So, what do you expect on a long weekend in May? Sure, all accommodation at fancy places (like Bruges, you see…) is sold out. Hence, we booked a hotel in Oostkamp, which is a sleepy place 7 km from the city. For us – wir folding bikes in the car trunk – no problem. After some traffic overkill on the first day we discovered a lovely bike path along a canal which led through the bushes.

 

This is vacation at its best – no traffic (except for a couple of ducks and coots and herons and the occasional cow), cycling along at a pleasant speed, heading towards a beautiful place.

While some of Oostkamp‘s property is very boring and sterile (somebody mowing lawns with precision), there are other, somewhat even romantic places, leading to thougts of white horses and girls with curly hair blowing in the wind and boys posing and all the stories bad books are made of…

 

I was not aware of the windmills before we came here, but there are four of them placed at the outer canal. Love it. Good place for a picnic (in case you are smarter than us and brought something to actually eat while picnicking).

 

Dependent on how you look at them and how wild your imagination runs, these windmills could be the scenery for a bloody crime story happening in the early 20th century, featuring a girl passing by the mill, then the evil miller sneaking after her, snatching her from her squeaking bike, the girl screaming and kicking, but him pressing his hand over her mouth – and then, and then, guess what…? There is a beautiful man on a white horse who bears down the evil minded, then grabs the girl, the girl screaming and kicking, then the horse man pressing his hand over her mouth… OMG, what a strange thing, all inspired by the peaceful windmills standing there along the canal… But with a little drama in the picture, everything is possible… Never mind.

 

Lot’s of construction work in Bruges.