Bevaux-sur-Ourthe

We stopped by this small town to visit its giant maze. Well two mazes actually. We arrived at 10 am realizing that it wasn’t open for another 30mins we took a walk over to a market we passed on the way to the Labyrinth. As most markets seem to be, with the exception to the one in Amsterdam, are over priced. We find we can get cheaper food at the super markets, for example, a whole pizza for 1.80 euros. Not bad. The smaller wooden maze was fun, normally you had to answer questions right in order to pass through the barrier to continue on the maze, these weren’t working, but it was still fun to get lost in it. The other larger maze was in a corn field and had plays telling a story about a dragon throughout the maze. This wasn’t as fun, as we didn’t follow the plays (language issue) and we weren’t using the map that was provided, like everyone else. The maze was huge though, and it was based off an artist’s picture of a dragon, every year they change it. When we were talking with the girl at the gates, one apparently went up in Canada this year.

Han-sur-Lesse

Han-sur-Lesse was actually our destination, not Rochefort. Han-sur-Lesse is known for its huge caves and the cave formations. Now, I have seen this type of cave before in Germany with Curtis and Anna, but this one was amazing compared to that one. The largest chamber was 110 meters tall, they actually have plays in this room, we missed A Mid-Summer nights dream by a few days. This cave system has a river flowing threw it and the tour ends with you in a boat inside the mountain, too cool. Our guide was approached by a Polish man wishing to know if they could do an English tour (they had French and Dutch), so he brought out a sign with “English” on it to gather enough English speaking people to warrant a special tour for this language. Julie and I were at the front of the pack, and the Guide spoke to everyone in the group and found out that Julie and I were the only true English speaking people of the newly formed group (English being Julie’s second language, it’s almost like I was the only uni-lingual person there). Kind of funny we thought. Part of the package we bought, also provided us with a wild life tour, which Julie kept thinking the animals were underfed due to their size, but later guessed that they were not North American animals, but European, which is why they were smaller. To me, it could be a little bit of both. The package also included a 4-D cinematic game about the caves we just went into. This is typically for kids, but we went in anyway and Julie kicked my ass at it. There was also a museum we could have skipped, but again since it was apart of the package we walked through it. When we arrived in Han-sur-Lesse, a very small town, around 5500 people, we stumbled upon a parking site for RV’s, for 2.50 euros we could park for the day. We, among many other campers, chose to believe that our day pass lasted until opening time at 9:30 the next morning. It was here where we had a great conversation with a guy from Holland on vacation with his family. So far, all the campers we have run into, have been around this age group, so it feels a little weird to talk to them when they are out on vacation with their families (even though we know it shouldn’t).

Rochefort

There was a dirt cheap campsite here we were going to stay at, but it was going under extensive reconstruction and we found ourselves with out a place to park our van for the night. We saw a small parking lot that had one camper van in it, so we decided to park there and go have a look around. We made our way to the tourist office to collect information on the surrounding area and to see if they have the internet. Finding places with internet has been very difficult lately, so sorry for any delays. After that we walked back to the camper and leafed through the campsite section in the book we just picked up at the tourist office. Most campsites were too expensive for us, so we made a decision to try and free camp in the parking lot that night. We weren’t alone in this ambition, we found 5 others with us come morning time. Julie said she was woken up at night hearing the other campers having a conversation with the cops. According to Julie the jist of it was they wanted to know what we were all doing there. To which the other campervan owners replied that the campsite we had planned to stay at was closed, we had nowhere else to go and that we would be gone by 9am. The cops seemed o.k. with this answer and moved on. Now, I thought I made a huge mistake when we parked that night. I set the fridge up to keep cool while we drive, but didn’t switch it back to run on the propane when we are stopped. We ended up losing power to all our lights and the tap on our sink. I was not looking forward to getting a boost come the morning. But luckily the car started up fine. It does have two batteries, one I now know is just to start the engine, and the other to run everything else (Pim at BW’s didn’t know for sure at the time that we bought the camper).

Namur

The drive to Namur was supposed to be pleasant, but our GPS didn’t put us on any backroads and we ended up driving on the very hilly highway from Brussels, this wouldn’t normally be a problem, but the amount of black smoke created by our van during acceleration causes all motorists to honk at us as they pass. Not a very nice feeling. After finding the campsite, we learnt that it was full. However, after speaking with a resident lady there, she had us park in someone’s “yard” for the one night (This seemed to be fine with the camp manager who returned at 7pm). This campsite was nice and simple, we didn’t get a chance to top-up our water reserves though (the condition of the place didn’t convince us of drinkable water). I say it was nice because of the view of the rock-face directly in front of our window. Since there were only two things to see in Namur, the citadel, and a gothic treasure collection that “shouldn’t be missed” which tour is guided by nuns, we took the day off to relax and have some beers. That day I sat and finished reading the last novel in the Harry Potter series and tanned while I read it. Julie had three naps as she was bored, having already finished the book last week. The next day we took off to see the Citadel and were waved off and wished a “Bon Voyage!” by the camp manager. The Citadel is said to be the greatest in all of Europe, with how long it took us to explore and get to the top of it, we can see why. It offered great views of the city of Namur. We made our way to the gothic thing, but found out it wasn’t going to be open for 2 hrs, as it was lunch time. Well, it wasn’t that important to us, so we headed off to Rochefort.

Waterloo

The city square of Waterloo reminded me of downtown Milton, only with a little bit more history in the buildings. Julie and I were talked into buying a package deal to tour all that was offered in Waterloo. The museum itself, right across the road from the tourist information center, was a detailed history of the Battle of Waterloo. I won’t get into all the history here, you can read about it on the internet if you want to learn about it, or head to Belgium and take the tour. After that, it’s a 6km drive to a giant hill(first hill we have seen since arriving in Europe) called Butte de Lion that was constructed where Prince D’Orange aka the Duke of Wellington was injured during the battle. It was a long and tiring 226 stairs to the top. Once on top, you got a great view of the surrounding landscape, unfortunately, not of the 28 ton Lion at the top. The third and final stop was not to come, as it was 5 pm and it closed then. It was a museum of Napoleons last head quarters before he fell. The pass we purchased is good for a year, so if we’re in the neighborhood, we can drop by later.

Brussels

We stayed at another campsite recommended by our book, based on it’s transportation to Brussels and its amenities. The campsite itself is located in Grimbergen, which is about a 40 min bus ride into the city center of Brussels. The bus stop is right on the door step of the campsite, so it was great for that, driving in Brussels with the big rig didn’t do my nerves well on the first go through. However, we didn’t know this bus stop was for the bus we needed and walked to the bus station which was about 3 kilometers away, but when you make a wrong turn, it turns out to be about 5 kilometers away. Never once did Julie and I get off the bus at the right time. For fear of traveling too far past our destination, we got off twice too early, the first time, wasn’t bad, and we ended up on a huge shopping center walkway that took you directly to the centre square. The second time was not so, 1 ½ hr walk later and we were at the correct destination. The reason for this mistake, we didn’t have a map, bus route and we took two different busses, both ending up near the city square. Oh well, walking is good for us. The first day I wanted to go and see the statue Menneken Pis (I just say Maken’ a Piss, but oddly Julie feels the need to correct me?). A statue of a little boy taking a piss, it apparently even gets dressed up from time to time and is a big tourist photo-op. The statue was funny, but all the stores making money off the statue made me laugh more. The city center was huge, filled with tourists and had museums, chocolatiers, snack bars, and restaurants. Persuaded by free samples at one particular chocolate shop, Julie and I took a browse inside and tasted, probably the best, chocolate we have had since being over here…..and we bought some boxes, although one melted later in the van (Julie’s solution to the melted chocolate was to dip strawberries and blueberries, that we got at a fruit stand, in the mess of delicious gooey stuff). Before we headed back on the bus to the campsite for the first night, Julie and I stopped at a fritter and had some French-fries and sauce. The next morning we needed to set out early to have all our plans work for the day. Julie read up on a market held near the town square. Our plan, was to be awake at 6am, on the train at 6:30, be at the market by 7:30am and then back to the campsite by 10, then off to Waterloo. This did not happen though. First, the bus arrives 20 minutes later on weekends. Second, we weren’t up until 6:30am. Third, we realized that we needed to do dishes in order to eat breakfast. On the road at 7:50am, got off the bus too early, which resulted in a 1 ½ hr walk to the market. This time out was the first time I didn’t bring the camera, and I missed out huge. Lesson learned, treat the camera like your wallet or your keys to the van, bring them everywhere you go. On the walk we saw lots of interesting statues throughout the city. A couple stand out, one with a lady carrying a sword and shield dressed in armor and a convict tripping a cop from underneath a sewer drain. The market turned out to be a bust. It was a garage sale with basically everything no one wants left. Just awful. So after that, we made our way back to the city square and saw that the little guy was wearing a green suit, whereas the day before, he was in his bronze birthday suit. Since I had some cash on me, I decided to look for a cheap place to have brunch. It turns out, the same place we went to for fries the day before was the cheapest for breakfast. We both had sugar waffles, Julie had whipped cream on hers, and I had my best cup of coffee ever. At first blush, Julie and I did not like Brussels. It was after spending that long walk through the town that we got to appreciate its charm. Brussels is famous for its shopping areas, and we can only tell you that they are there, just not if it’s good or not. The campsite manager is a dictator. Check out time was 11:30am, it was 1pm when we “tried” to check out. Every campsite we have stayed at has had very flexible check out times. The manager wanted to charge us for another night of camping, so Julie and I canceled our plans to switch campsites and stayed the night anyway. We still made it off to Waterloo to have a look around.

Tournai

The drive to Tournai would have been quite uneventful if it wasn’t for Julie’s determination for poppies. On this one particular back road, Julie was spotting poppies left and right. When I pulled over for her to get the poppies she was already out the door and near the ditch. I figured she could easily jump over the ditch but Julie disagreed. However, before she could even attempt anything, she slipped into the ditch which was about as deep as Julie is tall. I helped her out, and it was here that she started complaining that she has fallen in a patch of stigning nettle. She rushed back to the van started applying sting relief and took a tablet of an anti-allergen just in case. Julie broke out in bumps and a rash, but was fine by the next day. The campsite we stayed in Tournai was very poorly labeled, if it wasn’t for seeing another campervan, it might just as well have been someone’s driveway. The campsite itself is a three kilometer walk into town, so we ventured in that day, found a shopping mall, grocery store and a store just like Rona. It was at Hubo (the Rona like store) that we picked up an outdoor table and chairs at ½ price, we also picked up an umbrella, but it wasn’t part of the summer sale. The downtown square took us longer to find, about 1hr or so due to reading maps incorrectly. We didn’t mind though, because the day was warm and sunny, and we got to see more parts of the town. The square seemed to be divided by the large belfry at the entrance. We took a stroll through the square, took some photo’s and it was the first time I really wanted to sit out on the patio at one of the restaurants. Because eating out is very expensive, and the market restaurants are more expensive then a typical restaurant, Julie and I ate at the campsite snack bar, and enjoyed a hamburger, fries and a beer each (all for 14 euros). Tournai was a nice small town without many tourists, which made it a great visit, the fact that the campsite and its owners were really nice helped out too.