April 2020 – Page 5 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 20, 2018 Sens FR

Today the jet lag won, so we slept in very late. After we were finally going we had a nice lunch. As we were getting ready to head into town to see the sights in Sens, we met our neighbors who were a nice Australian couple Peter and Robyn who had rented a RV from French Motor Home Hire. After some introductions we realized that they were on the last day of their motorhome trip, and were trying to get rid of some stuff before they turned their RV in. As a result we received some things to stock our vehicle with. Their agenda for the day matched ours so we decided to walk into town together.

We visited the cathedral in Sens which adds to our list of magnificent cathedrals in France. The size and the intricacy of the construction is really awe inspiring. The special thing about the cathedral in Sens is the stained glass windows. They have examples from the 12th century thru to the 18th century. Sens cathedral is also where Thomas Beckett from England spent his years in exile, before returning to England to be executed by King Henry II.

After spending some time in the cathedral we decided to try to find a store to get a French mobile phone. After some issues we decided that it would be good to get a local phone. There was supposed to be an Orange store in downtown Sens, but when we got there it was out of business. We also decided to make a final stock run to Auchan and Lidl for more food. Now our refrigerator is really stuffed.

We had separated from Peter and Robyn to take care of the phone, but when we returned we ended up joining them for a beer and to exchange stories and information about places to go. One beer led to a couple, and we ended up at a Pizza place across from the aire. It was a great night and we hope we run into them again in the future in our travels.

September 19, 2018 Sens FR

Today we picked up François the motorhome at France Motorhome Hire. Sally and Simon did a great job walking us thru the paperwork and showing us around the motorhome. It was a pretty easy to learn how to operate as we bought the same motorhome that we had rented in the spring.

When we bought the motorhome we did add three things; one is an inverter so we can have access to the power points when we are not plugged in, we also added a solar panel and a second battery to give us the power to stay off the grid for a few days if necessary. In addition we added a safe for obvious reasons. The last thing we added was a propane system that allows us to fill the tanks at LPG gas pumps in gas stations. This should allow us to avoid the issue of incompatible bottles and regulators from country to country in Europe.

Our first stop after unpacking was to head over to fill the LP system. Ron was a little worried as Propane dispensing in the US is not something that is done self-service, but when all was said and done it went pretty smoothly. Since the gas filling station was next to a grocery we made our first stop for groceries. After that we headed to the Aire (For those of you who did not follow us on our rental adventure in France an Aire is an overnight spot for RV parking that is not a campground, usually a parking lot designated for overnight stays, very common in France.) The Aire here is quite nice as it used to be the municipal campground. It is conveniently located next to a Lidl grocery, and is walking distance to downtown.

Our new to us RV François in the Aire at Sens.

April 29, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

All things must end. Last night there was a heck of a storm that woke us both up. For the second time we had a thunderstorm in France with a pretty healthy dumping of rain, even possibly some hail. We spent the morning packing up and cleaning François so that we can have a quick and easy turn around tomorrow before heading to Paris.

We left Merry around 11 am with about 80km’s to cover to the Aire we spent our first night in. The GPS finally decided to cooperate and kept us on good 2 lane D roads, and even decided to by-pass a couple of towns rather than send us thru the middle of them. As a result we made really good time getting to St. Julien.

The wine has been fantastic in France so I thought we would include a picture of the plant that has added a lot of fun to the trip for us.

We needed to fill up the fuel, and after that we had some time to kill. As it is Sunday nearly everything but restaurants are closed. Across from the gas station was a McDonalds, and we thought why not? This was the most high tech McDonalds I have ever seen. You ordered your food at a 4 foot touch screen. One interesting thing is that we had heard that we might run into trouble with our American credit cards here, and for the entire trip we had never had a problem paying with our credit cards until today at McDonalds. The giant screen rejected all three of our chip cards, so we had to take our little slip up to the one cashier on duty and pay for our 2 coffees and fries with cash!

April 28, 2018 Merry-Sur-Yonne FR

Our night in the parking lot at Flavigny was uneventful, except after the warm nights in Provence it was quite chilly back in Burgundy. When we woke up and got going Ton decided that the candy tins at the factory here in Flavigny would be great gifts so we needed to kill time until it opened at 930.

Ton remembered there were some spectacular canola fields as we came into town. We decided to take a short walk up to get a closer look. It was a nice walk and we enjoyed being out in the quiet French countryside.

Ton in front of a huge field of Canola. This is the last canola photo, we promise.

After completing our purchase at the candy factory we headed over to the town of Vezeley. It is another one of the most beautiful villages in France. We were back on D roads of Burgundy. The countryside in Burgundy is definitely much quieter than the countryside in Provence, so the drives are a lot more enjoyable and the scenery is terrific.

A town in Burgundy. The roads in Burgundy are much quieter than in Provence.

Several people we had met on the trip said that Vezalay was a town not to miss. It is another of the most beautiful villages in France, and as you drive towards the town it is quite striking. The weather has taken a turn for the worst with temperatures in the 50’s and on again, off again rain. But we caught a gap while we walked up the hill to Vezeley’s Cathedral. The town was interesting and pretty but once again felt touristy, especially compared to Flavigny. While we were in the cathedral a mass started with about 15 nuns coming out to join the mass.

The Cathedral in Vezeley. It is a very striking white color, and interesting because it has less art in place than other Cathedral’s we have visited.

The last stop of the day was at Merry-Sur-Yonne which has a nice ring to it. The campground here is first class, and the bridge into the small village over the river Yonne is quite pretty. Ton has declared it the nicest campground she has been in, though we both did grumble a little about paying €19 after several nights of free or nearly free camping. However, the warm reception from the British owner, warm unlimited showers and the electricity have reduced the grumbling. At the end of the day we walked down to the Yonne River and had a quiet end to our day.

The bridge over the Yonne River near our campground.

April 27, 2018 Flavigny-Sur-Ozerin FR

Today we had to bite the bullet and do some freeway travel. We needed to get north so we can be in position to turn François in on Monday. So we put 300km’s under our belt in one long leap. We choose the town of Flavigny-Sur-Ozerain as it was the site where one of Ton’s favorite movies was filmed, Chocolat with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. It is also on the list of one of the most beautiful villages in France.

A street scene from Flavigny, one of the most beautiful villages in France.

The trip north on the Autoroute was uneventful even though the GPS insisted on routing us right thru the heart of Lyon (France’s second biggest city) instead of taking the bypass that all of the trucks did. However, traffic was not too bad so Ron forgave her and we did get to see Lyon at 70kph.

Since we last left Burgundy the canola has really grown.

We arrived in Flavigny around 2pm and found it quite peaceful. Our first stop was a candy factory in an old Abby that has been producing Anis based candies since 1591. After some sampling of the wares again we purchased some tins of the candy.

A cool Renault RV with the logo of the candy factory we visited today.

All of the other most beautiful villages felt a little commercial, Flavigny most definitely did not. We spent about 20 minutes looking for the tourist information office when we realized we had walked past it twice before noticing the sign in the window saying it was closed until July. We wanted the tourist information office to see if it would be all right to spend the night in their parking lot. After walking around the town for a couple of hours and enjoying an afternoon coffee and beer, we finally decided on our own that it was ok to park as there was no police in the town to ask. Right now we have finished our dinner and are enjoying some wine in a very peaceful and serene parking lot, with birds chirping in the background.

Ron at one of the medieval gates to the city of Flavigny.

April 11, 2018 Cluny FR

Last night we decided to head south for the trip. It took us up to now to finalize our plans, though we are going to make daily plans so how far we move each day is up to debate. The problem is we keep finding things to do so we are not covering much distance. In fact after 6 days we are sill in Burgundy and are only 175 miles from our starting point.

Today we had two stops in mind, a cheese factory outside Dijon and the Cluny Abbey. The first stop was a factory that specializes in soft cheese manufacture. We did the self guided tour. This involved peering thru windows at workers who tried to look unimpressed and watching videos of the process. It was interesting if a little impersonal. The fun began at the end where we were given five cheeses to taste and of course some bread and wine to go with them. Ton really liked the cheeses as she likes softer cheeses. Ron is a cheddar fan which makes him pretty much a charlatan, at least in Burgundy.

Some of the workers in the plant performing one of the three cleanings each cheese gets.

Our long drive of about 60 miles began after that. On the way to Cluny we came to the town of Cormatin it was pretty well developed and we where trying to figure out why, when we saw an interesting Chateau on the river. We were already by it when we decided to go back and check it out. The signs said open, but the door to the ticket office was locked and the tourist office was also closed for lunch. So we had to settle for some photos over the fence before moving on to Cluny.

Looks like it would have been an interesting walk but we could not find anyone to take our 6 euros.

Our destination for today was the Abby of Cluny. At one time the largest building in Christendom before the building of St. Peters in Rome. On arrival in town we were looking for the town aire. After much circling around including one trip into the heart of the town down narrow one way streets we found a parking lot kind of in the right part of town. It had four or five RV’s parked up so we decided why not join them.

The original church went from the point of this photo to the spire below. That spire is one of the three that were in place in the church.

We headed into town to take the Abby tour. The Abby is now mostly in ruins with only 10% of the original buildings still standing. What is there is really impressive and it does not take much imagination to see the beauty of the remainder. The rest was lost because the order that originally built it ran out of money to maintain it and they ended up selling it to the town. The town then dismantled the church and sold the stone locally and in Paris. If it was standing today in it’s finished state it would surely be one of the biggest attractions in Burgundy if not France.

A view of the town of Cluny from the tower of Fromagges next to the Abby.

When we returned to our parking lot there were only two other RV’s left so Ron came to the conclusion that this was not the aire. After some googling he got a map to the aire. When we arrived it was clearly an aire. The problem was that instead of being free as advertised it cost 10euro, and you had to call the town police to pay up, and failure to call in a timely manner increased the cost to 22euro. Eventually we found a nice lady who made the call for us. So tonight we are watching a parade of horses go by to the local stables in the town Hippodrome next door.

April 10, 2018 Dijon FR

Today we planned on spending the day exploring Dijon. The jet lag is finally wearing off and we woke up at a pretty normal time after sleeping thru the night.

Yesterday we had purchased a walking guide of Dijon from the Tourist Office. It is called The Owls Trail. On the main church in Dijon sometime in the 16th century someone (no one is sure who) added an owl on one of the side walls. The legend is that if you touch it with your left hand (the one closest to your heart) and make a wish it will come true.

The lucky owl on the side of the Church of Notre Dame. Notice how worn it is from all of the people looking for good luck.

They have embedded little owl plaques in the sidewalks thru out downtown and all you have to do is follow them in a loop to see most of the main sites in town. It really is a nice system and a fun way to make your way around town.

A sample of the cute owl embedded in the sidewalk.

Because today was market day we decided to start our Owls Tour at the market. The market building is a cast iron building built in 1875. The market was primarily meat and cheese, with the cheese places having the longest lines of locals. We did not end up buying anything but enjoyed window shopping.

Following the owl around town we were overwhelmed with churches, old mansions, old shops, and palaces. To see so much first rate medieval and renaissance architecture in such a small area was impressive to Ron as it is his first visit to continental Europe.

Having spent a couple of hours wandering around Dijon we decided it was time for a break and some lunch. We went to a restaurant the winery had recommended yesterday and each had the Plat du Jour. The main course was a stuffed chicken with sauce and noodles. The desert was small plates including a pudding, a creme brulee, and an espresso. It was a good deal at 14 euro’s.

We did some window shopping in some of the modern stores, and a department store before deciding to head back to François (Ton decided that the RV was too classy for a name like Frenchy). Ron missed the turn heading out of town despite having done the exact same roundtrip yesterday, and led Ton on a 1/2 hour wander thru Dijon before finally getting back on track.

At the end of the day including Ron’s wandering around lost we posted over 10 miles on the Fitbit. Not bad for a couple of old people.

April 9, 2018 Dijon FR

The jet lag is starting to wear off a bit and we were both up and moving around a little earlier. We were undecided about the day as it is supposed to rain this afternoon, and it was spitting a little this morning to give us a taste.

We did want to visit a winery and after much research Ton decided on Bernard Rion Sarl in the village of Vosnee Romanee. It was a great choice. We were met by the owners wife as we pulled up in front. She assigned us to Bastien who gave us a personal tour of the winery and poured about 8 or 9 wines for us to taste. During the pouring the wife came down and offered us some truffles and bread to go with the tasting from their kitchen. A little later the owner Bernard came in and said hello, and offered us some tips on where to find good beer in the area. We decided to buy only two bottles as we do not have a lot of room. Ron was very tempted by the Grand Cru but at 90 Euro a bottle it seemed a little extravagant for anything we could whip up in the RV. We instead settled for a couple of lessor wines that were still very good, and one we will save for a special night before we leave.

Ron pretending he is a tasting room worker in France.

As we are learning the system here we needed some more supplies so we popped in to another grocery store for some more stuff. After tasting some great wine, Ton was fascinated with the wine selection in the grocery and decided to buy a 1.99 Euro bottle to compare with what we had just tasted. We are drinking it as we write this and it is quite enjoyable, though not up to the standard of Bernard Rion Sarl.

Bird along the Canal De Bourgogne. Not a species we are familiar with.

When we arrived at Dijon the weather was not very threatening so we decided to head into town. It was about a mile and half walk mostly along the river to the old part of town. Tomorrow we are going to explore the town seriously, but today we visited the Musee Del Bel Artes in the old Duke of Bourgogne’s palace. It was a very impressive museum with great medieval art and armaments. The palace itself is massive and reflects the power the Duchy of Bourgogne had during the early Renaissance period. It was under construction so there will be more to see in the future.

The square outside the Duke of Bourgogne’s palace.

We decided to head back a little early as the sky was starting to threaten rain. We made it back just in time before a really large thunderstorm moved thru the area complete with lightning and a real gully washer of rain that would have competed with any thunderstorm in the mid-west.

April 8, 2018 Beaune FR

We are still fighting a bit of jet lag so we had another slow start to the day. We finally hit the road about 1030 for the 120 km trip to Beaune. We told the GPS to avoid tolls so we found ourselves driving thru some really beautiful country on roads that ranged from two good lanes with passing zones every few miles to 11/2 lane roads thru small villages. We probably only averaged about 40mph but it was worth it for the view.

This stretch of road is typical with fields and small villages. This stretch was not particularly narrow.

We arrived in Beaune around lunch time with the intent of checking out the free aire, but we missed the sign going thru town despite the really light traffic. We saw the sign for the municipal campground and decided to go ahead and pay up for the night.

After a nice lunch prepared by Ton we headed into Beaune. It is a well preserved medieval city. Our primary stop for the day was going to be the Hospices De Beaune. On the walk there, and as we were entering the downtown “tourist” core suddenly there were sirens converging on the area in mass. Unfortunately in these times we were worried that something really bad was happening. As it turned out Beaune is hosting a “Police Film Festival” this weekend, and what we heard were a bunch of guys whose hobby is to fix up cars and dress like foreign police. So when we got down town we were treated to the site of a bunch of American Police cars including two NYPD, one California Highway Patrol and one LAPD cruiser. There was also a 1950’s Cadillac painted as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Car. While the theme was definitely American there were a couple of antique French Police Cars, and a group of guys dressed up like Italian Carabiniere (national police) complete with a Maserati.

One of several “American” Police cars we came across in Beaune.

The Hospice De Beaune was built in 1443 and was active as a Hospital until 1972. The thought that went into it is quite impressive for its time and allowed it to function for over 500 years. But this being France it was partially endowed by the production of wine on site, and the wine from the Hospice is still very sought after.

The roof of the Hospice de Beaune is done in a traditional Burgundian style with colored tiles.

April 7, 2018 Vincelles FR

The original plan for today was to visit Auxerre which is an interesting looking medieval town. We are both fighting jet lag so after some conversation at 130 am we both finally fell asleep until after 9am. So the day got off to a late start. The first stop was another grocery store to pick up the things we missed yesterday.

After that we headed into Auxerre to find a place to park. The first choice was going to be the Aire but it was closed. We then decided to bite the bullet and go to the municipal campground, when we arrived the office was staffed, but it turns out it was also closed. They recommended a place in Vincelles and after some wandering around admiring the countryside we ended up in a nice campground, the receptionist informed me that we were the first Americans he had ever checked in, at first he could not find the US in the database in his computer and asked if we minded being listed as British, but a few seconds later he proudly informed us that he had found the US and we would be listed properly in their database.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Bailley Lapierre Caves. The caves were originally an under ground stone quarry to supply building in Paris and operated from the middle ages till the 1920’s. It was converted to a wine production facility in 1972. The scale is impressive as we drove the RV (Ton is calling it Frenchy) into the cave for parking. The entire facility is underground in the caves leftover from the quarry. The tour was pretty interesting though we both regretted our lack of French. We tasted some brut at the end and while we are generally not big fans of sparkling wine we enjoyed this one.

In addition to the wine there is some nice art work along the way.

We finished the day with a nice walk along the canal and River Yonne. The mustard is in full flower and the yellow fields lined the river. It was quite nice.

Mustard field with old church whose bells we have been listening to all day.

April 6, 2018 St. Julien de Sault FR

Today was going to be one of the most stressful travel days for us as we had to make our way from Charles de Gaulle airport to Paris and then on by train to a town called Sens where we would be picked up to go to the depot to pick up our RV.

After much consulting of web sites Ron decided the best way to accomplish the first leg of the trip CDG (Airport code) to Gare de Lyon station was by metro. It looked pretty straight forward The B train from CDG to a stop in Paris and then transfer to the A train for one stop to Gare de Lyon. Everything was going swimmingly until it came to the transfer. The train was packed when it was time to get off and of course we had not just ourselves to get off but two very large bags. We were definitely two salmon swimming up stream and it did not look like we were going to make it off the train, when suddenly two very large, young French gentlemen decided to take our side. Whatever they shouted at the people around us and coming onto the train worked wonders and suddenly a clear lane to the door opened up and we popped out on to the platform. We did not have a chance to thank them as the rush to board the train restarted as soon as we were off, but they have some good karma coming.

The next stop was Gare de Lyon station where our first linguistic adventure began. We had to get from the metro to the main train station and purchase tickets for the train. We saw an information kiosk so I decided to ask how to get to the station and purchase a ticket to Sens. Quickly I was presented with two tickets and asked for 14 Euro. This didn’t seem right as I had read it would cost us 40 Euro to get to Sens but paid anyway. I asked how to get to the platform and was given a map of Paris with a stop circled. After some further discussion and the intervention of someone in line it became clear that the tickets were not what I needed, we needed to move on to another part of the station and our money was refunded. When we found ourselves in the right place Ron decided to not take a chance on any further linguistic issues and bought the tickets from a machine.

We arrived in Sens during lunch and decided on another kebab place. We know we are in France but we both really like kebab, and it is the cheapest food being offered. We were gathered up by Alice from the RV company along with a British group. We were smoothly processed by Alice and her husband Mario who are Portuguese and world travelers themselves.

After our first shopping in France at a very large and new Auchan (grocery chain)it was getting late so we headed over to the campground Ron had picked out. It was close and we thought we would indulge in electricity for the first night. When we got there though we were met by a closed gate and the owner who explained to us they were closed though we did not quite understand the why. So instead we ended up in the town aire which is free and looks pleasant.

Also, wanted to say Happy Birthday to Ton.

June 21 2019 Luxembourg LX

Luxembourg City is a beautiful city, but for now it is also a giant construction project. At nearly every point we turned there is a building going up, or a road being widened or paved. We even ran into a small side loader when climbing a trail from the lower city to the upper city. On top of the construction they were setting up for the national day celebration so where construction was not going on there were crowd control fences and stages being built for the party. While we do not think this is normal, it was probably the hardest city to walk in we have seen in Europe.

Some of the old fortifications and bridges above the Aizette River.

Most of the city is on the bluffs of the Aizette River. The river passes thru the city in a gorge a couple of hundred feet below the city. There is a section of the city at the bottom of the bluff called Grun. We spent most of the day down there wandering around the old streets and messing around in the ramparts of the old fort. We could see it is a beautiful city when it is not being dug up in mass.

The Grun district in the valley below the city center. Ton had to work hard to get a picture with only one construction crane in it.

We had lunch in a restaurant in the Grun where we tried the national dish of Luxembourg called Judd Mat Gaardebounen when it arrived at the table it came in a cauldron. It is pork neck soaked in brine with white beans, definitely peasant food. It was filling. Having eaten peasant food for our main course we decided to go to the official patisserie of the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg for desert. We had a nice cheese cake, and chocolate nougat for desert. So we had a peasant dinner and an aristocratic desert.

Ham and beans our traditional Luxembourg peasant lunch.

When we returned for the night there was an outdoor concert taking place. So we wandered over with some of our Duchesse de Bourgogne beer and listened to the Moselle Valley Brass Band until it was time to turn in for the night.

June 20, 2019 Alzingen LX

We have both wanted to visit Luxembourg on this trip. We almost swung thru on our way out, but it did not work out. So last night we decided to head over today. We left with some light rain and for the last 50 km’s or so we had absolutely torrential rain. We also ran into our first EU customs check, as Luxembourg was checking all trucks entering the country so the right lane of the freeway was closed so that the police could use it to check the trucks. This caused a 2 or 3 mile backup as all of the non-commercial traffic squeezed in the left lane.

The Luxembourg flag from the church next to the campground.

When we got to the nice campground on the outskirts of Luxembourg City and checked in, we noticed the throw carpet we put on the floor of François was wet. This is the third time we have had this problem, and each time it has been after driving thru very heavy rain. While Ton cleaned up, I tried to find a possible source of the water. We are finding the water right in the center of the cabin, and there are no obvious places for it to come from. So far no luck, the good news is that it only happens when it rains heavily, and it is not an enormous amount of water. We will keep you posted.

A picture from a memorial to three American soldiers who were killed when their tank fell thru the bridge in the village while they were liberating it.

Since we started on a clean up, because of the mystery leak we decided to also take care of washing the sheets towels and everything we leave behind. We were planning on doing it on Saturday, but since the campground had good German Washing Machines and Dryers and Ton was on a roll we decided to do it today.

The ruins of an old castle near the campground.

Since not much happened today I will share one weird story from the trip. When we entered Germany way back on May 9 the campground we were staying at had one of those take one leave one libraries. All but one of the books were in German, but the one book in English looked interesting to me so I took it. It was Michael Palins diary from 1970-1979 of his years with Monty Python. It was a pretty thick book and it became my night time reading. I was reading the last twenty pages of it in early June when I noticed the campground we were staying in in Lubeck also had a take one leave one library. It was the first one I had noticed since I had gotten the Palin diary, and I was shocked to see the next volume of Michael Palins diary from 1980 to 1989 amongst all the German books there. It seems I have been following a fellow Michael Palin fan around Germany and we read at about the same pace.

The two volumes of Michael Palin diaries found in two campground take one leave one libraries over 400 miles apart in Germany.

June 13, 2019 Brussels BE

Today we took the train from Antwerp to Brussels for the day. We always intended to visit Brussels, but when we looked at the parking options for François they were pretty bleak in Brussels. We realized we could be in Brussels in a little over an hour by train from where we were, so we locked François up for the day and headed to the train station.

The Antwerp train station is one of the largest in Europe.

It was a pretty uneventful ride to Brussels except I had us get off the train one station early, but luckily there was another train right behind the one we were on, so we arrived in Brussels only a few minutes later than our train did.

The central square in Brussels, note all of the coats the high was around 60 degrees.

At one point in life there was some short lived discussion of a job assignment in Brussels so we had done some research on the city. At that time it had the reputation of being more of a manufacturing center and a little gray by all accounts. Either those accounts were wrong or Brussels has had a renaissance in the last 15 years because the city center was bustling with all of the air of a major tourist destination. There were lots of chocolate shops, on one high end street every third store was a chocolate shop.

Waffles and Belgian Fries are very popular.

The famous statue of the little boy peeing into a fountain that Brussels is famous for. The tourism photos make it look much larger than it is.

The feminist version located near Delirium Brew Pub.

We also visited a couple of very old beer shops that look like they belonged in the gritty industrial city I had expected. They were the kind of dive bars with excellent beer selections we really like. We also visited a bar that one of our friends recommended that has over 2000 beers from around the world. Unlike the dive bars it was catering to the tourist crowd. We took a walk around before heading off for a meal, and the visit to the cathedral.

The inside of the dive bar that matched my vision of Brussels.

Our trip back to Antwerp was uneventful and quick, especially since I did not get off in the wrong place. We got back just in time for a good sized thunderstorm complete with a little hail.

June 12, 2019 Antwerp BE

It was poring rain when we woke, and the temperature had fallen quite a bit. Earlier in the trip we probably would just have settled in for the day, but we are feeling some pressure to keep moving so we decided to go ahead and head up to Antwerp. Our plan is to explore Antwerp today, and then take the train from Antwerp to Brussels tomorrow, as the parking opportunities are pretty limited in Brussels.

Drove to Antwerp pretty much the whole way in poring rain, and we ran into a 40km back up of trucks heading into Antwerp the second busiest port in Europe. We finally arrived at the aire about 1230 and where Greta Garmin told us to turn there was a gate across the entrance. It turns out they were closed for lunch, so we found a place on the street until lunch was over. By the time we settled in the rain had a second wind and was torrential.

Cute sculpture in the square in Antwerp.

About 4 pm it let up so we headed into town. Besides wanting to get a feel for the center of Antwerp we had one particular location in mind. Ton in her research on beer had discovered a destination beer bar called Kulminator. It has made a lot of lists of best beer destinations in the world, and apparently the owner regrets the publicity as he does not want beer tourists, but beer lovers. Now he has put in a buzzer on the entrance to the bar, and after you ring it he comes out to screen you. He asks you if you are there to taste beer or to drink beer. There is a correct answer and if you get it wrong he sends you on your way. We knew the question in advance but did not know the correct answer, so as we walked there we debated; Ton thinking drink while I was thinking taste. When the question came Ton gave her answer, but then told him we really wanted to experience the place no matter the answer, so even though she gave the wrong answer she is cute and he let us in. Inside is a place that feels like an overstuffed living room with a beer bar in it. The music was classical, and they obviously were making no attempt to be hip or commercial. When you sit down the owners wife, and beer tender brings you a huge book with all of their beers in the cellar, and points out what is on draft. The book is intimidating and takes some time to go thru so we stuck with the draft beers which were very eclectic. We enjoyed two rounds while sharing beer and travel experiences with an Australian/English couple.

The entrance to Kulminator includes a buzzer where you have to convince the owner of your good intentions before you can enter.

A sour and a dark beer among the hundreds hand picked by the owner to be “tasted”.

By the time we left the rain had broke and we enjoyed a couple of hours of sun. The days are quite long and as I type this at 9:20 we still have another 50 minutes of day light coming.

June 14, 2019 Bruges BE

Bruges is one of the most visited cities in Europe and a world heritage site. It is one of the cities that is being loved to death and is looking at how to reduce tourism without killing it. So we are here with all of the tourists trying to enjoy the city.

The market square in Bruges with some of the crowd.

When you get here you see why it is popular. It has most of its older buildings intact and is a great size to walk around and take in the sites. On top of that it has an extensive canal system that makes it feel even more fun and interesting. The entire town is a UNESCO site and for good reasons.

But views like this are the reason so many people want to see Bruge. It is a stunning place.

Having said all of that we we are here in shoulder season and it was packed. It is not a place to visit if you do not like crowds. We usually avoid crowds but braved them today and are glad we did as the city is really worth it. There is not one thing that is truly outstanding, but what you have is all of the pieces of a European City, palace, cathedral, market square, old houses and businesses and they are all well preserved and presented. In this case the sum of the parts is greater than the individual parts.

The combination of the house and the footbridge, these small charms are scattered through out the city.

The aire in Bruges is next to a giant bus lot for all of the tour busses who come to the city each day. The aire is expensive but the location is good as it is a quick 10 minute walk to the center.

A green canal near between the aire and city center.

We had a list of things we wanted to see and do. One of the highlights was a visit to a chocolate shop that is known for outstanding hot chocolate. This was absolutely the best hot chocolate we have ever had. When our order arrived we thought they had made a mistake because we received two very large cups of hot milk, and a tray with two heaping servings of chocolate. The girl explained that we put the chocolate into the milk and mix it ourselves to taste. It was unbelievably delicious. In addition to the chocolate we split a Belgian Waffle with chocolate, whipped cream and ice cream. It was decadent, the best desert we have had on this trip.

We came across this view wandering down a back alley. Bruges seems to have a beautiful surprise around every corner.

After that we spent the day enjoying ourselves wandering around town. Ton ran the battery down on her camera taking photos. Bruges is one of the best cities we have visited to just wander aimlessly as there is a new view, or statue, or people doing interesting things all around. We accomplished all of our list but the canal boat ride as the lines were crazy and the boats were gunnel to gunnel going down the canal.

We missed the canal tour because of the crowds.

The Belgian version of the Budweiser Clydesdales.

We ended the day with a stop at at the Half Moon Brewery which has been around for six generations now. We enjoyed two of their signature beers. Even though it was our last planned stop we still took over an hour to get back to François as new sights beckoned us to turn aside all the way back.

Came across this view as we walked back to François.

Another view on our way back to François.

June 15, 2019 Ghent BE

Today we took the train into Ghent leaving François in Bruges. Ghent is an easy 30 minute train ride from Bruges and we are parked almost next to the train station, with the added bonus of 1/2 price train tickets on the weekend it was a no brainer for us, and a rest day for me and François.

The market square and St. Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent.

The Ghent station is about a mile and a half from the center of the city, so we stopped and bought a day pass for the local transit which broadened our area to explore a bit. The first stop was the tourist information center to pick up a walking tour map of the city. Ghent is a bigger less touristy version of Bruges. It has all of the canals, cathedrals, and old buildings of Bruges just on a bigger less personal scale.

The Belfry in Bruges, while it looks old, the top half is from the early 20th century.

The center was very lively as it was Saturday and the local people were out shopping with the tourists. Ghent had a really fun feel to it and we enjoyed walking thru the center of the town. It is the third biggest city in Belgium, but avoided significant damage in both Wars so it has retained a lot of it’s pre-20th century charm. Recently as Bruges has been overrun with tourists, Ghent has turned into a major tourist destination as well.

The center of the tourist industry, the canal boat tours in Ghent allow alcohol while the ones in Bruges do not.

The old meat market with a selection of (probably Spanish) hams hanging from the ceiling.

After touring the center we decided to continue our beer tour of Belgium by visiting a couple of breweries, the first was Dok Brewery. It was in an old industrial area adjacent to some canals that is being converted to housing and small tech type businesses. Dok in Flemish means Dock in English and it was located in an old warehouse. We knew we had found a place away from the tourist route because all of the signs were in Flemish. When I apologized that I could not speak Flemish to the Bartender she smiled and switched to perfect English and told me not to worry, no one but the Flemish can. It really reminded us of some of the breweries in Portland that are also in old industrial sites. They had a wide selection of beers beyond the traditional Belgian beers. We enjoyed a taster tray and then a round of our favorites.

Canals cut thru Ghent in many directions, many are still used for industry, some are converting to tech and housing.

The second brewery was Gruut Brewery. It is unusual because the head brewer is female. It is also set up as a microbrewery, so we enjoyed a taster of not just the traditional beers but some non-traditional. They were also excellent.

On the way back we were comparing Ghent and Bruges. Our conclusion was if you were visiting for a day you should choose Bruges, if you were visiting for a week we would choose Ghent.

We stumbled onto this alley that the local artists were using as a living art gallery. There were about 100 yards of graffiti art along both sides.

Ton has been greatly entertained by Flemish/Dutch spellings, as they have lots of vowels. In the past she visited the Czech Republic and had difficulty pronouncing anything due to that languages lack of vowels, here the plethora of vowels cause her the same problem. Tonight she was telling our neighbors from the Netherlands that they need to lend some of their vowels to the Czechs so both languages would be easier to pronounce.

A wood carving of St. Bavo. He has the nicest cathedral in Ghent named after him.

June 16, 2019 Bruges BE

Bruges deserved a second day so after spending some time talking to our Dutch and English neighbors we headed into town to take a look at some other sites for the day. We were hoping it would be a little less crowded than on Friday but if anything it was busier.

Market Square in Bruges with the crowds.

Our first stop was the oldest bar in Bruges dating back to the 1560’s. One of the stories is that the famous Flemish painter Paul Reubens ran up a bar tab in the 1600’s that he did not have the cash to pay off, so he paid the bill with a painting. Hopefully they kept the painting long enough as it would have paid off whatever tab he ran up plus a million Euro or so today.

The door to the oldest bar in Bruges that one time owned an original Reubens.

Something interesting happened as we walked to the bar. It is not in the tourist core of Bruges, and after we got a few blocks past the square we were suddenly alone. We were following a beautiful canal with really interesting buildings all around us, but hardly any tourists, just locals. We really enjoyed this stretch of the city.

Another beautiful area in Bruges away from the tourist crush.

On Friday we passed on a canal boat tour because of the crowds, but today despite the crowds being worst we felt obliged to do it. There were 40 seats on the boat and they were all filled. Our boat driver was multi-lingual so he did the tour in 4 languages, English, Dutch, French, and Spanish so we had to pay attention for when our explanation was coming. By this time we had walked all of the canals we went down a couple of times so we were familiar with the sites and the short explanation did not add much to our experience.

Ton treated me to a fathers day meal of Flemish Mussels which are a delicacy around here. After we started eating we realized that Delirium Brewery from Brussels had recently bought this place which was listed as one of the best restaurants and beer halls in town.

Enjoying my Belgian Mussels with a Delirium Beer.

At the end of the day we returned to Half Maan Brewery for a tour. It is clear that lawyers are not the powerful force in Belgium that they are in the US. Our tour had us climbing up and down ladders and very small stairs thru working industrial space. At one point the tour guide let an 11 year old boy climb into a 500 liter beer tank, that would result in a fine from the safety inspector in the US. The brewery has a 2 mile pipeline for beer from the brewery to their bottling plant in the industrial outskirts of Bruges which is the longest beer pipeline in the world. The highlight was when we popped out on the roof of the brewery for a great view of the top of Bruges. The tour ended with a nice glass of Belgian Blonde Ale, and some soccer discussion about the US women and Timbers with another couple from Portland who were also on the tour.

Ton really liked the logo of the Half Maan Brewery.

The view of Bruges from the roof of Half Maan.

The storage tanks they let the boy climb into.

As we headed back we heard voices near François and it turns out our English and Dutch neighbors had also just returned and were exchanging stories of their day. We joined in and an impromptu party broke out where some French wine, and Irish, and German beer was consumed. That is why this is being published a day late.

As we were leaving the city we came on this sculpture of the flying horse Pegasus pulling a carriage. We are not sure what the significance is of the naked women on the back.

June 17, 2019 Ypres BE

We only moved about 50 kilometers today to the town of Ypres. I picked this stop because I was interested in a Commonwealth War Ceremony they have there every night.

Walking to town we came across this very healthy looking sheep who winked at Ton.

Ypres was right on the front lines during WWI and was pretty much fought over for the entire war. In total there were over 1 million casualties in what was called the Ypres Salient (bulge) with over 850,000 combined casualties in a 3 month period in 1917. Ypres was also the first use of poison gas on the western front. The entire town was leveled during the course of the war.

After the war the Belgian government rebuilt the city including duplicating the Cotton Hall and belfry as well as the Cathedral as they stood before the war. Both buildings are impressive sites today.

The reconstructed Cotton Hall and Belfry rebuilt after WWI. The original building was rubble after the war.

While French and Belgian troops fought extensively in this area for the allies, a large contingent of British and Commonwealth soldiers fought here. After the war the Belgian government reconstructed the Menin Gate into the city as a war memorial to the Commonwealth and British soldiers who were killed in this area but whose bodies were never properly identified. The monument has over 50,000 names on it from all over the British Empire. There are soldiers from Canada, Australia, India, Burma, and South Africa as well as Great Britain on the memorial.

You can see the endless lists of names on the wall, thru the door is a similar wall with more names, over 50,000 in total.

As a tribute to these men who were lost; every night the Fire Brigade in Ypres has a ceremony called “The Last Post”. At 8pm buglers from the Fire Brigade play the Last Post (the British version of Taps.) inside the Menin Gate. Tonight we attended the ceremony and it is very moving. As we were waiting we heard people from Canada, Australia, and Britain talking about the ceremony and why they were attending. It is a fairly simple but moving ceremony as different groups bring wreaths to present at the Gate. Tonight it was school groups in their uniforms presenting the wreaths. We were very impressed that this ceremony is still being carried out over 100 years after the end of WWI.

June 18 2019 Westvleteren BE

Today we moved a whole 15km to a nice aire on a farm in the village of Westvlateren. It is a very small village known for St Sixtus Abby and Brewery. The setting is beautiful but unfortunately they just cut the hay in the field next to the aire and Ton who has been fighting allergies this entire trip is really suffering.

Our impromptu goal for the day St. Sixtus Abby.

As we have been traveling around Belgium we have kept hearing about this mythical beer from Westvleteren. When we were in Amsterdam we ran into an Australian who proudly mentioned he had found some bottles of it for sale in Brussels and was happy to get 3 of them for only €19 each. When we moved to Bruges we also heard about this beer from some other people. Ton began doing her research and it turns out it is considered by some beer connoisseurs to be the best beer in the world, and it was very difficult to buy it as you had to make an appointment and you were limited to 48 bottles at a time. The problem is that the phone to call to make an appointment receives over 80,000 calls per day so it is very hit or miss whether you can get an appointment. The monks are very concerned as their beer has been growing in popularity about people gouging others. They closely control distribution to minimize people inflating prices, but it is still happening like our Australian friend in Brussels discovered. At the brewery the bottles sell for €4.

We were still not planning to visit the brewery until last night when we decided to spend the day in the vicinity of Poperinge which is the biggest Hops producing town in Belgium. When I began to look for a place to stay around Poperinge it turns out there is an aire close to the Westvleteren Abby. Ton did some more research and found out that the monks did allow one cafe to sell their beer over the counter in the village, so here we are.

Hops were the reason we began the trip today.

We started the day by going to Poperinge to visit the hop museum. It was an interesting presentation on hop production in the region. It focused mostly on the farming of the hops and was full of equipment and detailed descriptions of how hop farming techniques had changed in the area thru history. At the end it had examples of every Belgian Beer currently in production by region.

To celebrate the end of the hop harvest locals burn straw men in the field and drink a lot of beer.

The next stop was the Westvleteren Cafe which along with the Abby is pretty much the entire town. The aire was supposed to be 1km from the Abby but that turned out to be as the crow flies, so after a half hour walk around the fields between us and the abby we arrived hot and ready for a cold beer. It took a while to be served as we have not quite mastered the way of getting a Belgian servers attention, but we finally put in our order for one of each of the 3 beers they produce here. The first is a blonde, the second is a dark beer with 8% alcohol, and the reported best beer in the world is the dark beer with 12% alcohol. They were all excellent, but our conclusion was that the dark 12 was indeed the best.

As we were leaving we stopped in their gift shop to pick up a memory of the trip, and discovered we could buy a six pack of the dark 12. So as I am typing this I am happily sipping on one of the best beers in the world.