In 2002 our family spent some time biking and walking around Belgium. We loved this ride from medieval city of Brugge to the picturesque whitewashed village of Lissewege.
We rented bikes from De Ketting on Gentpoorstraat 23, open daily from 9h to 18h. The young woman there was wonderfully helpful and made my day when she gave me a wicker basket for the front of my bike.
Wonderful, wonderful ride from gentpoort past Kruisport, past old-fashioned windmills then across the huge modern Gent-Brugge-Oostende canal. We rode bike paths all the way to Lissewege, a village of white houses around an old church surrounded by a crowd of graves and a sandy walk within a double ring of ancient pollarded trees
We bought lunch at a small grocery, Versboetick de Sparre:
€11,96 – Brood (bread)
Brugse Blomme (soft cheese)
Leverworst
strawberries
cucumber salad (cucumber, white cole, tomato, bean sprout, vinaigrette)
gingerbread with great chunks of sugar cube
and ate it sitting on a wooden ring bench built around an ancient tree in front of a small inn next to the walls of the churchyard.
Then home past the 12th-century abbey, Abidj der Toest with its massive 13th-century tithe barn and admired the swans and the monumental entrance gate. It reminded Midmost daughter of a dream.
imaginary bicycle 