Blogs from Belgium, Europe - page 5

The. Air. Bed. Has. To. Go........ Seth has a travel bed, a seemingly great invention, an air bed which has a built in sleeping bag for little guys and girls. It's a terrible terrible invention. Seth slept like a log. We didn't sleep at all. Every time he rolled over the polyester rustled and the air bed squeaked. He rolled off it and almost under our bed at least 3 times and oh the noise.... The noise..... So, it will be on e Bay next week if anyone is interested? As a result getting going was like wading through treacle on roller skates. We (I) almost forgot the passports, we (I) realised nearly too late that it's impossible to drag a suitcase whilst carrying 2 mugs of very hot tea and we (I) accidentally booked with ... read more

Un petit tour et tourne en rond… Nous aurons tout de même déjà fait le Benelux… Nous avons essayé de nous aventurer plus au Nord des Pays-Bas… inutile, tous les campings sont complets ! Pour rejoindre nos Pays Baltes il nous faudrait passer par une zone encore confinée…(l'Allemagne se trouve encore en orange...) on ne se complique pas la vie et on oublie… L’idée est de tout de même passer quelques jours de bon temps… On se décide donc de retourner en Belgique pour continuer vers les Hauts de France… On se dit qu’il serait bien possible que là beaucoup de campings seront complets… mais non… belle surprise, c’est comme si on nous y attendait… Côté Belgique, nous retrouvons notre place habituelle au Polder Valley à Westende… il n’y a en effet pas grand monde ici… ... read more

Brussels Half hour ride from Lille to Brussels. Four stops on Red metro line to Porte de Namur station, right beside Hotel Chambord. Took a walk down Rue de Numar. Coffee in TICH, a vegan cool kids large order-at-the-counter joint. Opposite a similar Café called JAT. Then to the Musical Instruments Museum. ‘Old England’ a Horta building. A riveted cast iron structure with airy feel. Darkened rooms full of the most extensive collection I’ve seen.... way better than Berlin, and broader and better presented than Finlandia Museum in Turku. Not all that much African stuff, it lacked thumbpianos etc. But stunning environs. Brass section dominated by the Sax family’s experiments with trumpet and reed instruments. Saxhorns included a ‘trombone’ with seven bells and six valves. A set of sax-like instruments with oboe style double reeds. Many ... read more

Well we have only gonna managed it!! House sold, moved into No32 (our new home from home, Harvey our Hymer) and do you know what we are knackered! First priority when we get over the channel is to find a resting stop and recharge!! Bray Dunes just does that, in summer a humming seaside resort but right now a rather quiet stretch of beach which runs some 7 miles into Ostend, and which Poppy and we can walk to our heart contents, oh and don’t forget the Moule Frit. Zonnebeke our next stop for two nights at the Memorial Museum Passchendale 1917 is set in the grounds of Zonnebeke Chateau. I have always, as Graeme thought that the First World War had no impact on my or Graeme’s family but you can see early on why ... read more

Went to transfer some photos onto my iPad and realised that I left the SD reader in my camera bag in Luxembourg. Can’t blame the blog site this time; it’s my fault. I’ll keep this brief - something I don’t seem to grasp - and head out to take a few with my phone. The pictures tell the Gent, or Ghent story, but I’ll give it a go. I’ve been to Bruges before, but as it is becoming so popular that the local government wants to control the amount of buses that visit on day trips, we decided Ghent was closer and a good alternative. We left Luxembourg at 9am and the road to Ghent is a pretty boring highway, with little to see except the tops of small villages, wind turbines, and forests that look ... read more