Ath to Beloeil

We have now left the lovely Dender River and entered the Canal Ath-Blaton.  And it is just as nice.  Unfortunately the grey skies are back.

Here is a better photo of the free port de plaisance taken in better light this morning.

There is a railway depot/station on the right hand side just out of frame, but it really did not disturb us at all.  

This is the electricty/water point.  

It took a few minutes to work out how to get water to come out of the fittings at the bottom - you just have to insert a Gardena-type clip-on fitting.

Yesterday evening we crossed the railway lines by a subway and walked into the town centre.  It looks really nice, and there was live music at one of the bars on the town square.

Our new team ("equipe") was 10 minutes late this morning - unexpected after the efficient crew yesterday, and not as hale and hearty as them either.  Just as friendly though.  One of them spoke a little English, in fact I think most of them understand quite a bit, and when one of them wanted to make sure we understood something he called a passerby who spoke a little English.

Today we passed through 9 locks (total rise 27m) and 6 mobile bridges.  The whole trip took just 3 hours.  It was a fabulous day.  Mostly we could already see the next lock when we got to the top of the one before.

Most of the locks and mobile bridges on this canal are semi automated, in that they have to operated on site but just require the push of a few buttons, although a few still have to be wound up by hand.

There is one new modern bridge that even has a red/green light, but it never changed from red to green!

The canal wound around a hillside - half way up, so we had a hill on one side and a valley some 10 to 15 metres below us on the other side.  Unfortunately the photos I took just look flat, our little "point and click" camera cannot do the landscape justice.

This is an agricultural area, and the fields look decidedly autumnal now.

More images, pity about the bad light.

We stopped at Ecluse 11 close to a village called Beloeil,

where I particularly wanted to stop because there is a grand chateau here with magnificent gardens.  But not 5 minutes after tying up  (hammering stakes into the ground, no bollards here), the heavens opened and down came the rain.  By mid afternoon it eased and we went for a walk.  The chateau is just 10 minutes walk from Lock 11.  At €9 each we decided not to go in, specially as half that fee is for the gardens and in the dark rainy conditions there didn't seem much point.  Quite a magnificent place.

Plan of the castle and 25 ha  garden

Facade from the main gate

Moat around the castle

A glimpse of the lake and gardens

They are not sure exactly how old the chateau is but it was inherited by the de Ligne family in 1394 and they took up residence in the 15th century.  The old castle was a fortified rectangular building with a moat surrounding it and had four round towers, one at each corner. This basic structure is still preserved, although the facades and interiors have been altered a lot over the following centuries.  The gardens were created in the 17th century.  The princes of de Ligne have served their overlords and kings faithfully over the centuries and increased the size of their land holdings by advantages marriages.