Where's Bertie? He's in a place that's feeling like home: the Aire at Harelbeke, where he spent six nights during our trip to Belgium in March this year. It's still €5 per night, including electricity, wifi, water and waste.
Weather: A murky start, brightening later, but never getting as far as full-on sunshine.
Suddenly we are four days into this trip and I've not written a blog post here yet . Here's a bit of a catch-up:
Tuesday
Weather: Increasingly sunny and reasonably warm by mid-afternoon
An earlyish start and a leisurely journey, with a stop to meet up with youngest step-son for a late lunch, followed by our easiest drive around the M25 in years.
The late afternoon and evening were spent with friends who we don't see nearly often enough. As with the start of most of our European trips, the night was spent on the road outside of their house.
Wednesday
Weather: Dry with some sunshine. Can't remember more than that.
The trip nearly went awry before it started, when we woke up to find that two cars had parked in such a manner as to block the entrance to the road for anything bigger than a small car - or so it appeared. It looked for a while like we were going to have to move our Channel crossing and postpone our appointment with the Hymer dealer on Thursday. However, a bit of careful measuring told us that the reality was a maximum gap that was 3" wider than Bertie's widest point. Slow and careful guided manouevring ensued.
These snaps were taken when Bertie's 'waist' was in the gap. His widest points are his wheel arches. It really was a ridiculously tight squeeze.
So, we made it to the Tunnel, did a quick dash to Carrefour in Calais then spent the night at the Aire at Bergues, half an hour or so up the road, chosen because we've stayed there a couple of times before and knew that there would almost certainly be space there, even late in the evening.
Thursday
Weather: A cool, murky start, then hot, sunny and muggy, then heavy rain for about an hour, then back to sunshine.
A disappointing day spent at the Hymer dealer. They still haven't managed to fix the bed (although apparently Hymer has now acknowledged that it is a design fault, which may or may not be progress). Allegedly a new bed frame will be fitted in August. We'll see...
A couple of other things were fixed and after a day mainly spent lounging in their showroom, we spent the night parked outside. Bonus: free parking with electricity!
This fine chap did a patrol around Bertie then engaged in a bit of that squawk-flap thing that pheasants do.
Friday
That brings us to today, which, for me, started early: just before 7am, I set out for a run to, then along, the waterway that runs through the conurbation of Izegem.
It was a bit of a murky start, but I had a very enjoyable run and returned to find Mickup and about, breakfasted and dressed still in bed.
He did take himself out for a run later in the day, but not until after we had left the Hymer dealer, done a bit of grocery shopping, attended to my whim of wanting to buy myself a frock, and moved to our new location:
The frock - bought in C&A - that was a blast from the past!
We could then have taken ourselves off to just about anywhere within a day's drive of Izegem, but where we chose to come (for a number of reasons, one of which was because we hadn't even looked at a map to think about where we might want to head) was to Harelbeke, just 15km down the road, where we already spent a chunk of time in March this year.
Once here, I availed myself of the internet, Mick went off for a run around the lake, we had a late lunch, then we went around the lake again, this time at a walk. Finally we looked at the map and came up with a destination for tomorrow, and a few contenders for the following stops too.
(As a bit of an aside: I expected this Aire here at Harelbeke to be full tonight. When we were here in March it was approaching capacity by 4pm and was generally full well before bedtime. It's now nearly 8pm and there's only one other van here (8 spaces). How odd, what with it being a Friday too! I wonder if people come here more in winter because of how cheap it is, with electricity included, whereas in summer they're happier to go to places without hook-up? After all, that is why we spent so long here in March.)
Weather: A murky start, brightening later, but never getting as far as full-on sunshine.
Suddenly we are four days into this trip and I've not written a blog post here yet . Here's a bit of a catch-up:
Tuesday
Weather: Increasingly sunny and reasonably warm by mid-afternoon
An earlyish start and a leisurely journey, with a stop to meet up with youngest step-son for a late lunch, followed by our easiest drive around the M25 in years.
The late afternoon and evening were spent with friends who we don't see nearly often enough. As with the start of most of our European trips, the night was spent on the road outside of their house.
Wednesday
Weather: Dry with some sunshine. Can't remember more than that.
The trip nearly went awry before it started, when we woke up to find that two cars had parked in such a manner as to block the entrance to the road for anything bigger than a small car - or so it appeared. It looked for a while like we were going to have to move our Channel crossing and postpone our appointment with the Hymer dealer on Thursday. However, a bit of careful measuring told us that the reality was a maximum gap that was 3" wider than Bertie's widest point. Slow and careful guided manouevring ensued.
These snaps were taken when Bertie's 'waist' was in the gap. His widest points are his wheel arches. It really was a ridiculously tight squeeze.
So, we made it to the Tunnel, did a quick dash to Carrefour in Calais then spent the night at the Aire at Bergues, half an hour or so up the road, chosen because we've stayed there a couple of times before and knew that there would almost certainly be space there, even late in the evening.
Thursday
Weather: A cool, murky start, then hot, sunny and muggy, then heavy rain for about an hour, then back to sunshine.
A disappointing day spent at the Hymer dealer. They still haven't managed to fix the bed (although apparently Hymer has now acknowledged that it is a design fault, which may or may not be progress). Allegedly a new bed frame will be fitted in August. We'll see...
A couple of other things were fixed and after a day mainly spent lounging in their showroom, we spent the night parked outside. Bonus: free parking with electricity!
This fine chap did a patrol around Bertie then engaged in a bit of that squawk-flap thing that pheasants do.
Friday
That brings us to today, which, for me, started early: just before 7am, I set out for a run to, then along, the waterway that runs through the conurbation of Izegem.
It was a bit of a murky start, but I had a very enjoyable run and returned to find Mick
He did take himself out for a run later in the day, but not until after we had left the Hymer dealer, done a bit of grocery shopping, attended to my whim of wanting to buy myself a frock, and moved to our new location:
The frock - bought in C&A - that was a blast from the past!
We could then have taken ourselves off to just about anywhere within a day's drive of Izegem, but where we chose to come (for a number of reasons, one of which was because we hadn't even looked at a map to think about where we might want to head) was to Harelbeke, just 15km down the road, where we already spent a chunk of time in March this year.
Once here, I availed myself of the internet, Mick went off for a run around the lake, we had a late lunch, then we went around the lake again, this time at a walk. Finally we looked at the map and came up with a destination for tomorrow, and a few contenders for the following stops too.
(As a bit of an aside: I expected this Aire here at Harelbeke to be full tonight. When we were here in March it was approaching capacity by 4pm and was generally full well before bedtime. It's now nearly 8pm and there's only one other van here (8 spaces). How odd, what with it being a Friday too! I wonder if people come here more in winter because of how cheap it is, with electricity included, whereas in summer they're happier to go to places without hook-up? After all, that is why we spent so long here in March.)
Oh deary me. Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water you two random souls are off on yet another adventure!
ReplyDeleteRight so - that's my morning reading sorted. Can't wait. Won't wait. Have a wonderful time, and looking forward hugely to yr reports.