24th February 2016 Arrival at Buitenbeentje Boatyard

Arrived at Brussels Airport at 23.30 and prepared to wait out the 6 hours till we got the train to Diksmuide.  Coffee for 2: €7.80, read for a bit, pushed some chairs together so I could stretch out and dozed on and off for an hour, Ian didn’t even bother, but in his wonderings found a Starbucks open so we had more expensive coffee (€8.50 for 2), then found another shop open and bought a phone SIM card, a bottle of water and an apple juice.

Train tickets cost €24 each.  Got the train at 6.26. Pretty nippy looking outside, lots of frost, saw a time/temp read out that told us it was -1C at 8.00.  Called Thijs to tell him what time we were arriving and Klaas was there to meet us at Diksmuide station.

At the boatyard, the first thing we saw as we drove in was Njord, looking just as she did when we left almost 4 months ago,  but a bit grubbier perhaps.  Our room is one of 3 they rent out, it has its own toilet and is supposed to have a shower but that is not finished yet so we will continue to use the shower downstairs as we did when we stayed on board last year. The room is big, has 2 single beds, 4 dining room chairs (2 act as bedside tables), an armchair and a chest of drawers.  All a bit of a mish-mash but all serviceable, and it’s warm and comfortable.  There is a huge kitchen downstairs, well equipped, which we share with the other 2 renters who are single Polish guys and don’t do much cooking.

The day was cold, might have struggled up to 5 or 6C by mid-afternoon, but dry, sunny and really rather pleasant.  We got the bikes off the boat, batteries still fully charged, so we rode to the supermarket and stocked up with some essentials.  I got the bedding, towels, some clothes, etc off the boat and unpacked our luggage, turning our room into a home for 3 weeks.

This afternoon Ian washed Njord’s hull with a special degreaser and she was moved into the paint shed – ready for Ian to start on tomorrow.  

Yes, there is a boat under all those covers!

Then we paid a visit to Ian’s favourite shop, Delva, a hardware store, to buy a set of overalls and a really good respirator.   We had a couple of drinks, spaghetti for dinner and an early night to catch up on the sleep we missed out on last night.