Nov 27, 2019 - Back To Ypres

Day 18 - Wednesday 27th November Today we headed for the coast to have a look at Zeebrugge & Ostend. Luckily, probably, for us I emptied the grey water tank on the motorhome before leaving. The fresh water tank was down to 10% but that was enough to se us home so I didn’t add any. This proved to be a blessing because as we entered the dock area in Zeebrugge a motorcycle cop waved us to follow him into a large yard. Oh dear, what had we done? All sorts of possible traffic violations went through my mind. I didn’t think I had been speeding &...

Nov 26, 2019 - Bruge

Day 17 - Tuesday 26th November Heading West now, homeward bound. The weather has been a lot warmer as we moved away from Germany & the hills in the East. Today we left our car park in Ghent & moved to a more commercial Aire in Bruge. Unfortunately it’s not free & at €19 a night it is relatively expensive. We stayed here once before about three years ago mainly because it is on the edge the city. It does include electricity & water in the daily charge so it gives us the chance to recharge batteries & fill up our water. We’ve had a look...

Nov 25, 2019 - Ghent

Day 16 - Monday 25th November Dry & bright start again. Off at 8.40 & out of the car park using the token we got Saturday evening when we came in. We’d paid €6 for a day’s parking but we didn’t have to pay again so the two night stay only cost €6. It was only about forty miles up to Ghent but we stopped on the way to fill up the LPG bottle. The overnight heating & cooking takes it’s toll but it only took about 8ltrs, less than €5. We also stopped At McDs again for their toilets & wifi plus coffee, also so Viv could catch up with her...

Nov 24, 2019 - European Parliament

Day 16 - Sunday 24th November Bit of road noise late in the night probably boy racers roaring round the roundabout under the Atomium. A dull start to the day but dry so after breakfast it was off to the nearby Metro station at the Heysel stadium for a thirty minute ride into central Brussels. From the nearest Metro station it was a ten minute walk to the European Parliament area. It’s quite a complex area but plenty of free access to various parts. Unfortunately the main building where the members all sit, the Hemicycle, is closed on the...

Nov 23, 2019 - Brussels - The Atomium

Day 14 - Saturday 23rd November Heading back to Belgium today having experienced the Xmas Market, which is what Viv wanted to see. Managed to get back out of the restricted emissions zone without being ticketed, we hope. The car park beside the Stellplatz was also full of motorhomes so we were definitely pleased with ourselves for having arrived early on Thursday. Filled up with diesel again as the price in Germany worked out about 7p/ltr cheaper than back home. The diesel prices in Belgium have varied between €1.34 & €1.52/ltr which is a...

Nov 20, 2019 - Last Stop Before Germany

Day 11 - Wednesday 20th November Beautiful sunny day after a very cold foggy start. Nobody came to collect the parking fee & we couldn’t pay via the ticket machine so we had to leave without paying. Our next stop was at a small town about six miles away called Durbuy where we looking to visit the topiary centre. The main attraction I was looking to see was the Pamela Andersen bush(?). Durbuy turned out to be a tiny medieval town centred round a big chateau built on a rock beside the river. They were busy setting up a whole load of stalls &...

Nov 19, 2019 - Back Into Belgium

Day 10 - Tuesday 19th November Well we’ve reached the turning point of the trip in one way. We now turn North back up the East side of Belgium. The main point of coming to Luxembourg was to fill up the motorhome with diesel which we did this morning. I was hoping to make it here before buying any at all but unfortunately I had to put some in on the way yesterday. Diesel here is 40cents a litre cheaper than in France & most of Belgium so the tankful this morning saved about €30. We weren’t keen on going into Luxembourg City itself so decided...

Nov 17, 2019 - Dinant & Into France

Day 8 - Sunday 17th November Heavy mist hanging around when we got our tickets for the Citadelle when it opened at 10am. We were going to wander round on our own until one of the tour guides inside said that she would be doing a tour at noon for the English speakers. We changed our plans then & headed down to the town on the very welcome cable car to visit the tourist office. At the bottom of the cable car we landed right beside the cathedral & as the service there was not due to start till 11am we dropped in for a look round. The most...

Nov 16, 2019 - The Meuse Valley

Day 7 - Saturday 16th November Bright but cold & frosty start to the day. Lovely morning with lovely views out over the valley as we are now half way up a hill. The site is very quiet but we do see one other motorhome drive out before us. We had coffee & toast before moving down to the service area to drain the waste water & fill up the fresh water tanks. I took the opportunity to wash off some of the dirt that has collected over the last week, on the motorhome that is, I showered dirt off last night. I also emptied the toilet cassette last...

Nov 15, 2019 - Namur

Day 6 - Friday 15th November A couple of lorries joined us for the night on the car park, it’s a big one so plenty of room. Nothing else we wanted to do here so set the satnav for Charleroi to se if there was anything to see there. We ended up giving up on Charleroi, probably unfair but we had problems with diversions & blocked roads trying to find an Aire to park at. We ended up stopping at a McDonalds out near the airport. Again handy for Wi-fi, toilet & coffee. We’d had enough driving round various diversions by then & decided to head...

Nov 14, 2019 - Up To Waterloo

Day 5 - Thursday 14th November The day started off with rain so it changed our plans a bit. We decided to drove up to have a look at the new Ascenseur Funiculaire that was built to replace the four original ones. This one works on a completely different system. There are still two giant steel containers that a barge sails into & once this is sealed in the whole thing is lifted straight up on a series of cables & counterweights. We were lucky enough to see the system work while we were there, twice. Unfortunately the visitor centre was...

Nov 13, 2019 - Mons & Canals

Day 4 - Wednesday 13th November Cold but dry this morning so went for a walk along the canal to look for a couple of geocaches. Found one but gave up on two others before heading back to the motorhome for coffee & toast before moving on. Our next stop was in Mons where Ethel, our Satnav, threw a bit of a wobbly. However after going round in ever decreasing circles we found a place to park reasonably close to the town centre. It seems that most main towns in Belgium have a town centre up on a hill with a cathedral, a large town hall, a town...