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Brussels – Belgium
Category Archives: 2024
Ypress – Belgium
So the holiday was fluid, and the day prior we were pondering on whether or not to have another day in Brussels as we were aware there was far more to see than one day would allow, but we were restless, and had an urge to move on. So the next logical place as we moved towards France and the ferry port was Ypress, with its history regarding the the previous wars.
My birthday is in November, and the remembrance day falls on my birthday weekend. We quite often go away for my birthday so we have been privileged to see the parades in many different locations, with the minutes silence at the eleventh hour. No fighting ever happened on British soil. We are privileged in many ways to live on an island, and although it didn’t protect from the German blitz, we needed to commit to a war over seas. And this is where we need to remind ourselves that this is where the losses were tragically high.
As we arrived we could sense we were in for a down poor at some point due to the very angry sky as we pulled into a truck stop. This was next to the train station and we had good advice that we could stay here overnight.
Ypres is one of the nicest places I have ever been to. Everywhere is pristine. The shops, the restaurants, the local dwellings. Stunning!
We choose to do the Ypres & Flanders museum midday as the forecast was rain and this attraction is indoors. The Flanders is 100% a must, and the reason I wanted to visit. We paid extra to climb the bell tower, which was 231 steps. This was a great experience (although Mandy might have disagreed on the way up). Over all, today was one of the best days of the holiday yet. Perfect balance of chill, and education. Loved it! Recommend it!
Knowing there was a lot more to see locally, we had found that there was an Aire a couple of miles away, just outside of the town centre that sounded quite appealing. This would give us access to electric hook-up, elsan point, and more importantly a quiet space to chill in our deckchairs. The reviews were pretty good so we thought we would give it a look.
I had been having some issues with my chest over the last 24 hours, but we decided to venture out on the bikes to have a look at a few of the local points of interest like the war graves and and the sight of the detonation that created a large crater in World War 2 which was depicted in the film “Beneath Hill 60”.
Brugges – Belgium
The ferry crossing from Dover to Calais was rather univentful Bruges midday pretty wiped out. The rest of the day we chilled, but we both agreed we needed to.
Sunday, we could start to re aquaint ourselves with a leisurely ride into the city centre. Last time we came to Bruges was five years ago. That was the start of a month long trip in Croatia, which was absolutely fantastic, and this first stop set the tone for the whole adventure. ( https://www.daswolfgang.com/2019-euro-trip/ ).
Anyways, tomorrow we move on to Ghent as our next stop, purely because we feel it’s got a presence in Belgium that deserves a visit. We have no camp site, so we are hopefully going to drop into an aire, within cycling distance of the city. Beyond that, we are planning on Antwerp, Brussels, Flanders and…. well, we only have two weeks so let’s see
Ghent – Belgium
We left Bruges yesterday morning and headed to Ghent, which took less than an hour under poor weather conditions. When travelling abroad I’m used to spending hours behind the wheel between destinations, as we have previously skipped from one country to the next. So this time is nice to be traveling shorter stints, with the added advantage of being able to dedicated more time to exploring. Belgium, so far has not disappointed.
Ghent was the second city of our two week tour, and although similar in some ways to Bruges, It was different enough to make our trip worth the while. We cycle in to the centre from an Aire a couple of miles out of the city just as the rain began to cease.
Really impressed with the cycle infrastructure, and we both feel really safe, with dedicated lanes which give bikes priority over other vehicles.
Our step count was understandably high after exploring this amazing place by foot, and opted for a 50 minute guided boat trip, which turned out to be entertaining, and informative at the same time. We got back to the van tired, but happy with the days activity, based on the fact the day started wet and gloomy.