Sint Lenaart

Forgot to upload the map of our trip yesterday.  

Actually, I think I have forgotten it most days!  Tomorrow I will upload a blog just for the maps of our trips so far.

Today?  Lovely sunshine, but oooh-wee, really chilly until about mid-afternoon.  At 10.30  Lynn and I went in search of a supermarket (we were both out of red wine and potatoes, bad planning!).  While out riding we passed an LED display at a petrol garage saying the current temperature was 9C!

We took a very circuitous route, not having a map.  We rode into Brecht, and after back tracking once we stopped to ask for directions at a florist's shop.  The lovely lady was ever so helpful and even gave us a map.  Turned out we had gone way out in the wrong direction and the closest supermarket is in a village called Sint Lenaart. Se we circled back and ended up not so far from where the boat is!  She explained that the supermarket is closed Sundays (shock/horror the same chain was open last Sunday in Bocholt!) but there was a butcher's shop open that also had vegetables and maybe wine.  We eventually found the "Slagetrij Verstappen", what a wonderful butcher's shop.  Yes, it had meat,  great looking veggies and some staples, including bottles of red wine - but at over €7 per bottle I gave it a miss.  Just bought sausages and potatoes.

We came back to the boats on the tow-path alongside the canal.

These are the 2 boats moored in this laybye.  First of all a project for Ian!

 Actually, it is in the process of being scrapped.

The second is a working barge that has been converted into a house boat.

It has a permanent mooring here, and even a post box.

 This afternoon we worked on the boat.  Well, Ian was working on the boat all day.  But I spent a couple of hours sanding the rusty spots.  Meanwhile, among many other things, Ian was filling, sanding, painting, and towards the end of the afternoon he got round to re-installing the solar panels on the coach roof we sanded and painted a couple of days ago.  All went well till I dropped a wooden solar panel support covered in epoxy filler which landed butter-side-down in the wrong place.  Ooops!

These solar panels are mounted on adjustable hinged mounts so that they can be adjusted to catch the best angle of the sun.  All very complicated, if you ask me.

All day there have been lots of fisherman around.  Sunday, I suppose, but we did not see one of them catch a single solitary fish.  But there are swans.

Lovely sunset tonight.

Barbie tonight!  Chicken, sausage and veggies.