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Published: October 29th 2011
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The holidays approached and with nothing in mind there was much disagreement in the house. Opinions differed in the run up with Glenn being taken up with a short trip to Pembrokeshire which would include some walking, sitting in pubs doing nothing, relaxing and just being glad to have time to ourselves without work on our backs. Oh to win the lottery but having given up entering it was some kind of dream which would never materialise. All pennies being saved for Suzy. I on the other hand had fond memories of a three week trip from Dover to Lands End in the wet and windy summer of 1977. Following a trip from Ross on Wye to Lands End in the hot summer previously I imagined we would have the same luck with the 1977 trip. However it turned out to be the worse imaginable with winds, unseasonal cold weather and torrential rain. Tents were pitched in howling gales and all the castles looked too formidable in the dull English weather to bother going into. This time the weather looked set fair and I fancied another try at Kent lining up Leeds Castle, Dover and Deal, the small railway at Hythe
and a few Martello towers along the way. After much discussion though we were going nowhere literally. In the end I came home from work and was surprised with the comment "As we cannot agree where to go how about Belgium?" Who can argue with that - so tickets booked on Eurotunnel and away we headed for a Bed and Breakfast close enough to take in Waterloo, Ypres, Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges. Our first stop after driving off the train was to Ostende - a Sunday weather not fabulous and a bit of a wind whipping up off the North Sea but nevertheless an interesting starting point for our weeks holiday. Ostende was compact and felt cosmopolitan. The area around the marina was well developed and luckily on the day we visited there was a European market being held in one of the town squares. A fabulous opportunity to partake the flavours and smells of the rest of Europe. A mixture of old and new housing bordered the harbour area and pride of place was taken by the Mercator a training ship. When I saw it it evoked memories from the dim and distant recesses of my mind - yet another card from the early 1970's showing the harbour and the ship. After wandering around the area we headed off for our bed and breakfast booked with Stacey and Luc. Stacey was the typical Essex girl blond and bubbly and full of fun. She had come to Belgium to train as a croupier many years ago and stayed after she had met Luc who himself was a croupier manager currently working through the night from 10 - 4am. This explained the early morning emails we had received from him prior to arriving. Tea, wine and coffee in the conservatory near the swimming pool led to much conversation on the virtues of belgium choclolate which her children hated . They preferred Cadburys and Stacey had to bring back bars of Cadburys every time she visited family in England. We also discussed the odd taste of mayonnaise on chips something neither of us could understand - salt and vinegar fine but not mayonnaise. The weather wasnt good but then this was Northern Europe and what could you expect. At least it wasnt raining . Spent a pleasant evening discussing what is the smallest nation in Europe, the languages used and getting very tongue tied trying to pronounce even the most simplest of words. As the house was near most tourist locations set in place a few days with trips to Antwerp said to have the most attractive Gothic cathedral in Belgium and a printing museum, Bruges with its canals and medieval buildings, Ypres a reminder of the carnage of World War 1 and Waterloo - yes thats why I started to sing to Abba, and finally Ghent.
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