Oostende, Belgium

 "Welcome to mainland Europe!" my Dutch friend Monica texted me after I posted that we'd docked in Oostende. We were here for another boat festival and it promised to be a big one. We were also going to be here for a while, long enough to get the rhythm ... and also have a few days off to explore. Our location was great, in a marina with many other boats also appearing in the festival, walking distance to much of the city, and also right across the street from the train station. This brought us even more attention and foot traffic as people saw our unique silhouette as soon as they got off the train, and gave us even more opportunities for tourism; worthy of a separate post. 

People lined the shore welcoming us as we docked. (Doesn't look like much in this photo but they'd lined our entire route.)

"What's on your mind?" the facebook prompt asks. Squares. Squares are on my mind. First, the squares of our old rigging that echo the squares in these buildings we're passing ...

... and then the squares in the Belgian waffle I had for breakfast.

We were delighted to find ourselves docked just across from the Nao Victoria; we hadn't seen them since St Augustine Florida in 2014. This was the first historic replica ship built by the Foundation that owns the Galeon, and we still have some friends on the crew.

Meeting up with some of our friends from the other ship after the festival closed for the evening, at a nice restaurant across the street. People move pretty freely from one ship to another (as you noticed if you've been following for a while, we spent several summers on the Nao Trinidad and the Nao Santa Maria before returning to El Galeon.)

Festivals can be intense; here's a feel for the crowdedness. (And now you see why we were shut down completely during Covid times.) The white tents along the side were one group of several, they contained artists, vendors, performers, and educational displays. Also, beer.

This charming French artist was exhibiting his boat paintings in one of the white tents you see on the left in the above photo. Look at what's top-center on this display wall ... our Galeon!

The "crew" nametag is like a magnet to be tapped for audience participation if you're watching a performance. This group was singing English sea chanteys and recruiting people for various positions aboard a man-of-war. I was the "admiral." 

The bagpipers marched through the festival grounds; it was a hodge-podge of cultures.

We normally adhere to a pretty tight schedule moving from port to port. This time, though, we had to delay our departure by a day because of strong crosswinds and a very narrow canal we'd have to pass through to get to the sea. We got to watch everyone else leave; some fascinating boats here. (I don't know anything about either of these, just that they were unusual.) Finally it was our turn.