The weeks 46 & 47 we’ve been to The Netherlands, visiting family and friends. We returned last Sunday and travelled to Brugge (Bruges) the following Monday to pick up 20 bags of coal. Tuesday we picked up dear friends at Brussel’s (Brussels’) airport, arriving from the UK. They were with us for most part of last week, the 48th of this year. Therefore this blog is again about Gent (Ghent) – its weekly bird market to be precise, held at the Oude Beestenmarkt. See https://visit.gent.be/nl/oude-beestenmarkt-0?context=tourist. Oude = old. Beesten = beasts. Markt = market. We are unsure whether ‘old’ points at beasts or market. Our guess would be market – the majority of the ‘beasts’ looked younger.

Bird market. Here’s the prove of it. There’s more though – as we’ll show you. ‘Free them all’ is one’s first thought. That’s obviously not going to happen. Nevertheless, we hope to bring you some pleasure by looking at the next pictures.

A finch (‘vink’). Only € 25,00. We admired loads of them when living on a narrowboat in the UK and feeding the birds during the winter.

A goldfinch (‘putter’ – has nothing to do with golf). The ‘gold’ makes it worth an extra € 125,00, therefore € 150,00. Same ‘narrowboat-story’.

Here’s the Japanese Nightingale. Only € 195,00. (‘Super singer’.)

Cute, or what? Just € 50,00 for the couple.

Another couple, yours for a mere € 100,00.

The largest, and most distinguished we’d say, couple, on offer for € 150,00.

Chicken are represented, too. Not for their beauty, we fear…, if they are lucky for their eggs. The combination as visible here reminds us of the question ‘what was first, the egg or the chicken?’. At long last the answer was given on tv this week: the egg. Of course another guest of that broadcast (DWDD – for the Dutch reader) seized the opportunity to raise the question who or what produced the egg. The matter still remains inconclusive.

A problem when keeping chicken of course is the fox, who is interested in chicken and what they produce (we mean the egg) alike. Self-evidently there’s a solution for this problem. The text says: ‘Trouble with foxes? Protect your chicken by using the ultrasone-protector’. The last two words make it all very clear to the English speaking world, although Word’s text-correction tells us it should be ‘ultrasonic’’. That’s plain hairsplitting!

This chicken obviously was looking around for a fox. His/her mates in the other boxes are waiting patiently for his/her survival. (Or not.)

We determined these two animals being chicken, in spite of them being called ‘Koekoek’ (cuckoo). Aren’t they cheap at € 5,00 (each, we suppose)? The female sign made us hope that they are meant for breeding rather than making chicken-soup.

Wouldn’t it be a sin to end the lives of these two cute, lovely pair of girl(?)friends?

It’s unmistakable that chicken and ducks are each other’s friends. (Unlike the Turks and the Russians, to name just two from an ever increasing list of people/nations in conflict.)

Another, but not the last, surprise. Rabbits. One is looking in suspicion; the other one already knows… Yours for € 15,00 each.

Here’s a ‘Dutch-hanging-ears-dwarf-rabbit’, on offer for € 25,00. It could have been a marmot or something similar, too. Who cares, any child would be happy to make this little animal its favourite cuddly toy!

Next surprise. Also second-hand bikes are for sale at the bird market. Why not?

The last surprise of Gent’s bird, repeat: bird, market. One of the visitors, using a wheeled walking frame, carried his harnessed ferret with him. Although the owner guaranteed the animal to be 100% tame we restricted ourselves to making a picture – thus avoiding stroking it. We seem to remember it has a sharp set of teeth! Hope to see you next week – same place.