We need a detox!

We met up with the Renner clan again in Gent. We managed to find some good weather and went into town to enjoy a boat ride through the historic city centre, and then wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. We also had a trip to the Gruut brewery, the last one in the city centre. The brewers once had their own church in the centre of Gent, but apparently beer sales fell as it was being built and they lost faith so didn’t bother putting the spire on. True story (according to the boat guide). The Gruut brewery doesn’t use hops to flavour its beer. It uses the far older method of using a mix of local herbs and malt. Now that is definitely a true story, and the results are delicious! I’m sure they will be appearing in the bars of Shoreditch before long.

Boat trip!

Casey always gets a bit lary after a couple of beers

Pitstop at the Gruut brewery

The next day it was raining so we went to the climbing wall. It was a sad day for me and Anna as we realised we basically can’t climb any more, but Casey discovered a new skill so all was not lost.

Hanging tough

Eyes on the prize

Campione!

We said goodbye to the family that evening, I’m looking forward to seeing them again in September! Things were moving quickly though, and we went straight on to spending some time with Anna’s mates from Southampton, who come over to the festival every year. We stayed on a fantastic canal-barge ecohostel just outside the town centre. It’s called Ecohostel Andromeda, and I strongly recommend a visit! It was great to catch up with everyone and of course we had to go on another boat trip, drink more beer and listen to more music!

On another boat!

We were both wearing nautical themed pashmina afghans under the coats

Alex and James pretending they’re not happy to be holding rainbow parasols

After several nights of drinking and going to bed too late, we said goodbye to everyone and got another train to Haarlem, where we were expecting to start our next project visit tomorrow. We found out today that things are a bit delayed so we have a week here to kick back and enjoy ourselves a bit more. Probably with less beer though!

– Dave