Belgium and Ypres.

The drive from Mesnieres into Belgium was again by motorway. We called into a wee shop in the village before we left for a baguette, cheese and melon. That was breakfast sorted. We called into a service area, and feasted on our favourite breakfast in the warm sunshine of NW France. Not a cloud was seen all morning, which was odd because when we woke up there was a dense fog and it was 0°. The bread and melon were all we wished for but the cheese looked and tasted like a young goat cheese. Wasn’t that good but none got wasted.

And so to Ypres, a stunning Belgian city that was wrecked during WW1 and two. After the first war, the Menem Gate, a stunning piece of architecture was erected to thank the people of Ypres for being such an important allied hub during the conflict. There has been a tradition going back until 1920’s to sound the last post at 8pm daily. We got to see this moving tribute to our fallen, in the company of a few hundred others.

Called into a pub, well sat in the sunshine outside and tried a couple of their seventy-three beers on offer! Have to say, Margaret loved hers, and mine, well you don’t need to ask.

Ypres is touristy, but just because people want to see it. It doesn’t shove commerce down your neck at every twist and turn, it’s a working town, and absolutely perfect the way it is.

We stayed for the night at Crack Stadium, a sports and football stadium donated to the young people of the world by the Football Association England. Very handy, only fifteen minutes walk to Menem Gate, and the town centre.

Mons was originally our second Belgian city but we decided instead to go to Binch, cos life’s a Binch. We only drove for 85 miles to get here, and first impressions weren’t to good. We got to the Aire and really needed water and disposal. The Relais point had no water and when I checked the Elsan, wow, recoil in horror. It hadn’t functioned for a long time but still, some twats had tipped their cassettes. Sometimes life puzzles me.

Anyway, we dandered up into the town centre, and it is a pretty town. Cobbled streets, and us being here at the very start of their 1.5-hour lunch break, meant we never saw a lot of it. We sat at a pavement café for a drink and watched the world go by.

It was at this stage I decided to exclude motorways from our route, so that we could pass through a few small towns to se the real Belgium, and that was a clever plot. The villages and towns are all higgly piggly in their layout, with the exception sometimes of the centre. This adds to their charm, and the ones we walked about in were very charming and quaint. In the odd place you will come across a Tank at the side of the road, a solemn reminder of a time when driving around here was not as easy. Jim McCormick would have loved the MOT centre we passed. In its fore grounds were several field guns, and other mobile militaria!

When we passed a sign for Luxembourg, we immediately decided to go there, rather than Namur. This would be our fourth country, but neither of us had realized, after passing a local sign proclaiming Province of Luxembourg, that this was a province of Belgium! So, although we were in Luxembourg, we weren’t.

Anyway, it didn’t matter because the real one was only about sixty miles away.

What did matter was a sign showing the way to the European Space Agency visitor centre. It would have been rude not to call in, so we spent a couple of action packed hours, which included us both doing a simulated space walk. Both on Mars and the Moon! That was hilarious and I’ve got evidence of Margaret actually exerting herself!

But wait. How remiss of me not to tell you of the most beautiful lace we’ve seen so far.

Dinant, a really old large town wit a castle high above on a sheer cliff face. This is where the Saxophone was invented by some guy who had nothing to do one day.

We had seen pictures of vans parked up on the river bank and that is where we headed. Oh no, a building site! They have dug the whole area up, to upgrade the hard landscaping which meant there was no room at the in for us. We searched for a suitable place to park up, and indeed found one. After negotiating a very short but very steep hill, and manoeuvring into the only place available in this place suitable for about four cars, and there was a car and camper van there already, we saw the sign. Private! After a three-hundred-point turn, and frayed nerves we were on the road again. Tried two campsites, both closed, so gave up and parked in another private place. Sod it!

Woke up after a god sleep and headed for Namur which in fact was going to be Luxembourg as you now now!

So after the ESA we were on our way through more pretty villages, forests with excellent roads cut through them, over hills, dales and mountains, across countless rivers, and more than one “Oh look at that”……

So the coordinates for  Echternach proved wrong again, going to have to suss this out, so we opted for our first campsite.