Week 52: A year of travelling...
- Aug 29, 2022
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 30, 2022
Our stops this week:
1 night-Camping Jeugdstadion (Near Ypres, Belgium)
2 nights - ‘t hof Bellewaerde camping (Near Ypres, Belgium)
1 night- Camping de Tournai (Near Tournai, Belgium)
2 nights- Camping Pirot (Near Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium)
2 nights-Camping Bon Accueil (Duchy of Luxembourg)
It’s great to be ‘on the road’ properly, having crossed back into Europe on the morning of Sunday 21st August. We have no concrete route plan, at this point, as until a few days before, we were not 100% sure if we would be crossing (it depended on how the surgery went etc.). We also didn’t want to jinx anything or get too excited by having a plan and then not be able to go ahead with it. When we returned from Croatia, we were unsure if we would be able to return to Europe to finish our trip and had to consider cost, timings, looking for work and so on. At the same time, if we left it too long before deciding/crossing, we would be creeping further into November before returning to the UK and with the colder weather, it would become more difficult to Mo-Ho. However, we also didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be able to finish the trip, knowing that this was a rare opportunity. We will work on a rough route over the next few days. It also depends on how hot and busy different areas are, as it’s still school holidays.
We’ve found it quick and easy to adjust to driving on the right, hearing different languages, and buying food based on working out key words and pictures this time. In fact, this now seems comforting and the norm. (Well…I suppose not quite the norm all the time and not so comforting, when on one turn, after about 2 days in Belgium, Steve turned onto the left of the road! Moving back onto the right we carried on and I gave the poor man who was driving on the correct side but towards us my best smile and frantic wave to say sorry. He looked very scared and probably thought ‘stupid bloody English!’.
We drove straight from Calais to Ypres, which took under 2 hours and was an easy drive. The campsite was well placed, as it took only 10 minutes to walk into the town through some woods. The campsite was small, quiet, and well organised, with spacious pitches. It was a great first stop. We hadn’t wanted to complete huge chunks of driving (it becomes tedious, uncomfortable and Bear hates it) and were also interested in finding out more about WW1 and visiting some of the war sites. A few years ago, we travelled around Normandy and visited WW2 sites, which was really interesting. With little knowledge about WW1, we started listening to some Podcasts and reading about the war.
(Some we listened to, if your interested: Dan Snow-When the World’s Armies Came to Salisbury Plain, The Child Soldiers of WW1 and The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand)
We also called on Rohan again! (My mum’s cousin’s husband) Rohan is becoming our resident tour guide, having provided lots of recommendations for Croatia, as they had lived in Sarajevo for many years and explored the surrounding areas. Luckily for us, they now live in Belgium and Rohan has lots of military knowledge, also having served in the military himself for a long time.
I’ve listed the places we visited over the next few days and have then added corresponding pictures (with comments) and some internet links if you wanted to find out more. Overall, it was both fascinating and sombre to think of all the fighting this area experienced, how many people died and the lasting impact of this…especially in context of current fighting taking place in Europe.
Menin Gate-last post
Information about the Last Post and its history. https://lastpost.be
Information about Menin Gate. https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/91800/ypres-menin-gate-memorial/
Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves
There are nearly 12,000 graves of soldiers who died during WW1 from the Commonwealth and 34,000 names engraved on the wall of those with no known grave.
Link for further information.
Langemark German War Cemetery
Outside the memorial site was an obelisk surrounded by the metal poppies and the decorative fence. I thought the fence was amazing and took an image of each section.
Further information about Langemark. http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/cemetery-langemark.htm
Sanctuary Wood Museum
For further information about Sanctuary Hill museum, look at this website. http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/museum-sanctuary-wood.htm
Hill 62/Canadian War Memorial
As Rohan and some of his children served in the Canadian Military and it was close to the museum above, we went to see the Canadian memorial
For further information about the significance of Hill 62, look at this link.
The John McCrae bunker
John served as a Dr and during the 2nd Passchendaele fight attended to the wounded for 16 days straight with no sleep. The longest break during this period, when he heard no bombing was 30 minutes.
For further information about his life and the poem, here is a link. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/people-and-stories/john-mccrae
Caterpillar Mine Crater -Hill 60
The crater left by the detonation which took place under German tunnels is 79.2 meters wide and 15.5 meters deep. The explosion was reported to be heard in London. 70,000 pounds of explosives were used. The dead were not unearthed but left and the area has been filled with water to create a pond, called the peace pond. The area around this is a small woods.
For further information:
On the way to the crater we walked through a boardwalk area that indicated the frontline for both sides of the fighting. It was shocking to see how close each side was. My beautiful assistants are used to demonstrate!
Passchendaele
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Passchendaele
We really enjoyed our time in the Flanders area. It felt very peaceful and relaxed, with lots of forests and walking/cycling areas to explore. As seems to be the norm everywhere in Europe, apart from the UK, they had excellent cycles paths and clearly sign posted routes. We’ve also seen some amazing looking houses, with glass walkways, decorative designs and interesting shaped windows, a whole raft of balconies and really impressive brick work…it’s funny what you notice about different countries…and I’m not sure if there is a Belgium law about having very neat edges to your lawn, immaculate gardens or perfectly straight trees, but Belgium seems to have these!
We then headed to Tournai. On route, Gordon got an unexpected wash. One of the farmer’s hoses (which pumps large jets of water) used to water the fields, seemed to have come untamed and instead was facing the road. Not sure how powerful the water was or whether it was just water, we gingerly went past in the outside lane as Gordon was drenched. We visited the town of Tournai during the afternoon and walked along by the river. It was very pretty but we ‘mis-judged’ the heat and arrived in Tournai very hot and sweaty. After finding shade and having a drink, we walked around the town and Bear cooled off in the water fountains.
The following day we headed to Han-Sur-Lesse, on the way stopping at Namur and Dinant. Namur has a medieval citadel and is at the junction of Sambre and Meuse rivers. With designated free Mo-Ho parking, it was easy to walk into the city and wander around. With it being another very hot day, we didn’t want to spend too long in the sun. We had left the campsite early, so we could visit Namur before the mid-day sun hit. We then moved on to Dinant, finding some excellent Belgian chips on route. Dinant also has a citadel and we decided to visit this and then get the cable car into the town. At the top, in the citadel it was quite cool in places and easy to look around. However, once we got the cable car into the town, it was baking hot and all three of us were struggling with the heat. We managed to find shade and get a drink, before buying some Belgian chocolate and heading back to turn the air con on.
Han-Sur-Lesse was a very pretty town, with the campsite situated overlooking the river. It was nice to be a few minutes’ walk into the town and there was a Friday night market that we visited, although I had assumed there would be more Belgium gastronomical delights available, rather than the array of children’s brightly coloured plastic toys. The first night here, the weather was still very hot and uncomfortable (thank goodness for Nelly) but after this the weather cooled. We had also hoped to visit the local caves but the tours were in French…and I’m not sure our French is yet up to the standard of understanding explanations about rocks! Although Han-Sur-Lesse was very pretty and we found a lovely walk in the local woods for his highness, the campsite made it less enjoyable, with ridiculously narrow pitches that made it feel compressed and uncomfortable. I could have reached out of the toilet window and touched the neighbour’s van!
Next was Luxembourg. We were all quite excited about visiting as none of us have been to Luxembourg before and we worked out this was the 10th country Bear’s visited…he’s becoming a well-travelled dog. A spacious campsite was much appreciated. And although I like rules and structure, this campsite took it to another level with two pages of ‘Rules and Regulations’. The receptionist was also fairly stern. The campsite was well placed with a lovely park and cycle tracks straight from the entrance. Luxembourg was really interesting and had lots of quirky things that we really liked: Luxembourg (the whole country) has free buses, trains trams for everyone, free dog poo bags everywhere, free bike cleaning areas in the parks, bee hotels, free sun cream machines in the parks, and free solar panel electric charging in the parks. We headed into the city via bus and tram with Bear, who was very well behaved and loved looking out the windows and greeting people onto ‘his’ bus. One lady was very entertained by Bear and had a long conversation with him in French…we didn’t even know he could speak French. She also silently shook and tried not to giggle out loud, when Bear tried licking the head of the passenger in front of us. His seat was lower than ours and I think Bear was just interested to know how/why he was bald!! It was a Saturday and Luxembourg was busy, however Bear was excellent, and we were both very surprised by this. He managed to walk on four legs, mainly walk to heel and be well behaved. His ‘wee’ up the side of the Gucci shop we decided to just ignore.
Images from the city
The park behind our campsite in Luxembourg.
We also had a great cycle ride the following day and Bear got to complete his first longer bike ride with his new ‘buddy rider’. Having tried and tried to make Bear feel happy in his trailer (chariot), we finally decided to give up. He obviously wasn’t a fan, as he had to be pushed in and then squealed like a sealion when in transit. Steve completed lots of research and found the ‘buddy rider’. He thought Bear would be happier with this, as he was closer to a human and could look out and feel the wind in his ears as he raced along. So far, so good. He completed 5 KM with no squeaking. The ‘buddy rider’ also takes up a lot less room in the van.
Just some notes re costs, which may be of interest. Diesel is cheaper in Belgium and Luxembourg when compared to the UK. Luxembourg government have fixed fuel prices until the end of August and it's about £1.50 a litre, the same at all petrol stations. Campsite prices in Belgium averaged about 20 Euros a night with electricity on campsites. Food in the Belgium supermarket was well priced, I reckon overall about 15% cheaper than the UK. However a cucumber I bought in Luxembourg was 1.60 Euros!!!! (I'm sure Steve will be devastated if we stop eating cucumber).
A busy and brilliant first week. Thank you for keeping up with the blog and reading it again!
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