Blogs from Belgium, Europe - page 14

The home stretch!! Ghent to Bruges. No hills, well almost, hey Henry?? Chiel stole the show at the start of the day when he insisted on showing us not once, but twice, how clever he was at manoeuvring Elodie out of tight spots. (I think the university students were having too much fun in O week so they decided to relocate one of our life rings) After we negotiated the tight canals coming out of Ghent and reached our drop off spot we faced an easy 47km, mostly along canal paths, with the requisite patisserie at morning tea time and a pleasant lunch spot (with bonus café close by). At one stage we were matching our speed with a power boat, which was ok, except it shattered the peace of the canal. The highlight of the ... read more

After a difficult day yesterday where the French socialists hampered our progress, we started off behind schedule today but Chiel did a great job playing catch up. We were woken to the throb of diesel as Chiel negotiated the now functioning locks and made progress towards Tournai. We disembarked at 10.00am where Elodie was due to take on fuel. We covered the final 8km to Tournai in good time and Henry very kindly gave us an hour to explore this wonderful town. We really enjoyed Tournai and the cathedral, undergoing a massive renovation, is truly a work of art and will be well worth a return visit after 2020 when it is complete. It didn't take some of our group long to realize that we were now in Belgium and that means chocolate and waffles!!! (Thank ... read more

25 October 2017 We had an enjoyable morning exploring Bouillon’s castle which included a display by trained owls, hawks and eagles who swooped just over our heads. After lunch we drove up to an observation tower giving views of the town and then continued to follow the Semois to the village of Herbeumont where we stayed the night.... read more

21 September 2017 We drove about 20k southeast to the attractive small town of Nimes and an excellent camperstop in the centre by the river Eau Noire. We had time to wander around a water park before lunch, then it was a pleasant afternoon walk in the adjacent wooded hills.... read more

19 September 2017 The archeological site, called ‘Archeosite’, contains a large collection of recreated ancient buildings and we started the day having an interesting couple of hours wandering around looking at them. In the 1830s canals were built in this area of Belgium to carry coal to Brussels. They are still used and in 2002 to speed up the journey, the canal was diverted and one lift replaced four ancient ones. The cost was €150m. We spent the afternoon being impressed by the huge structure. We stayed the night at a camperstop in the village of Bouffioulx on the outskirts of Charleroi.... read more