Beer, chocolate, beer, waffles, beer, and fast cars....Belgium

Bonjour

Its been two months since we last blogged and lucky for all of you guys I have pretty much forgotten most of what has gone on over that period so hopefully this will be a short one. However there are 133 pictures there so I'm sure I can use them to jog my memory somewhat.

The first lot of pictures are of our day trip to Hastings and Battle. Hastings is a little seaside holiday town on the coast about an hour and a half southeast of London. Its similar to Brighton in a lot of ways but didn't have the big crowds, and the crowds that were there seemed to mainly be English families rather than foreigners. The town had a more maritime feel to it than Brighton, with lots of fishing boats hauled up on the beach and a charming old town. Very nice little place.

On the way back to London we stopped off at the little village of Battle. Cool name eh? (not quite as cool as Sandwhich though). Battle is the site of the Battle of Hastings that took place there in 1066. The story goes that the English King at the time, Edward the Confessor, had promised his cousin Duke William of Normandy the throne when he died. However, on his deathbed Eddie apparently changed his mind and decided to give it to his son, Harold II. Bill of Normandy (at that time known as William the Bastard) was well pissed off when he heard that Harold had claimed his thrown so grabbed a few mates (8400 odd) and took off over the English Channel to claim what he thought rightfully his. Harold and his crew (7500 of them) had just finished battling some Vikings on the other side of England and had to march all the way back to the east coast to stop the Norman invaders. The two army’s met on a hill side just inland from Hastings and a brutal battle commenced, concluding in the death of Harold and the routing of the English army. William the bastard had become William the Conqueror and Anglo Saxon rule of England had be replaced by the foreign Norman rulers. Something like that anyway. So anyway, this is exactly the sort of thing Emma and I came here to see so we had a really good day wandering the battlefield and trying to imagine 15000 smelly, hairy, brutish men kicking the shit out of each other. William the Conqueror built an impressive Abbey on the site to commemorate the Battle which has now fallen into ruin (it has been nearly 1000 years) and was interesting to explore.

The next lot of photos are from our 3 day trip around South Wales and the Cotswalds. August Bank Holiday Weekend was the last public holiday of the summer so we figured we better make use of it and hired a car to head out on a road trip. We had no plan and just decided to drive and end up wherever we did. We all wanted to cross Stonehenge off the list of must sees so thats where we headed first, after first negotiating the classic Bank Holiday Weekend traffic jam on the M4 heading out of London. Stonehenge was pretty impressive I guess but lacked a bit of the 'wow' factor we had expected. Its a pretty amazing place really when you think about it but its located right at the junction of two busy roads and on Bank Holiday Weekends there are cars and tour buses and tourists everywhere and the overly commercial feel of the place kind of took away from its mystic. Apparently they have plans to reroute the road and make it a lot harder to get to, giving it a more isolated and special feel.

We then decided to head over to Bath, stopping at a pub on the way for a drink and an attempt at finding a route. We eventually made it into Bath and after a feed and a bit of a wander round we tried to find somewhere to stay. Bath is a very pretty city in a valley with forest covered hills around it. As such it is a very popular holiday spot and finding a place to stay last minute during Bank Holiday Weekend is like finding…. something that is very hard to find. We tried but ultimately we failed and headed over to nearby Bristol, and then over the Severn Bridge and into Wales. We made it to Cardiff and again drove around trying to find somewhere to stay. It wasn't as easy as we'd hoped as apparently Madonna was opening her World tour at Millennium Stadium that night so the place was quite full. We did manage to get the last two rooms of a Hotel so bedded down for the night. End of Day 1.

Next day we had a bit of a wander around Cardiff and then had a look at Cardiff Castle. The Castle is basically a big Victorian house that some rich coal dude had decorated impressively to replicate a medieval Castle. It also has an original Norman part to it that is now in ruins but has a moat and all and actually kina looks like you would have expected a Castle to look like. We eventually left Cardiff early afternoon and headed north through the South Wales valleys and back into England, taking a pleasant route through the Cotswalds along the River Severn to Coventry just outside of Birmingham. We got very lost trying to find our Hotel in Coventry and didn't really get a chance to see the city before we decided to call it a day. End of day two.

The next day we headed east, making the pilgrimage to nearby Rugby. Being the home of Rugby this was a pretty important stop for Si and I and we visited the school where it all began way back in 1823 when William Webb Ellis picked up the football and ran with it. After some photo stops we went to the pub for a traditional English breakfast and Simon promptly lost 100 pounds in a bet that Anna couldn't finish the enormous plate full of fatty fried goodness. She did, eventually, which it has to be said was a mighty impressive effort. Good job. After Rugby we headed to Warwick Castle in Warwick. This castle was supposed to be a fine example of a medieval castle and it would have been if it hadn't been turned into a theme park. We weren't quite expecting it to be such a tacky tourist trap and were not into it at all, although we did quite enjoy the jousting show. After the castle and a 50 pound parking ticket we headed down to Stratford-Upon-Avon to visit the birthplace of one William Shakespeare. Another must see to cross of the list. After Stratford it was time to head back to London and prepare ourselves for work the next day. Imagine our delight. But we had a great weekend away and could look forward to another long weekend trip with Si and Anna to Belgium.

A couple of weeks later we all took the Friday off work and boarded the Eurostar heading for Brussels in Belgium. The Eurostar departs St Pancras Station at Kings Cross in central London and then makes its way out of London and on to Folkestone on the southeast coast, near Dover, where it then enters the Channel Tunnel, resurfacing in Calais, France and onto Brussels Midis near the centre of Brussels. Station to station takes less than two hours, travelling at an average of nearly 300km/h. It all seems a bit too easy really. On arrival in Brussels we hiked our way through town to pick up our rental car, only to find that Simon had actually booked it for the month before (Sorry Si I had to tell that one) so we had no transport. Luckily the guy had a spare car so we were on the road to Bruges in no time. One rental car for the price of two.

This was the first time Simon had driven a left hand drive car on the right hand side of the road and the first morning was a bit of an adventure. Brussels is not the best city to learn to drive on the other side of the road with confusing road layouts and signs, and trams driving down the middle of the road, making some of the streets quite narrow. Not to mention that we had no idea where we were going. He did a pretty good job though and it didn't take to long for him to get comfortable on the roads. There was only one minor incident of driving the wrong way around a round about which rightfully resulted in some angry glares from other motorists. After an hour or so of driving round in circles we managed to find a motorway out of Brussels and headed for Bruges about an hour and a half away.

Bruges is a bit like a fairy tale city. For those who have seen the recent Colin Farrell movie 'In Bruges', it is just like it was portrayed in the movie. It was pissing down when we got there but it certainly didn't dampen our spirits. The centre of the city is a very pleasant medieval town centre with cobbled streets, canals and cute old buildings. The centre of the city is Grote Market and features some grand old buildings including the Clock tower from the movie. We didn't have anything planned to do so just wandered around the city and in and out of all the chocolate shops and beer shops. There is no shortage of them and the products they were offering were stunning. It was like heaven. The light began to fade and we wanted to try and find our hotel back in Brussels before it got dark so after stocking up on some gorgeous truffles, chocolate, Jack Daniels fudge and several samplings of beer we headed back up the motorway. We got lost again back in Brussels so didn't manage to find the hotel before dark, but we got there eventually. And we'd never fail to find it again as the building next door looked like it was something straight off The Strip in Las Vegas. Quite tacky but still pretty cool.

After a good night sleep we got up and had a wander round downtown Brussels which was also quite charming. We were then joined by Si and Anna’s three flatmates and did our usual open top bus tour. I had heard some stories from other people who had visited Brussels that thought it wasn't up to much so we weren't expecting alot, but we were pleasantly surprised. There are plenty of the usual large grand old buildings that you would expect to find in any European city, plus being the European capital there are stacks of large, interesting, modern government buildings. The two types of buildings sit well together and all and all we really liked Brussels. After the bus tour we treated ourselves to some amazing Belgian Waffles for lunch before stumbling on a Beerfest in the main square which kept us entertained for the rest of the day. Met a few kiwis there who had been living in Belgium for a number of years, including one guy who used to go to James Hargest. Can't remember his name or his story, in fact I can't really remember much of the second half of the day. At the end of the night we were very thankful to have the large bright building next to our hotel to guide us home.

It was a bright and early start the next morning in order to make the 2 hour plus journey to the Spa-Francochamps Circuit near the German border for the F1. Early mornings aren't easy for me at the best of times so after spending the previous day at beerfest I was not in good shape. Thank goodness I wasn't driving and I decided to relinquish my navigators seat to someone who was better able to handle the directions and decision making. As a result we spent the first half an hour driving round in a big circle (though to be fair it probably would have been longer had I been in charge). We had no idea where we were so decided to ask directions at the nearest hotel. When we pulled up we realised the hotel we were at was the one directly across the road from our hotel which we had left earlier that morning. We had been driving for 30mins and got absolutely nowhere. With some better directions we finally found the road we wanted and were on our way.

About an hour to an hour and a half later we hit traffic and slowed to a crawl. Having had enough of the traffic jam we decided to ditch the car on some little side road and follow a group of other guys to the circuit on foot, thinking it was just around the corner. An hours hike later we finally stumbled through the main gate of the track. Its not hard to see why this is such a famous track. Its tucked away in this little valley with forested hills surrounding it and the first thing you see coming in the gate is the change in relief as the cars go screaming flatout up through the famous Eau Rouge corner. At 7km it is also easily the longest circuit in the F1 calendar and Si had worked out a spot at the other end of the track where we were likely to see cars at their most spectacular. We walked through the middle of the circuit to the other end of the track and watched the supporting races as we waited for the F1 circus to begin. And what a circus it turned out to be. The start was amazing. Hearing a full grid of F1 cars screaming up the never-ending back straight behind us in a bunch on the first lap was a sound that sent shivers down my spine. By the time they got to us they were all in single file and were even starting to spread out already. After a few laps we decided to wander round the track a little bit to see the action from some different vantage points. We walked up to the highest part of the track and had a wicked view over the front straight and pit lane below us far off in the distance. The cars seemed even louder when standing above them and your ears really feel like they're going to bleed. We continued to make our way along the back straight to watch the cars at full speed and it was here that we noticed Lewis Hamilton had got past the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, and not long after, saw that Kimi had disappeared altogether. Having spent most of the F1 season in the UK we were well and truly sick of the heroic treatment Hamilton had been receiving in the British media, and we much prefer Kimis extremely laid back style, so Kimi was the man we were backing that day, and we were all a little disappointed when he crashed. Oh well.

After the race we made our way back down to the pit lane by walking on the track which was pretty fun. We headed home happy, but very tired and hungry after the big trek back to the car. The trip home took a little longer due to some forced detours as a result of the volume of traffic, but at least we got to drive through some of the smaller Belgian towns which were all very cute. When we got home we switched on the box to see that Hamilton had been stripped of his victory due to an illegal overtaking manoeuvre on Kimi, handing victory to Hamilton’s nearest championship rival Felipe Massa. I'm sure you've all probably heard the fallout from the harsh penalty handed down to Hamilton so it was pretty cool to have been at the most controversial, potentially championship winning/losing race of the year. I'm sure its going to be a race that will be discussed for many years to come. Now I'm sure you're all wondering how much an F1 ticket costs, and it ain't cheap. General admission to the track on race day set us back about 130 pounds, which translated in to $NZ is about $370. Like I said, not cheap, but very definitely worth it.

After the race we had a quiet meal then tootled off to bed ready for another early start the next morning. We were on an early train back to London, but ended up getting delayed by about 45mins at Calais as we waited for a broken down train to be cleared from the Chunnel. Another fantastic weekend trip away. I could get used to this European travel thing.

Keep in touch ya'll.

Gaz and Emma.

p.s So much for the short blog. Better luck next time.

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