Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 March 2018 – Ypres, Wissant and Home

Awaking to rain drumming on the roof on Tuesday morning, our runs around the lake at Ypres were deferred until after breakfast. That was a mistake. By the time breakfast had been digested it was blowing a hoolie outside. Running gear was removed unused, jeans donned and off towards France we drove.

Wissant was to where we headed, via a supermarket for one of those ‘Brit in Calais’ shopping trips of wine and cheese. Yes we’ve been to Wissant a few times before, and I had intended for us to go somewhere new, but we like Wissant and when I double-checked our Chunnel crossing time, it seemed the easier option, with it being so close to Calais.

Mick has long been lusting after this increasingly dilapidated house, which sits on the beach road, not far from the beach. As we walked through the village this time I said “What if it has been demolished?”. It turned out still to be standing, but with a planning board outside, indicating that something is going to happen to it. It wasn’t entirely clear what, but I guess we will find out in due course. 

A nice, albeit breezy, afternoon for a stroll on the beach, but there wasn't a lot of beach available. Such a contrast to when we were there in August last year.

 

Wednesday started early for me, as I was determined to cram in a short run before we left, knowing that I wouldn’t feel inclined to do anything when we got home late in the afternoon.

Arriving at the Eurotunnel check-in earlier than intended, at 8.30 (for a 10.20 crossing), we accepted the offer of a free transfer to the 9.20 crossing and were surprised, having cleared both immigration posts and customs, to then be waved straight through towards the platforms. I’d not even turned the gas off, fully expecting at least ten minutes in the car park before we travelled.

Gas was thus turned off at the have-you-turned-your-gas-off check point, and we were directed towards a lane. The lane was empty. The barrier at the far end was open. A big green arrow told us to turn right. We followed, feeling a little confused as to why we were driving towards a train 35 minutes before our crossing (usually you don’t get called to the queuing lanes until 30 minutes before, and don’t start boarding until 25 minutes before). At 8.50 our train was moving. Seems that Eurotunnel unilaterally decided to put us on an even earlier crossing.

So, having carefully selected our crossing time such that we wouldn’t find ourselves in rush-hour around London, we arrived in the UK at 8.30am. It was a s-l-o-w and very boring journey around the M25.

And that was that. It’ll only be a week or so until we’re off again. The next trip won’t be blogged here though. The main focus of that one will be hills and walking, so it will be blogged at gayleybird.blogspot.com.

Monday 19 March - Ypres

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire just outside of Ypres.
Weather: Still bitingly cold, but turning to sunshine this afternoon.

Making an effort this morning, warm clothing was donned and off we set for the 25-minute walk into Ypres. The walk there was fine, as we were moving at quite a lick and we were dressed for a winter hill-walking expedition (boots, Paramo trousers, insulated jackets whose hoods were employed over our hats).

It's not feasible, however, to walk around a town, sightseeing, at the same pace, so once there we soon cooled.

As we rounded the corner and caught sight of these buildings a 'gosh' or similar escaped each of us. It's said that the 'Lakenhalle' (the main building in this snap) is one of the finest buildings in Belgium, and on our very limited experience to date, that would seem to be a valid claim.

The fortified town (complete with moat)...

...looks historic, but at the same time looks very neat. The reason is that the place was almost entirely destroyed in the First World War, and subsequently reconstructed. By all appearances, to my untrained eye, the reconstruction was done very sympathetically to the town's historic roots (the Lakenhalle, for example (see the first snap above) was originally built in the early 1300s, with the rebuild completing in the late 1960s), but the rebuild has resulted in clean lines and a lack of age-related decay.

I'm sure we'll return to the town sometime, on a much warmer day and not on a Monday, so that we can visit the 'In Flanders Fields' museum and look around with more enthusiasm than today's weather allowed. For today we simply wandered around a bit, dived into a coffee shop, bought Belgian chocolates (because we're leaving Belgium tomorrow and hadn't had any yet)...

...and headed back to Bertie, via the Menin Gate.

The Menin Gate was built in the 1920s and, as well as being a gate into the town, is a memorial listing the names of the 24,896 UK and Commonwealth men who were lost in this area in WW1 and whose bodies were never found.

Since 1928, with the exception of the period of WW2 between 1940 and 1944, a ceremony has been held at that gate nightly at 8pm, including the bugling of the Last Post and the laying of a wreath.

For those whose bodies were found, there are military cemeteries all around - we drove past one just before we reached the Aire and can see another from where we are sitting.

We had thought, once we were back in the warmth of Bertie, that we would be in for the rest of the day, but as the sun came out this afternoon, I was lulled into the thought that another walk around the adjacent lake would be nice. It was nice too (and we got the treat of watching a grebe-like bird catch and eat a fish), but the sun was deceiving: the wind was still throwing a cheek-numbing chill at us on the outward leg.

We are now in for the rest of the day (it is approaching 6pm as I type) and I'd best spend a few minutes looking at the options for where we are going to spend the last night of this trip, as well as looking up a convenient LPG station. Considering how much of this trip has been spent on electric hook-up, we've got through a large amount of gas. Good job it's so cheap in Belgium.

Saturday & Sunday 17-18 March - Harelbeke and Ypres

Where's Bertie? After a final night (total of 6 on this trip) at Harelbeke, Bertie is now back at the Aire at Ypres. We were here on the second night of this trip, but arrived and left in the dark.
Weather: Blimey, it's cold! Daytime highs of -1, with a signicant windchill. Mainly overcast, with a bit of snow.

Late on Friday afternoon we took a stroll along the lake at Harelbeke in light windshirts, enjoying the last of the day's warmth and sunshine:


Overnight, per the forecast, the temperature collapsed and clouds formed, giving us a bitter, grey day. Yet we still donned tights and light jackets yesterday morning and took ourselves out for an 8.7km circuit (running) around the lake. Such was the windchill (it was a stiff breeze blowing) that I was just starting to think that I was going to have to cut short, as my fingers were so cold, when we turned such that the wind was behind us. That gave the fingers (and face) the chance to warm up a little, although it was over an hour (and after a cup of coffee) after we'd finished that my hands fully thawed.

Our inclination to do anything else outside for the rest of the day was zero, with each return from minor outside tasks being accompanied by exclamation of 'Geez, it's cold out there!'.


I've been crocheting like a woman possessed. After 14 days, 57 stripes (114 rows) have been completed. I now have confidence that I can complete by the early-April birthday-related deadline.

This morning was little different, except that the temperature had gone down another degree (-2) and just as we stepped outside for our run, it started to snow. By the time we got back it was coming down sufficiently for us to amend our plans, omitting coffee and croissant, so as to get on the road ASAP, in case it got worse as the day went on. As it went, by the time we were ready to leave the snow was light, and by the time we had driven to Ypres (about half an hour along the road), there were hints of brightness in the sky.

On a nice spring or summer day we likely would have spent the rest of the day outside. But we're nesh, and it's nice and warm in Bertie, so all we've done is visit the lake that sits adjacent to the Aire, mainly to find out the length of the path that runs around it (1.6 miles was the answer). We will likely use it as our running route on Tuesday.

Short walk around a lake, dressed for the Arctic.

Gosh, that's a lot of words for what could be summed up with 'went for two walks and two runs and moved Bertie half an hour back in the direction of home'! I'd like to think that we'll do more tomorrow - it's just a pity that it's Monday, meaning that the museums will be closed.

Thurs/Fri 15/16 March - Tournai and Harelbeke

Where’s Bertie? This may become known as ‘our holiday at Harelbeke’, as that’s where he is again (the signage says the maximum stay is 72 hours with no return for 3 days. If they’d meant that you have to go away for 72 hours, or 3 nights, they should have said so. Thus, we decided that as we had left on Tuesday morning, it was acceptable to return on Thursday night).

Weather: Wednesday 15th: Rain for most of the day. Thursday 16th: lovely and sunny and warm.

A rainy day yesterday called for indoor activities, which suited us just fine as we’d already decided to visit the Musee des Beaux-Arts (or ‘the art gallery’ for those not of a linguistic bent) in Tournai. With the entry fee being just €2.60, we thought it worth a look. It was too, keeping us amused for a good hour and a half, even though it’s far from the biggest gallery we’ve ever visited. In fact, it must be amongst the smallest.

Mick got to study this piece for a good while, whilst I nipped off to powder my nose. He was quite taken with it. I’m not sure whether the detail will be visible in this snap.

On a nice day we might then have taken another walk around Tournai, but a nice day it was not, so we hot-footed it back to Bertie and left town. The Aire had not been a quiet place overnight, so there was no question of staying another night.

Instead we headed to a place to the east of Kortrijk, where there’s a motorhome parking area opposite a good area of parkland and with various walking routes nearby.  There we found the parking area to be on a sideways slope. We sat on that slope for five minutes, listening to the rain drum on the roof, whereupon I suggested that maybe we should just head back to Harelbeke.

That we did, and when I took myself out for a run around the lake a couple of hours later, the rain was back to being light.

Harelbeke also positioned us better for this morning, when we had lined up another exciting morning sitting in a garage. Campirama (the motorhome dealer) did some adjustments on Bertie’s main entrance door last week. They failed to fix the problem they were supposed to be fixing, but did introduce a new one: sometimes one of the door catches was jamming such that it wouldn’t shut at all. With the issue being a simple adjustment of one catch, we felt sure we wouldn’t be there for more than an hour, so (ignoring all lessons learnt about the inverse relationship between expectations of waits and actual waits in garages) I only packed two travel mugs of coffee, one small supplementary flask and some croissant for elevenses. Having arrived at 8.45, it was approaching 3pm when we finally got away (they did try to get rid of us twice earlier, but we kept spotting the problems they had left). As a bonus, the minor issue with the pan holder on the stove is now also fixed.

Multi-tasking with crochet and crosswords, in a warehouse full of motorhomes and caravans

There was no question about going anywhere different once we did get away. Harelbeke has: 1) a really nice place for running; and 2) Wifi and electricity at a bargain price. The electricity is going to become even more valuable over the weekend, as the temperature is set to plummet tomorrow. As currently forecast we’re not due to see a positive temperature again until Monday afternoon, with the high on Monday morning predicted to be minus 5. Brrrr!

Wednesday 14 March - Mont Saint Aubert and Tournai

Where's Bertie? He's in the motorhome parking area of a large car park in Tournai (exact location:50.60387, 3.38107)
Weather: Mainly sunny and nice and warm when in the sun.

Mont Saint Aubert (MSA) became a late addition to our itinerary this morning, as I lay in bed browsing Park4Night. Bertie laboured his way up the hill (a whole 147m above sea level) then had to breathe in to fit down the lane to access the car park. The other nearby car park, would (as we later discovered) have been much easier to access.

MSA offers two things: far-reaching views (if the air clarity isn't too hazy - as it was for us today); and numerous trails, categorised for walking, biking and horse riding. What MSA doesn't seem to offer is any displayed information as to the details of those routes; most of the information we gleaned came from passing marker posts like these:


Not knowing where any of the trails went, we didn't follow one in its entirety, instead taking a route I had downloaded from Wikiloc. It took us via the church, which sits atop the hill...

I could only fit it in frame by putting it on the diagonal. Tilt your head at a jaunty angle and it should look fine.

...then downhill to loop around to reascend, all through pleasant green countryside and woodland.


We could have stayed put in our car park in MSA, and would no doubt have had a silent night there, but instead we opted to veer back towards the plan we put together the other day, and spend the afternoon in Tournai.

Initial impressions weren't great, partly as the Aire here contains three old, dilapidated vans (one of which is, naughtily, a caravan) that seem to have taken up residence, and partly as the Aire is housed in the corner or a large and not-well-presented car park (which it turns out is also a truck-stop at night).

Fortunately, impressions improved remarkably when we walked the five minutes into town. Tournai is by far the nicest place we've visited on this trip.

We started with the cathedral, which is still covered in scaffolding, inside and out, even though our guide book says the repair and restoration work was due to complete in 2016; there was no sign of any work going on today.


Taken from the main square (which is triangular), looking towards the tower


We found the river too


In passing out of the region of Flanders, and into Wallonia, the official language has changed from Dutch to French, but many (if not most) businesses still opt for English on their signs.

Tuesday 13 March - Ghent Failure, Gavere Instead

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park in the town of Gavere (exact location: 50.92744, 3.65734)
Weather: Rain until early afternoon, then just overcast. Increasingly cool.

A day that did not go to plan!

After another run on the lakeside tracks for me, and a goodly amount of pre-departure faffing, we waved goodbye to the Aire at Harelbeke (at least for 3 days, which is how long we have to be away until we can go back) and drove the 25 miles up the road to Ghent, with good plans of spending a couple of days exploring the city. Those plans went to rats when we found the fair not just in town, but completely filling the car park used by motorhomes.

The only other place I knew we could park was at Ikea, just outside of the city to the south, so that's where we headed. Reaching it involved a ridiculous road system, offically named 'The Loop'. From being right outside of the place, one has to do a circuit of The Loop, amounting to the best part of 5km, in order to get to the car park ... where we found a 2.5m height barrier. Another bit of driving around did find us the 4m entrance, but it was surprisingly ill-marked, considering how many people arrive at Ikea in vans.

We could then have abandonned Bertie in their car park, nipped over to the tram station next door and taken a trip into Ghent anyway, but it was almost lunchtime by then, and we didn't want to spend the night at Ikea, so it didn't seem worth paying out for a tram into town, just to have a lunch and a very quick look around.

Lunch, Ikea-stylee

Thus, instead of our two days in Ghent, we actually had a couple of hours in Ikea. Rather a let-down, but looking for some positive slant: I haven't been to Ikea for years, and I've never eaten there, so (perhaps it's a little sad to admit) it wasn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours - even if it's not something for which we would have chosen to drive 25 miles out of our way.

Another battle with The Loop, and the road system in general, and down to Gavere we headed, for no reason other than it being relatively nearby and that we could park there.

The most notable thing that we've found in Gavere is that the church is at the top of the hill. A hill! In Belgium! Okay, so it's not going to make its way into any hill lists, but the main road, which runs up it, has a noticeable slant to it.

Just a snap of a building in Gavere. Pity about the bag of rubbish in the empty fountain.

Our explorations of the town (dead - made us wonder if we are following closed-day from town to town) were followed by a stroll though the woods, adjacent to the car park, on a trail which has been recently resurfaced...

1.5km of trail made with wood chippings

...returning along the riverside.

It was rather pleasant to get back to Bertie. From the 15 degrees of two days ago, it's a biting 5 degrees today, so Bertie's interior (at all of 17 degrees) felt gloriously warm when we returned.

Monday 12 March - Harelbeke

Where's Bertie? He's *still* at the Aire at Harelbeke.
Weather: Fine start, turning breezy and showery this afternoon.

The Aire here holds 8 vans and it was a busy place over the weekend, with no space staying empty for long. The other occupants must have all been weekenders; as I type this Bertie is on his lonesome.

There's not much to say about today. We ummed and arrrred about whether to move on or stay put and the decision came down on the side of staying, even though we didn't think there was anything to see nearby that we hadn't already seen. As much as there is to be said about exploring new places there's not a massive number of motorhome parking areas in Belgium (although far more than in the UK!), and nothing leapt out at us as an intermediate stop on our way to Ghent (which is where we're going tomorrow). So, as the facilities here are unusually good and cheap, we opted to stay one more day.

Having explored 'out of the sports complex and left' yesterday, today we tried 'out of the sports complex and right'. In that direction we found the town centre, which was thoroughly unexciting and particularly dead, as most businesses don't open on a Monday. Even our intentions to walk back along the river were thwarted by building works. Thus the most interesting point was, as yesterday, looking at the local building styles.


A common sight: a mismatched terrace

Other than an interlude of setting up Mick's new toy (a Head Up Display), the rest of the day has been taken up with the usual activities of books, crosswords and crochet. There's promise that we'll do something more interesting tomorrow, although it's a pity that the weather forecast suggests we'll be getting wet doing it.

Sunday 11 March - Harelbeke

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire at Harelbeke, just outside of Kortrijk (exact location: 50.84593, 3.31078)
Weather: Very heavy overnight rain gave way mid-morning to sunny intervals. Showers returning later, with one clap of thunder heard. Warm, at 15 degrees.

An incredible number of people were out exercising as we set out on the marked 8.7km running circuit of the lake. Perhaps the recent cessation of the heavy rain had bunched everyone up together, or maybe 11am on a Sunday morning is just a popular time. Probably more the latter than the former, but it's certainly a level of activity that we would never see at home.

Alas, no runner was within sight as we inadvertently passed an unmarked turn, where the route had been diverted around a building site. It took us a wee while to conclude that we had lost the route and double back.


Spot the accidental out-and-back detour

Most of the way was on a grit surface, but a section through the woods was a bit of a mudfest. That, however, was more easily negotiated than the bit by the windmill (see photo in yesterday's post), where last night's rain had caused the lake to overspill, covering the path.

All recovered (and freshened-up) after what had been our longest run in months, the afternoon saw us take a wander out of the sports complex and left along the road, where we found ... very little of interest, save for the architecture (nothing modern or outlandish, just the way there can be a terrace of ordinary houses, all built in different styles and with different roof lines).

The finale of the day was to put a bit of consideration into how we are going to spend the rest of our time on this trip (having finally booked our return ticket, which is actually the ticket we didn't use on our way back from Spain last December). We have a plan and it looks like this:


I'm sure that makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

Saturday 10 March - Haralbeke

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire at Haralbeke, just a few km outside of Kortrijk. It's €5 for 24hrs, including water, waste, electricity and wifi. Bargain!
Weather Dry but overcast morning. Few showers this afternoon.

Should have pulled over somewhere for a cup of tea on our way back from the Fiat garage yesterday. Having arrived back at the Aire in Kortrijk at around 9.30am meant we needed to leave by that time this morning (weren't even sure of exact time (automated barrier operated by credit card = no ticket displaying arrival time), so had to err on side of caution.

So, early run along the River Leie, the fastest shower known to man (helped by not having time to heat water), filling/emptying tanks and on our way without breakfast.

A restrained shopping-whilst-hungry trip 1km outside of Kortrijk, then the final 3.5km to our next destination (yep, moved less than 5km today). The Aire here is very popular and well-reviewed, but on a Saturday it's not the calmest of places, being next to a football facility, with a small stadium and seven other pitches, several of which were in use this morning for junior matches, followed by a senior match (with drum playing spectators) this afternoon.

What is nice here (except for the bargain of the all these facilities for €5/night) is that, beyond the football pitches is a lake. Went for a walk around it before it rained today, checking out a run route for tomorrow. As is common in Europe, there're waymarked running circuits, one at 6.5km, the other 8.7km.

Not sure what else is nearby. Maybe we'll explore more widely tomorrow - weather permitting.

Friday 9 March - Kortrijk

Where's Bertie? He's back in the Aire at Kortrijk.

8am appointment at the Fiat garage led to an early start and much grumbling about it on my part. Went prepared with elevenses, lunch and flasks, in case we had a long wait (lesson learnt from past experience). Were in and out in just over an hour, with all-important service stamp in Bertie's book, and at a charge £100 cheaper than the same service would have cost in the UK.


We were glad the garage was so efficient - it was not a warm or comfortable waiting area.

Hadn't thought about where to go next, so returned to Kortrijk. Pottered about the town and found the illusive Tourist Info Office. Confirmed there was little to see in the town that we hadn't already discovered.

Random observation: the locals are enviably multi-lingual. We hear them switch between Dutch and French with ease, and no-one has hesitated to switch to English when we've addressed them - even the beggar who approached as we window-shopped for houses. Bizarrely, even though (except when speaking to us) we've only heard Dutch and French spoken in the streets, a massive number of businesses display a slogan or descriptor entirely in English. Quote of the day, though, was the cashier at the supermarket: "Ciao! Bon Weekend!" was his parting phrase.


Our day did involve cake :-)

Thursday 8 March 2018 - The Journey Thus Far

Where's Bertie? He's in the Aire at Kortrijk, where he also spent a night in early June 2017.

Last Friday I started crocheting a blanket that I need to get finished by the first week in April. That's a very tight time schedule and thus my spare time is currently being spent crochet hook in one hand and yarn in the other.


I already made one of these blankets for a friend this year, which, when seen by Mick's mum, was admired so greatly that I'm making another one, for her birthday.

As a result I'm going to try to be more succinct that usual with the blog posts.

Here's a summary of the trip so far:

Monday 5th
Surprisingly left home on schedule, even with a late decision to give Bertie a wash before we set off. (Didn't realise at that point that I hadn't vacuumed his floor, emptied his bin or even washed his mugs at the end of the last trip; if I had I would have done those things whilst Mick was washing).

Spent the night outside friends' house in Crawley.

Tuesday 6th
Crossed through the Chunnel mid-afternoon and made a bee-line for the big Carrefour next to the terminal in Calais. Tea bag and 5-minute rice supplies topped up (neither easily available in UK), a snap decision was made as to where to spend the night: Ypres. Arrived in the dark and left early on Wednesday morning, so didn't see anything of the place. Must go back sometime. (€8 for pitch, electricity and waste).

Wednesday 7th
The fundamental reason for the trip: Bertie's annual damp check (required for water ingress warranty), plus the resolution of some warranty issues. Arrived at Campirama's new showroom at 9am, got away at 5pm. Battled rush-hour traffic back down to Kortrijk (where Campirama used to be based) to spend a couple of nights in the Aire before our appointment at the local Fiat garage (annual service) on Friday.

(Aire €10 including electricity, water and waste)


My view for most of the day, whilst rain poured outside

Thursday 8th
Plan for an early run amended due to rain. Plans for a day pottering around Kortrijk aborted due to discovering last night that in replacing the pillars either side of Bertie's windscreen, they'd failed to replace the magnetic strips required to hold the cab blinds shut. Thus, a trip back to the dealer (it's only 12km, or 20km when the SatNav decides to take you via the 'quick' route, which probably, in theory, saves 30 seconds but in reality takes longer).

Arrived to find the motorhomes in the large showroom being moved out of the way so that a road crew could set up a catwalk for a fashion show they're hosting tomorrow night. A couple of hours spent observing stage construction (a ridiculously noisy business), before leaving with Bertie's blinds fully functioning once again. Pity they've still not managed an acceptable fix on a mildly glitchy catch on the main door.

This afternoon, with the rain stopped, a run along the River Leie - well frequented with huge barges heading inland. Wind kept stopping me in my tracks on the outward leg. Mick egged me on to race a barge to a particular bridge on the way back (gasp, gasp, gasp) - pleased the wind was behind for that leg.

The barge Mick had me race; it was well ahead as I took this snap


Tomorrow the Fiat garage, after which we have no plan other than to spend a couple of weeks looking at Belgium.