Home now

Got home on Tuesday night and visited mum on Wednesday morning. We were relieved to see that mum was looking much better than we expected and her situation is not critical.
Probably because of the speed that we had to arrange flights home and not having had much time to accept that we were going home early, we still feel quite unsettled. At least mum looks to be in reasonable condition.

Ieper

Last night in Ieper. Went to the last post tonight at the Menin Gate, crowd of about 800, very moving.
Mum's health is heading south quite quickly, so we are too. Have cancelled the rest of the holiday and fly out of Paris on Monday morning, back in Melbourne on Tuesday evening.
See you all too soon.

Thursday

Just blown up the laptop power supply. Big pop and strong electrical smell. Will need to look for replacement to be able to post proper blogs. I'm writing this on an android app I know nothing about.

Ghent

We were sad to leave “Lady Lace” this morning. It was a house with so much character and so close to the centre of everything. The owners even forgave one of us  (not G, G or J) for messing up the convection microwave and melting what looked like a good microwave oven cookware cover (last night). Unfortunately the cover was over the chicken we were cooking, so I suppose we had a plastic chicken. To be safe, we threw it away, then there was one (small chicken) left. We had plenty of vegies and already had nibbles, so we managed to feed all 6 of us still. Tom was generous and, during the day, had bought a selection of Belgian beers for us to try. He really had to force us. The beers were all different and very nice. We didn’t get to try the very special beer that can only be bought in one shop in the world. Probably reasonable that Tom kept it ‘til he had time to sit and enjoy it. We did savour the beers and delayed eating for a while.

Anyway, back to today. After we dropped Laura and Tom at the Bruges station, to catch the train to Brussels to have lunch with a house mate of Laura’s when she was working in Brussels a few months ago and then overnight train to Berlin, we drove to Knokke Heist to ride on the Kust tram to De Haan. Phew, what a sentence. After the parking ticket machine not producing the ticket for the time paid for, we got on the tram. The map showed the tram following the coast for much of the way. It was correct, but unfortunately there was a big dune in the way. When G&R took the tram from south to north 2 years ago, the tram did travel along the edge of the beach, but obviously the northern section was different. Any way it was an interesting ride. We did have a good coffee and waffle in De Haan and went for a walk to the beach. Warm but windy. Jan enjoyed a very tasty pastry. There was even a portable library on the beach. We got back to the car, after the expiry time shown, didn’t have a fine and headed off to Ghent.

Followed the GPS and started looking for accommodation on the outskirts. We ended up in the centre of Ghent and quickly realised how expensive Ghent is. We are now in a 1 star hotel, very close to the centre at a cost of 86 euros per room. No breakfast included. The hotel is an old monastery and only stopped being a monastery in the late 1990s. This hotel has been operating for about 12 years. The rooms are big, basic, ensuite and have lots of character. We are looking forward to walking ‘round town tomorrow and looking at some very scenic canal areas.

Bruges Monday

The day started off with a stunning half hour (wished it could have been hours) boat trip around some of the canals. There is no doubt that water changes the feel of a city and this helps make Bruges so picturesque. Viewing the city, or parts of it, from the canal gives a totally different aspect. There are also some unusual sights along the canal.

After the “cruise”, we walked along part of the canal that the boat took us along and were able to have a good look at the land based stuff. We decided that we must have been very tired from the boat ride and the short walk so we stopped and had coffee and waffles in a small treed square before walking on. We ended up at the Beguinage Ten Wijngaarde with its white-coloured house fronts, tranquil convent garden founded in 1245. The complex includes a gothic béguinage church and about thirty white painted houses dating from the late 16th, 17th and 18th century. Practically all of these are built around a central yard.

The word béguinage is a French term that refers to a semi-monastic community of women called Beguines, religious women who sought to serve God without retiring from the world, as well as to the architectural complex that housed such a community.

We followed the map and walked through lots of side streets to get back to the house for lunch. It’s great to be so close to everything and be able to get back to the house reasonably easily in reasonable time. Deli bits and pieces and wine for lunch.

After lunch, we went our own separate ways, with Laura and Tom visiting the post office to post back 5 kgs of drinking glasses and more exploring. Gary & Jan went exploring in one direction and Rick & Gill in another.

R&G walked along some canals we hadn’t seen and stopped in Jan van Eyck (famous Flemish painter) square and visited part of the local library which was the 15th century toll house and eventually got back to the house.

G&J wandered through the streets, bought Jan’s present with the gift from Kris (thank you so much!) then sat in a lovely park to soak up the sunny weather and be mesmerised by the fountain. We then headed to a pub overlooking the canal where we both enjoyed a local Bruges beer (because Jan doesn’t normally drink beer and Gary did not have a drinking buddy daughter).

Need to start packing now. We have to get Laura and Tom to the station in the morning, then back to load the car with our stuff and leave by 10am. We’ve really enjoyed being in Bruges and being so close to the centre of town. ”Lady Lace” is in a great location, built in the 17th century, creaks and groans, lounge, dining, kitchen and laundry on the ground floor, 2 bedrooms and bathroom on 1st floor and attic bedroom on 2nd floor. It worked very well for 6 of us. ‘Bye Bruges.

Bruges

We didn’t rush this morning and left the house late morning. The house is only a few minutes walk from the main square, the Market square. There is an 83 metres high belltower with a carillon with 47 melodious bells. There are 366 steps to the bells, starting out wide and finishing as very narrow, steep stairs. The belfry forms part of a 13th century complex of halls, which served as a warehouse and a market hall in the Middle Ages. The view from the top is fantastic.

 

This photo of the Market Square above is not one of ours, it’s from the internet. The sky today is all blue.

Bruges has many canals and boat tours around the canals. We walked around sections of the canal network to suss out where we will get on one of the boats tomorrow.

We then just walked around some of the smaller streets, looking at the buildings, and eventually ended up back at the house.

Dover to Bruges Saturday

We had a very easy run into Dover. We were advised to take the road through Dover town rather than follow the main road, as most people do, because the traffic would be a lot less. Sorry Di, that took us down Maison Dieu Road. We waved on the way past, but you probably didn’t see us through the closed door. This was good advice because the traffic was very heavy and banked up on the main road. We were able to drive past the trucks and into the port area. French customs took a couple of minutes, British border control waved us straight through and we joined one of the many queues to check in. This took another 15 mins (in the queue) and we were sent to queue in lane 233 and wait to board. Boarding started 10 mins after and the ferry left 5 mins early. No hold ups at all.

The day was very clear and sunny and the sea was like glass. Found a table and comfy chairs beside the window and settled in with coffee. Unfortunately there is always a first time for anything and once were seated, I tried Starbucks coffee. It wasn’t too bad.

Once we got to the “other side”, the ferry sailed parallel to the French coast for quite a while, close in. We were able to see people and horses on the beach quite clearly. Easy docking and embarkation and we were off, on the “wrong side of the road”. At least we’d had 6 weeks in the LHD car to get partially used to it.

We drove straight to Dunkirk, parked in the centre of town, at around 12:30, gate crashed a wedding in the town hall and used the toilets.

We drove to the very busy beach nearby, looking for the evacuation beaches, had a walk on the beach (Gary got his feet wet), missed the evacuation beaches which we found out a short while ago (surprising what info you get when you look at the map), and drove on to Bruges.

Fuel light on, looking for a service station and found ourselves in the middle of Bruges, travelling down one way streets, following the GPS and suddenly we were outside “Lady Lace”, where we will spend 3 nights.

We parked illegally in a side street and waited for the owner to meet us, moved to the loading zone outside, unloaded and moved the car about 10 mins walk away where there is free, unrestricted parking. Came back to the house, decided that we should do some shopping (supermarket shut on Sundays) and walked back to the big supermarket just near the car. Good price on wine, so we bought enough that meant we had to bring the car over to the supermarket and drive the shopping home. Found a 4 hour park 5 mins from the house. One hour later, we went to pick up Laura and Tom from the Bruges railway station. They left Aus about 2 weeks ago and will go back in about 4 weeks. We had a late night talking and it was good to see them.

Canterbury - Friday

After dinner with Di, Barry & Co, and the drive back to Canterbury, we didn’t rush to get moving this morning. We had a slow breakfast at Sheila’s nearby, showed our room key, got 10% discount, looked at them, or liked them or something on Facebook (sorry Di, had to ask one of the staff exactly what to do) and got another 5% discount.

We drove to the nearby park and ride and went into the city. Between us we bought a new water bottle, reading glasses, sandals for Gary, coffee for all of us and looked over the map of things to do.

First stop was the Canterbury Cathedral, a huge complex of corridors, little chapels, cloisters, ruins outside as well as the main cathedral and the crypt below. Some beautiful stained glass windows, helpful guides and many opportunities to temporarily get lost. There has been a cathedral on the site since the Roman period. Thomas Beckett was murdered in the cathedral in 1170, by 4 knights of Henry II. His tomb is in Trinity Chapel, above the crypt where the tomb was from 1170 to 1220.

We walked to the Westgate Tower, built in 1380, across to Greyfriars Chapel, straddling the river Stour, unfortunately not accessible and on to walk around part of the old city wall. Back to the bus to the Park and ride car park, into Morrisons to buy stuff to eat tonight and breakfast tomorrow and back to the classy Travelodge.

 

We are booked on the ferry, tomorrow, from Dover to Calais, scheduled to leave at 9:25 am. Hope there are no long hold ups. Need to leave the hotel around 7:15 to allow travelling time, passport control etc. Breakfast in the car, in the ferry queue.