Hamburg and Belgium day eight CrosiEurope Cruise

We woke to another smashing day, this was the views from our cabin window looking out over the Grand Large.

  As it was Sunday our Captain wanted to be away before 9am to be first at the next lock about quarter of a mile away. There was already a commercial boat waiting below the lock behind us ready to leave as soon as the locks opened We came into this lock on the starboard side, as the wheelhouse is on the Port side Kevin, our captain used his remote helm to bring us close in. You can see the rise and fall wheelhouse on the right of the picture.

A short way down the canal is the Royal Club Nautique de Tournai, the local rowing club and the rowers behave the same as the ones on the Thames with complete disregard to other water users, a few blasts of the horn were required. We then passed a very nice boat club mooring at Péruwelz. In all the barge cruisers I have done this is only the second time I have seen the hot tub used and then it was only about half an hour. A complete waste of deck space in my opinion, but they all have them.

   At  Bernissart There is a very interesting stop lock in the form of a guillotine gate for use in case of a canal breach that has a cycle/footpath over it. I can’t find any information on it only, its just classed as a bridge. There are a conventional pair of stop lock gates further along the canal at Mons, just before Le Grand Large. 

We moored for the night in on Le Grand Large, a  large man made lake that hosts lots of water sports and after lunch first visited Château de Beloeil by  coach.

We had merrily been taking photos inside the Château until our guide told us it wasn’t allowed, it was a bit late by then. The Château is still lived in by the owners, Prince of Ligne so not all of it is open to the public. 

The coach then took us to Le Domaine du Chant d'Eole, the largest winery in Belgium. Its family owned and vey modern only putting part of the farm down to grape production a few years ago. As you can see they have large automated bottle turners and the wine is not filtered but the vats are refrigerated to make any solids precipitate out

Like all good winery visits it ended with a tasting session, I am not a lover of sparkling wines but I did like their St George  Elixir. This was a fortified wine made using spirits distilled from their pressing of the grapes. At the end of the visit we were told we could keep our glasses and we bought a bottle of the Elixir to bring home as well. They all arrived safely.

After diner back on the boat we walked around Le Grand Large and then watched the sun go down from the deck of the boat.