Oudenaarde

As promised it rained all day, just a steady drizzle, nothing major.  So what do you do?  Read a book, clean the Barbie, go for a walk, make lunch, watch the MotoGP, go for another walk to a museum that I thought would have an exhibition on restoring Flemish tapestries – but that is on the second floor, only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The “museum” was rather disappointing – a lovely old house, 15^th century but with major re-decoration internal and external in the 17^th century - only 4 rooms were accessible to the public, no furniture.  There was an exhibition of some modern sculptures – not my cup of tea.  

Nice town, I’m glad we stopped here, and the little yacht club is delightful.

Piccies from the day.

There are lots of  sculptures:

This fountain dates back to Louis XIV. The wells in the city had bad water so he built this fountain bringing in water from 2km away.

Detail from the fountain

Sint Wahlburgakerk

Lovely little building in the shadow of the church

The Town Hall

Interesting collection styles of architecture

What a lovely corner!

Just a narrow street off the Groote Markt

More old buildings

and another one

 In a corner of the Groote Markt, opposite the Sint Wahlburga Church, I came across two tents with a bunch of people with huge cameras and binoculars, all trained on the spire of the church. Well, they were Twitchers.  There is an owl nesting in the church spire and they are waiting there in avid expectation. I found the webcam in the spire trained onto the owl a whole lot more interesting; it was perched on a railing practicing some ballet moves, stretching its legs and wings.  Yes, I was impressed - but I'm not about to become a twitcher.

Twitchers!

The Oudenaarde Yacht Club.  The big barge is a restaurant, very well patronised last night, closed today.