Where's Bertie? He's in a commercial Aire at Ypres, where he's been at least once, maybe twice*, before. It costs €9, including electricity. Water is available at an extra charge of €1.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine, but with a chilly easterly wind. Somewhere around 12-14 degrees.
I'm not sure if it would have changed how we packed for this trip, but we didn't know at the outset that it would end with us visiting a motorhome dealer to present them with a leak that would require them to access Bertie's two large storage areas: the wardrobe and the garage. Last night I started what felt like a major reorganisation exercise to get as much stuff out of those areas as possible. This morning I put the finishing touches to that exercise, culminating in removing the bike from the boot and chaining it to a fence. Fortunately our dealer is relaxed about working on vans full of stuff, unlike the UK dealer we visited last year, who required Bertie to be *completely* empty.
Based on significant previous experience (Bertie certainly had his problems in his first couple of years; this one, at five years old, is a surprise), we went into the dealership at 9am, for our 1-hour appointment, armed with enough food and drink to see us through to mid-afternoon. They surpassed expectations, and we were on our way again by half past noon, with not only his damp test completed (whatdyaknow - he failed! The good news is that they were able to find the source of the leak), but also with his dodgy door catch replaced. The latter was a surprise, as we'd only pointed it out to them to make sure they didn't slam the door when the catch was in the wrong position, but I'm certainly not going to object to it being fixed. He will be returning for his leak to be fixed, which will be a 2 or 3-day job, in the summer.
Via an Aldi store in a tent (where I was one of only two customers wearing a mask; it seems that Belgium is no longer a mask-wearing nation), we headed to Harelbeke - a location we've stayed for more nights than I can remember over the years. I was optimistic of getting one of the eight spots there, even though it's a Friday, purely because of the hour of day. We found it full.
"Plan B!" I declared.
"What's Plan B?" enquired Mick
It only took me a few moments thought to come up with two options: Kortrijk or Ypres (both would have been repeat visits). Mick chose the latter.
Via a detour for LPG (pump out of service; we're not having much luck on this quest), and via some concrete-slab roads of shocking quality, to Ypres we came.
I think that the last time we were here was during the 'Beast from the East'. Was that 2018? It was certainly cold when we walked into the town on that occasion.*
Today we enjoyed glorious sunshine that felt surprisingly warm when out of the wind. I even got down to my shirtsleeves for most of the outing. However, we didn't go into the town, instead choosing to walk around half of the 'moat'. Mick will be running around the entirety of it tomorrow.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine, but with a chilly easterly wind. Somewhere around 12-14 degrees.
I'm not sure if it would have changed how we packed for this trip, but we didn't know at the outset that it would end with us visiting a motorhome dealer to present them with a leak that would require them to access Bertie's two large storage areas: the wardrobe and the garage. Last night I started what felt like a major reorganisation exercise to get as much stuff out of those areas as possible. This morning I put the finishing touches to that exercise, culminating in removing the bike from the boot and chaining it to a fence. Fortunately our dealer is relaxed about working on vans full of stuff, unlike the UK dealer we visited last year, who required Bertie to be *completely* empty.
Based on significant previous experience (Bertie certainly had his problems in his first couple of years; this one, at five years old, is a surprise), we went into the dealership at 9am, for our 1-hour appointment, armed with enough food and drink to see us through to mid-afternoon. They surpassed expectations, and we were on our way again by half past noon, with not only his damp test completed (whatdyaknow - he failed! The good news is that they were able to find the source of the leak), but also with his dodgy door catch replaced. The latter was a surprise, as we'd only pointed it out to them to make sure they didn't slam the door when the catch was in the wrong position, but I'm certainly not going to object to it being fixed. He will be returning for his leak to be fixed, which will be a 2 or 3-day job, in the summer.
Via an Aldi store in a tent (where I was one of only two customers wearing a mask; it seems that Belgium is no longer a mask-wearing nation), we headed to Harelbeke - a location we've stayed for more nights than I can remember over the years. I was optimistic of getting one of the eight spots there, even though it's a Friday, purely because of the hour of day. We found it full.
"Plan B!" I declared.
"What's Plan B?" enquired Mick
It only took me a few moments thought to come up with two options: Kortrijk or Ypres (both would have been repeat visits). Mick chose the latter.
Via a detour for LPG (pump out of service; we're not having much luck on this quest), and via some concrete-slab roads of shocking quality, to Ypres we came.
I think that the last time we were here was during the 'Beast from the East'. Was that 2018? It was certainly cold when we walked into the town on that occasion.*
Today we enjoyed glorious sunshine that felt surprisingly warm when out of the wind. I even got down to my shirtsleeves for most of the outing. However, we didn't go into the town, instead choosing to walk around half of the 'moat'. Mick will be running around the entirety of it tomorrow.
(*With my memory failing me, I did a search of this blog. We've been to this Aire twice before, for a total of three nights, all in March 2018. We also stopped by the adjacent lake for a run in 2019, on our way to Izegem.)
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