Five Countries in One Day!! - Day 1

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Who knew when we left that we would manage so much travelling. The exhaustion is starting to set in but we managed to leave England, travel through northern France, explore Belgium (Bruges and Gent), travel briefly through the Netherlands and arrive in Deutschland (Aachen).

We left England in the early hours. After managing to drive late on Friday night (arrived around 11:30pm) to a remote campsite in the Kent countryside we were woken but the dulcet sounds of a gate crashing open. Quickly scrambling to get ready to leave before the owners realised we'd high-jacked their campsite car park, we left a few measly pounds hoping they'd quickly lose the CCTV footage of our number plate. Kent looks nice at 6am...

Eurotunnel is an interesting place... We thought we were early. Actually, our ticket said we were early! But somehow we still managed to be one of the few cars pulled out a line-up and examined top to bottom. Imagine the airport questions modified for cars... "Have you packed the car yourself?" and "Are you carrying any gas?". Damn, we were.... but on closer inspection a camp stove is not of sufficient concern to halt our progress. The steering wheel was quickly swabbed and we were given the all clear. We pulled out and managed to sail straight through customs, as there was nobody there. This wasn't a concern for Dave as he is a European citizen but for me, I think I'm supposed to let them know where I'm going... No matter, I hope they let me back in!!

We were first in our queue... which left us thinking "Awesome! First in, first out!" We saw one train being loaded and those lucky buggers with FlexiPlus pretty much driving on as they got there. Not bad. Nearer the time we were supposed to be loaded we realised the three lanes to our left (which appeared sometime after we did) were on the same train and were going to be loaded first. Oh. Guess that's what the cheap seats are then. Timetables (those pesky things) seem to be flexible on the French side of the border and our time for departure came and went. Hmmm. Doesn't matter, we’re on holiday!!! Finally we drove onto the train... and shortly after (about 30 minutes or so) we arrived on real French soil. Boring.

Northern France (area around Calais) seems to be quite flat and windswept. Could've just been the day we were there though. Realising northern France wasn't our cup of tea (look mum, I'm practically English!) we sought the nearest motorway and proceeded on our way out of France.

Belgium seemed quite flat too. First stop Bruges. The guidebook describes it as "Touristy, overcrowded and a tad fake”. They weren't too far off the mark. After the recent movie "In Bruges" in which a couple of British gangsters found refuge there and mayhem ensued, it seems that almost everybody in the UK has visited just to check out the sights. Still, it had its moments. It is a gorgeous medieval looking city but its canal system definitely has the better sights. The Belfort (featured in the movie) was impressive and not far away you find the Burg, which is a square containing Heilig-bloedbasiliek literally translated as Basilica of the holy blood. Pretty funky stuff really... a few coagulated drops of Christ’s blood is kept and cherished and only brought out on special occasions (Ascension Day). Still, back to the canals. Small boats are loaded to the brim with tourists. Even distribution of tourists in these boats does not seem to be a part of the training of these tour boat operators and we saw quite a few lop-sided boats gingerly picking their way round the canals. The highlight for me (nerd alert) was finding out just how advanced the parking system was in Bruges compared to the UK. As you enter an underground car park you are shown exactly where the free spaces are and in what direction. Lights above each parking bay are either red (occupied) or flashing green (ready for you to barge your way in). These are all managed by a detection system mounted above the car's parking bay enabling the citywide system (signs all over the city) to let you know if the whole parking garage was full or not and exactly what levels were free. Awesome. Parking hassle over, but I guess cobblestones are still a pain in the arse.

Next stop Gent. Our first impression was of amusement. Parked underneath a sign reading "Kiss and Ride" was a bike chained to the signpost. Teehee. Finding the car park wasn't hard but not quite of the advanced system used in Bruges. We were expecting a quiet city, as it's not quite as well advertised as Bruges. But we reckoned without the City Festival. We walked through a few streets, which suddenly opened out onto one of the three main squares of the city. A brass band started up suddenly. What?!! They were expecting us? We looked around. Across the square under a marquee a bunch of ladies in various shades of pink were warming up their band. Crazy Belgian tunes were belted out and a gathering crowd starting singing what (to them I imagine) were favourite songs. Not a word could we understand so we tried to look for the tourist centre following signs, which definitely pointed the wrong way. Eventually finding it in the catacombs of the Belfort to our right after following the sign to the left. A very helpful lady showed us how to get to the GrootFleischmarkt (Butchers Hall), which was supposed to have a whole lot of tasting dishes in there. Best laid plans however.... The directions turned out to be the route of the town parade in reverse! We of course started out at the same time they did. The people lining the streets didn't seem to understand that we weren't looking forward to being run over by a huge papier mache figure of a townsperson and we had to be a little bit rude to get out of the line of fire. Cool parade though. Eventually we hopped our way around various displays to reach a side street, which provided an indirect route to our destination. I think the tasting dishes had been changed for the festival though. We wandered the streets once again looking on in amusements at tourists packed to the gunwales of the tiny boats touring the canals and found the Gravensteen (Castle). A bar next door (Neptunes) provided welcome refreshment in the form of Trappist beer which we’d heard about. The bottles were delivered and we found to our surprise that the blond and bruin beers were 9.5%!a(MISSING)nd 7%!r(MISSING)espectively. Couldn't drive for a few hours. Oops. Next stop frites. Traditional paper cones with curry sauce and mayonnaise. Interesting combination. Realising it was now 5ish we trundled back to car and headed for the motorway and Aachen.

Funnily enough the quickest way to Aachen was through the end of the Netherlands. It took us about 15 minutes to drive through into Germany. My friend Thomas' place wasn't too far from the motorway and we quickly parked up. We mentioned to him a few of the fountains the guidebook noted and he seemed happy to be our tour guide for the evening. We walked through one of the original gates to city, which you can hire out for parties. This led us to Pontstrasse the renowned student district. The bars are colourful and plentiful and have outdoor seating, which is great in summer. It's a real cafe culture. Cafe Madrid (funnily enough) was our first stop where we all had a 1/2 a litre of beer. Dave had a local pilsner whilst I tried the Kolsch (brewed in koln). Flavour was fantastic. We headed further into the city. The Rathaus was imposing and dominated the square it was situated in. We trundled on to the first of our fountains... The chicken thief. Legend goes that the thief had managed to pick up a couple of hens but had inadvertently picked up a cockerel as well who crowed and gave the game away. The statue clearly shows the thief looking around in surprise.

Next up was the puppet fountain, which has movable parts and represents the industries that have played a part in the cities development. Thomas encouraged us to cover a few of the holes from which the water fountained up. Like idiots we thought there was something cool involved and ended up wet. Turns out a popular pastime with the university lads is to cover all the holes but one and see how high they can get the water to shoot up. Nice.

Next fountain was the Geldbrunnen and represents the circulation of money showing how it all circles around the pool and gets sucked down a hole in the centre. This is jokingly known as the taxman. Not far down the hill we found lots of barriers had been put up and an area was under some tarpaulins. Turns out that the park had recently been dug up and roman ruins had been found. The plan is to preserve with Perspex sheeting over the top in the middle of the park so that everybody can come and have a look.

Next we sampled to delights of the Aachen springs at the Elisenbrunnen. I'd previously tried this rather pungent water and decided to forgo the pleasure however we did manage to persuade Dave. I think the first thing he said was "tastes like scrambled eggs". The water also smells like rotten ones. But they are reputed to be good for the digestion and health spas have been here for a very long time. In France the area is known as Aix-la-Chapelle and Thomas mentioned he'd met some French people who swore blind it was part of France. Funnily enough, it's been a long time since then.

The last fountain on our list Dave called the beer monster. The legend goes that the Bahkauv jumped on the backs on men returning late from the pubs and demanded a lift home. To this day it is used as an excuse for a hangover. Ok, enough history. Time for food. First up was some deep fried goodness. Reibekuche, which is potato and onion rosti's dipped in Apfelmuss. Mmmmm. Starters. We then visited a Turkish restaurant on the Ponstrasse and stocked up on some culinary masterpieces. Thomas' friend Michel joined us and we continued on to a traditional pub by the Rathaus. On the way we observed a German buck's night where some poor sod was placed with a ball and chain at the main entrance above his party and forced to convince them of the reasons why he was marrying his intended. Lots of booing and cheering was going on depending on the responses and upon translation from Thomas and Michel we joined in. Some if the reasons were absolutely pathetic.. I think his mates thought he was going soft when he told them she was good in the kitchen. After our final drinks we realised we'd had quite a day and returned to Thomas' flat for a well earned rest. Day 1 - out!

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Comments

[Mum]

Well done
Very Interesting