This morning we were off to Mons to visit the town and a tasting tour. We visited 3 cafés and bars which most of the guests thought was time wasted, One to sample cheese and beer, one for chocolates and one for a cocktail, This probably wasted an hour of the visit and all three locations were within 100 Mt of each other. .
The town itself was lovely with lots of interesting buildings and history, The coach dropped us by the park where we met our guide.
Backing onto the park is a large brick building with Barred Windows, It was a poor bank, very similar to a pawn brokers were poor people could take goods and borrow money against them, the difference being that when they paid it back and retrieved their goods they didn’t pay interest.
From here we walked to the town square where lots of flower gardens are being installed.
The door to Town Hall or Grand Palace was effectively three doors in one , a large carriage door, a personnel door and inside that a peep door with a very elaborate door handle. Outside is a brass monkey that is suppose to bring you luck if you rub its head. As you can see its a very ornate building. As well as the gardens they have also added a water feature with a water curtain fountain, it seems strange with the traffic going behind it.
We walked round to Saint Waltrude Collegiate Church on the way passing more walls covered in murals.
The church holds a golden carriage that once a year is used to carry the bones of St. Waltrude through the streets of the town.
The church is quite spectacular inside
We walked round more of the town through some of the narrow streets and yet another mural on a building. There was also a Spanish style building and finally what caught my eye was this mirror mounted on a window shutter probably so someone inside could see who was coming up the street, it was far from a new mirror and the fixings looked as old as the shutters
|
We caught our coach back to the boat for lunch, it was not planned to set sail until after 4-30pm as today was a public holiday and there were events being held on the water preventing us leaving. However when we arrived Kevin was already to cast off as there was nothing happing at lunchtime to impede of departure.
We left our moorings crossing Le Grand Large and entered the Canal du Centre passing under Nimy railway bridge. It was here in 1914 that Lieutenant Maurice Dease and Private Sidney Godley held the bridge while the rest of their unit retreated and were awarded the VC for bravery.
There is a lot of work taking place along the canal which involves piling the north bank and there are tons of profiled piling sheets along the towpath ready to be used.
At regular spacings along the canal bank there are concrete stairways leading up out of the canal. they all have a tubular handrail fitted. We passed a disused lock or the original dimensions from when the canal was built, standing beside it is the hull of one of the old barges that would have used it. Things have moved on a lot since then. The canal has be radically reengineered as can be seen from the ground works and at the same time straightened, ignoring the contours of the land.
We moored for the night a short way before the Strepy Boat lift at Thieu outside the basin for the old boat lift. Both of them are in the photo below, the old to the right and the new to the left.
AS it was only mid afternoon we had time to look round the area. The old lift is very similar to the Anderton Lift without all the excess iron that was added when they went for a pulley system. The road runs under the canal canal just under the upper entrance to the lift. From here you get a very good view of the ram that lifts one of the caissons. Beside the basin at the foot of the lock is the navigation company building associated with the lift.
| | |
We climbed the stair way from the left of the road to the top of the lift and walked along the old canal route to a hand operated lift bridge. We had to run the gauntlet with the resident geese that had just been fed on the towpath. The views from this level were quite good looking out across the village on the far side of the canal.
The bridge locking mechanisms I found quite interesting. This level also gave a very good view of the new lift. Just beyond the bridge is an old converted barge is moored up, I doubt its possible for it to move now as I understand the old canal is well silted.
It was then time to walk back to the Yacht club des Ascenseurs. situated in the old lock house beside the disused lock below the lift on the disused section of canal. We had been told that as its a not for profit organisation, the drinks were very reasonably priced. but every sale had to be recorded to make the books balance for the inspectors.
After a quick one we headed back to the boat for dinner .
No comments:
Post a Comment