Scheepsdalebrug to Flandria Yacht Club, Bruges

After a quick trip to to Lidl at 8.30, to stock up on our favourite wine, I called the bridge keeper for information about passing through the 7 bridges around Bruges.  The book tells you that this must be done in convoy but there were no other boats waiting for passage at that time.  The bridge keeper was very friendly, as usual, and said we could go through right away.  So we had to hop to it, get the boat ready, fire up the engine and shake off the lines.  Shortly after 9.00 we had already gone through Scheepsdalebrug and as we approached Krakelbrug it was already being prepared for us.  But at Warandebrug there was no sign of preparation and we had to stop.  I called the bridge keeper to ask if we must tie up and wait and he explained that they were discussing it,  there was a convoy of boats coming in the opposite direction and they were deciding where to hold us while the convoy passed.  They let us through Warandebrug and held us in the Handelskom ( the old commercial dock area) which is lovely

just before the Kanaal Brugge-sluis, which is an enormous lock.  

We were the only boat going up river and it takes an age to pump in enough water to change the level - we felt a little guilty!

At the double Kruispoort bridges we had to wait for a huge commercial container barge to come through - just inches to spare and he didn't even touch sides!

This is a lovely stretch of water around Bruges with windmills

centuries' old city gates

 and towers

You may have noticed from the photos that the weather had not exactly been summery.  We have had a mixture of sun and showers ever since we arrived, but the temperature has been pleasantly cool.  The coldest has been 12 degrees in the early morning, but always warming to about 19 C by the end of the afternoon.  It is quite squally weather with sunshine and calm replaced by wind and rain in quick succession.  Seeing we arrived here in sandals, shorts and sleeveless tops from the hot summer in the Azores we have been very happy to find autumn well under way.

We have been surprised at how empty the canals are.  We expected still to find a lot of boats in use as the summer draws to an end but we have encountered fewer boats in September than we did in May.

So here we are at Flandria Yacht Club, such friendly people who remembered us from our stay here in May.  It costs €15 per night with free electricty and water and there is a washing machine and drier, which I will use tomorrow.