0308 And on through Belgium

Ho hum and lots of rain

Not a very nice campsite last night, but I was tired and it served its purpose.  I was on the road before 9 am, and apart from getting stick behind a “convoi agricole”  which was 4 or 5 enormous pieces of farm machinery travelling at 20 kph, followed by a bunch of trucks who were stuck behind them, it wasn’t too bad.  As you can see from the photo though, it was pretty wet and miserable, and this stayed the same most of the day.

I

n a little town called Iwuy they had an interesting church spire, with the clock attached to the outside of the spire rather than being on the square tower itself like usual.  Well, I thought it was interesting anyway……..

Cambrai gave me the chance to do several things.  First of all I found a “cheap” petrol station that had a manned booth, thus enabling me to use my visa card and sign it. Soon after that, I found a big bakery and went in and bought a “baguette Louise”, and once again I resisted the urge to try some of the other offerings in the shop. What is good about French boulangeries is that they are continually baking new stock, so that it doesn’t matter whether you go in at 7 am, 10 am, or noon, you get steaming hot bread.  And then I found a McDonalds and went in to quickly check my email while I had a coffee.  Once back on the road, I found an Aire (rest area) in which to stop for my lunch – The smell of the hot baguette was driving me crazy !  And it tasted as good as it smelt !  Maybe better. 

Then it was over the border into Belgium – Nothing much marking the border except a big concrete “thing”, but the rain settled in and was then more or less consistent all day.  Past Mons and Nivelles, and then Waterloo and the site of the battle in 1815, and around the south of Bruxelles through some quite extensive forest – Boitsfort ?  But after that it was built up most of the way – I continued to stay off the main highways’, but these were not interesting like France.  The houses here (that I saw) had no real character at all, and while I acknowledge that cities like Bruges and Ghent are stunning, the general countryside isn’t – IMHO. 

And as for people thinking Australia has some odd place names like Wagga Wagga etc, I reckon Opglabbeek has to be up there with them !  I soldiered on through the somewhat boring and continuous built up areas across to almost the German border, near and north of Maastricht, where I had noted a campsite in a little town called Maaseik.  When I followed the map down through town, I came out on an island in the middle of the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal, with lots of quite large canal boats moored there, and a little community of rental mobile homes for people wanting to spend their holidays fishing or boating.  The canal was a LOT wider than the Oxford canal we were on in England last month, but it provided an ideal camping spot.  A slight hiccup as everyone working there spoke what I presume was Flemish – I certainly couldn’t understand them and none of them spoke English (or French or Spanish !).  Eventually I found some holiday makers who spoke English and helped translate enough for me to get a camp site for the night !  I am starting to think that along with the Euro they should have all started speaking the same language over here, like in S America – Would make it a lot easier !!

Anyway, eventually got in to the site and set up, with some heavy downpours (unsuccessfully) trying to stop me cooking my supper ! 

I have changed my planned route through Germany.  When I looked at the route provided by a Michelin guide  I saw that it had me going right through the industrial area north of Dusseldorf – stretching from Munchen-Gladbach to Dortmund.  That doesn’t look like much fun, so instead I am going to cut south tomorrow and go to the south of Bonn, through lots of forests and mountains, I think.  Should be more interesting anyway.

A few more pics here : -  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0308AndOnThroughBelgium?authkey=Gv1sRgCKa_k5y22qOveQ