Jun 11, 2018 - Bruges

Bruges is a beautiful little city. We have decided to spend a 2nd night so we can see more. The Historium was first. We walked to Markt Platz and found it. This museum takes you back to 1435. You follow a young man as he meets his future wife. This part is a little disjointed as they use screens to show the history but then a voice out of nowhere asks you to move to the next room. I think if they had a hologram say please follow me or lets goo through here there would be more of a continuous story....and less a series of movies. Before or...

Jun 11, 2018 - Brussels

Day 24. Brussels 11/6/18. Monday. Cloudy but warm. 13-24 degrees Ian just couldn’t get moving today, so it was nearly 10am before we had breakfast. All I needed was cereal on a menu, ordinary mueseli, but no-where to be found. Finally we went to a supermarket - mueseli bars as we know them are non-existent but I did manage to buy a soft ‘breakfast’ bar. Off to.............wait for it..McDonalds, where Ian chose his breakfast and I chose o.j. and coffee. What a hassle, but we’ve got tomorrow sorted. This problem exists because I can’t eat...

Jun 10, 2018 - Bruges to Brussels

Day 23. Brussels 10/6/18. Sunday. Hot, sunny, cloudy?, hot! 14-26 Breakfast at 9, taxi at 9.45, train at 10.10, Brussels at 12.15. Hmmmm, where’s the hotel. Ian wants to head one way and me the other. Yah! for once I’m right, and a few more paces then.........well spotted Ian. 200m from the station, 150m from Grand Place. The Hotel Agora is Eco Friendly, located in a UNESCO World Heritage district, completely renovated and decorated with respect to original architecture dating back to 1696, has 22 rooms and opened in 2016. This is way...

Jun 10, 2018 - Bruxelles, Ghent, Bruge

We drove to Brussels via the motorway and into the very center of town...with no problems....just a nervous co-pilot. We passed the United Nations building, many embasies, and parks. We parked underground. It was just a block to the Grand Place. It is well named! On all four sides are opulent buildings trimmed in gold. On opposite sides the buildings have towers and spires. Sun glints off the gold. Outdoor restaurants line one side. At each corner streets open onto the square. Lots of people are visiting. We rented a room at the Opera Hotel...

Jun 9, 2018 - Bruges

Day 22. Bruges 9/6/18. Saturday. Overcast, sunny, hot!! 13-24 degrees Twice in a row, Ian’s made the wrong call for what to wear - the morning started cool, but by the middle of the day, it was very hot, and we had to carry our jackets. Bruges is surrounded by a canal and is called the Venice of the North, and on a Saturday is wall to wall people, and the queues for the canal boat rides were huge. We watched one boat load 31 people and we reckon there would be 4 times that many left waiting. We saw that over and over again at each of the...

Jun 8, 2018 - Bruges

Day 21. Bruges 8/6/18. Friday. Cloudy, sunny, hot 13-24 degrees. It was so good to sleep in this morning with no time limits at all - breakfast is from 9-10.30. Before we went down, we had a phone call through Messenger from Ron & Hazel - how lovely to speak to them. Yes Hazel, I have bought the decongestant nasal spray. Thank you. We then rang Sandie the same way, but it was like talking under gurgling water, so wasn’t too successful. Breakfast, and then we walked to the canal and joined a 30 min. Canal boat cruise, which was excellent,...

Jun 7, 2018 - Paris to Bruges

Day 20. Paris to Bruges via Brussels. 7/6/18. Thursday. Cloudy blue sky Our taxi was 25 minutes late picking us up from the boat - fortunately we had allowed more than enough time to get to Gare du Nord, and unexpectedly, the traffic was very light, especially using the bus lane. But it was a long way - it’s easy to forget just how big the city of Paris is - and we enjoyed our last drive through and around the city, seeing the ‘one level’ skyline and many now familiar landmarks for the last time.......unless Tony and Tam move here for a few...

Jun 6, 2018 - I am a foreigner

We got up today and discovered that no one serves coffee till 8am. At the approved time we were able to get breakfast and walk over to the tours starting point . By following a man with a sign held high over his head,in a crowd of 100, several blocks we boarded a double decker bus. He told us he only had to give tour information in 2 langueses, English & Spanish. As the day progressed I learned there were people on the bus from no less than 22 countries, who all spoke English with the exception of 5 from Uruguay. .....and we were the...

May 14, 2018 - North To The Flanders Fields

Day 8 - Monday 14th May The plan today was to bike to the three sites North of Arras but the weather made us think again. It threatened rain & a very cold wind was blowing from the North. Discretion, or being wimps, we changed our plans & gave the biking a miss especially as it would involve a number of steep hills. So after packing up we headed out of Arras & headed to the large French National cemetery at Norte Dame de Lorette about 8 miles away. This is the largest French war cemetery. 40,000 soldiers are buried here of which 22,000 are...

Apr 22, 2018 - Beautiful Bruges

Awoke to another beautiful day in Amsterdam and walked a mile to the Sixt rental car office. We were a little concerned about driving amongst all the bicycles as they seem to not watch out for anyone! We picked up our car, a Mercedes Klasse C and drove very carefully back to our hotel to retrieve our luggage. We had been given a few lessons on the navigation system but still have not figured out how to get her to speak to us. Oh well, I will Google it tonight. We departed The Parkview Hotel and drove out of Amsterdam with no problems taking...

Apr 2, 2018 - Exploring south into the Hautes Fagnes Natural Park

Weather was a bit mixed. Typical Bank Holiday weather! We decided we would do one of our drive and explore days. We headed south passing through the small village of Clermont with its small narrow cobbled streets. Moving on we drove through lovely rolling countryside. We then drove into Hautes Fagnes Natural Park area with its wooded hills, rolling pasture land and open heathlands. We stopped at the Lac de la Gilieppe a large reservoir and enjoyed a walk across the dam with its enormous Lion and along the lakeside. Moving along we then...

Mar 31, 2018 - Heading to the Belgium/German border

Today we headed east and a little south to a campground near the Belgium/German/Netherland border at a place called Remersdaal, Belgium. The main part of the journey was good but the road we took to the campground was a little narrow and the surface needed repair. We discovered that the road in the instructions of the campground was much better but we thought we would take a shortcut! The entrance to the campground was OK but the place he wanted to put us had quite a slope and to cut a long story short we could not get level without one or...