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Published: April 3rd 2013
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We left Grand Fort Phillipe slightly later than intended on Tuesday, a little too much celebrating the night before!
Woolly says – Personally I think they should have stopped after the second bottle of bubbles (especially as they wouldn’t share with me!!!). Once Ian and Jo had FINALLY moved themselves we set off back to the A16 (Motorways in the UK) to move further north, we managed to lose ALL of the World War Two points of interest and decided to continue to Ostend. The journey was terrifying, with 60mph winds pushing Georgie sideways my stomach lurched so many times I felt quite sick, I gave up my front viewing platform and held onto Jo whilst Ian battled valiantly with the weather, Jo was shaking, Ian was sweating and believe or believe it not the sun was blazing down. After one seriously worrying gust which took Georgies passenger side wheels of the ground we pulled into a parking area and sat shaking for several minutes. None of us wanted to carry on but we knew we had to. Ian being the hero he is got back behind the wheel, Jo re plotted the route taking us on N
roads (A roads in the UK) and we cautiously made our way along the coast road towards Ostend. This was the worst journey we have taken yet and when we pulled up at Camping Astrid (18 Euro a night plus a Euro for a six minute shower) we locked ourselves in, Jo made bacon, eggs and beans (good comfort food) and spent the evening recovering. Although we had only planned to spend one night everyone was in agreement that two nights were needed.
It was horrible and even though it was warm the winds were very dangerous for us in our big home on wheels. Feeling brighter this morning but with the winds still storming around us we thought we would take Woolly to Ostend.
Woolly says – Ian and Jo have both been here before on something called Booze Buses!!!! But I was really excited and things started off well when we waited for a tram, only the second one I have been on, after 15 minutes of waiting I couldn’t feel my paws or my fur and it was a big relief to finally climb aboard. As we went on the 15
minute journey I looked out for different roofs on the houses, I have seen some really odd ones and I think that my bestest friend Sion would be most interested in them as well. We exited the tram in the centre of Ostend and frankly that was as good as it got. We walked towards the sea front but gave up as the wind was pushing backwards faster than Jo could walk forward, so we wandered along streets of closed bars and shops until we found the main square with its large bandstand – good job the band weren’t playing, they would have blown away – stopping for a coffee Jo and Ian were shocked at the prices (two coffees 6 Euros, approximately £5.10 GBP), even though they came with little cakes it’s a lot of pocket money! Once warmed we continued our amble through to a most impressive church, The Sint Petrus-en-Pauluskerk (Church of St. Peter and St. Paul) a Neo-Gothic church built in 1905, given the wind factor I agreed to have my photo taken before diving back into the warmth of Jo’s jacket. With streaming eyes and frozen paws and fingers we found our way to the
harbour with the Three masted sailing ship Mercator, built in the late 19th century she was once used as a training ship for the Belgian navy and also had the honor of winning the Oslo-Oostende race as well as travelling on missions to various exotic destinations such as Easter Island, Rio de Janeiro, Pitcairn and Tahiti. Now the ship is a nautical museum. As we were so so cold we decided to leave the ship and go in search of food, half an hour later we found ourselves at The Rhino Restaurant (cool name), Ian and Jo continued to mutter about the costs (16 Euro approximately £15.40 GBP for a fish casserole and 22 Euro approximately £21.30 GBP for Ian’s mixed grill), Jo really enjoyed her meal and let me try some of the sauce which was yummy. Ian sat looking balefully at his plate of mixed grill, to be fair there is more meat on me!!!!! Calling it a day we caught the next tram back to Bredene Campings, where we went onto the beach, stood there for thirty seconds and fled back towards the warmth of Georgie, just as we reached the road, police bikes came flashing towards
us followed by cars carrying camera crews, followed by a bike race – in the wind I had to admire their courage for wearing that little clothing! Snuggling up in Georgie all I can do is hope that the wind calms down tomorrow so we can head to our next destination of Ghent.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
Booze Busses
When you make it to Australia (Oz), you need to watch out for these. Unlike your experience, they are full of policemen who ask you to count to ten while holding an alcohol monitor near your mouth. Three wines will lose you your licence!