

A bakery:

Moulds for cakes:

Elaborate cake decoration:

This was the larger of the looms in the carding, spinning and weaving room:

Some of the women had babies.  There is a room with toys and a bassinette:

We have a couple of free hours before dinner.  Rather than stay in town we elect to return to the Fluvius to enjoy the sunshine on the top deck.

Jack does a walk into town in the evening but we stay behind ... busy trying to secure a place in Mexico as the previous place we had booked was sold.

Tomorrow is a big day of cycling.  A woman from Seattle that I helped out today with a sprained ankle is staying on the boat and offered me her e-assist bike for today...going to give it a try!!