The End is Nigh

Yes, all good things come to an end sooner or later. However, we like to
think of it as one holiday finishing and another just beginning.
We have spent the last few days in Belgium, first at Ghent and now at
Bruges. Ghent came across as a strange town. Some very old buildings and the
great canal system, but it had a shabby air to it. Perhaps it was just the
weather, which was gloomy and wet, or perhaps it was all the students from
the university. Bruges however is a truly lovely city, very busy, but
lovely. Street after street of old typical Flemish buildings and the large
cobbled squares give it a quite superior feeling, which is why I guess so
many people flock to it all year round. Oh and of course the odd chocolate
shop or two also help. The weather was warm and sunny yesterday when we
toured the city, which always helps, but I think even Bruges would appear
very respectable in the rain.
Tomorrow we eventually make our way back to British shores via the tunnel. A
new experience for both Noddy and ourselves. Just hope the damned thing
doesn't spring a leak! As our booked crossing is not until late in the
evening we shall no doubt pay a visit to the large hypermarkets outside
Calais for a bit of last minute shopping. Gifts, no, a chance to stock up
for the next holiday!
Do not fear though, or perhaps you should, we shall be continuing the blog
and letting you know where we are and what we are doing over the next few
months up until the end of June 2007 when we will give Noddy a rest for a
while.
Cheers
M&S

To Infinity and Beyond

It's not that I have been lazy or anything, or that we have not done
anything, it's just that I haven't got around to writing for a while, put
off today what you can do tomorrow!
We arrived in Paris last Wednesday (13th), and easily found our site at
Maisons Laffitte in the northwestern suburbs. The site was quite large with
quite a few fixed caravans, and a high percentage of English caravans and
motorhomes. Access to Paris was easy via the RER network, the station just a
few minutes walk from the site.
We ventured into the city on the Thursday and trawled many of the main
sights. The RER took us directly to the Arc de Triomphe, and we wandered
from there to the Eiffel Tower. As we had both previously been up the tower
we chose to give that a miss and continued on our stroll eventually ending
up at the Musée d'Orsay. The Musée d'Orsay contains the artwork that fills
the time gap between the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou including the
Impressionist and Post Impressionist movements, e.g. Monet etc. This is more
our cup of tea than the earlier or modern work. The gallery is situated in
an old railway station, which is worth the admission fee itself. After a few
hours of viewing and becoming maxed out on art, not to mention having weary
feet, we called it a day and headed back the Arc de Triomphe to catch the
RER back to Noddy.

On the Friday we decided to make a later visit into the city after lunch so
that we could have dinner out, and a lazy morning. We took in several more
sights in the afternoon, from the weird Centre Pompidou to the amazing Notre
Dame. The only problems with planning to eat out are a) where to eat and b)
waiting to eat. We almost chose to have Tibetan, but instead decided on
traditional French cuisine in what appeared to be a nice restaurant, it was
recommended in our Rough Guide. After a drink at a nearby bar to kill some
time as it had started to rain, we ventured to the restaurant and were one
of the first to sit down. The food was very nice; the service was
interesting, and the cliental mostly American tourists! It's the sort of
place where they write your order on the paper tablecloth! We very much
enjoyed it, but if you generally take life too seriously you would probably
wonder what was going on. Suitably stuffed we wandered back through the
city, which like most cities is a different place after dark. The Eiffel
Tower looked amazing with its display of sparkling lights. Apart from having
diner, we also wanted to see a firework show that was supposed to happen at
21h30 that evening at La Defense. We planned on making it back to the Arc de
Triomphe by the start and watch from there. We made it just, and waited, and
then left after a few fireworks as the show was not as spectacular as we or
the other hopeful tourists had expected. If you were down at the La Defense
I am sure it would have been better, just. Oh well, better luck next time.

Saturday was a day of rest and we enjoyed the sunny weather and did some
shopping in Maisons Laffitte.
On Sunday we again went into to the city after lunch this time to catch the
free organ recital in Notre Dame, oh and have another lazy morning. The
musical choice of the guest organist that day was a bit unknown to us and
quite modern, but still most enjoyable especially when he hit the loud
pedal!

Our next destination after Paris was Amiens and the start of our WW1
battlefields tour. Amiens cathedral, Notre Dame, is actually bigger that its
namesake in the capital, and probably more impressive, and definitely
quieter. They are in the process of laser cleaning the outside, and the half
they have so far completed looks truly amazing. The rest of the city is very
pleasant, and we could not resist the lure of lunch by the canal, a steaming
pot of mussels each, yum yum.

Yesterday, we did a tour of the WW1 battlefields and cemeteries from Albert,
with its stunning church, around and about up to Arras, where we stayed for
the night. It is the first time either of us has visited any of these sights
and it is really quite moving and thought provoking. The cemeteries are all
impeccably kept, and all the information centres completely fascinating. It
is obviously difficult to appreciate what the poor souls endured during the
war, but what has been preserved gives a very good impression of what is
must have been like. It's just a shame that we have learnt nothing over the
last 100 years.

Our final piece of the tour this morning took us to Vimy Ridge, where the
Canadians made one of the most significant breakthroughs. After a few hours
taking in the battlefields, we pushed on and ended up just north of
Brussels. We were going to stop at Tournai just over the border in Belgium
but the site was not great and we headed here up instead. We have not yet
decided if we are going to venture into the city before we turn west and to
Gent and Bruges.
Cheers
M&S

Food glorius food

After a very nice and relaxing week at Poupehan, we headed into France. The
Poupehan site was virtually empty by the time we left, well up until our
last afternoon. On the Friday there was a steady influx of Dutch caravans
and campers. It appeared that most knew each other and it turned out to be
an office weekend away in the countryside. Needless to say it got quite
noisy on Friday afternoon, not the quietest of people the Dutch, and we were
happy to be on our way again.
Our first destination in France was not too far over the border at the town
of Buzancy in the Ardennes. A very sleepy little town, as most little French
towns are, set in lovely rolling French countryside. The site was a pleasant
surprise having been fairly recently updated. It made a grand location for
sitting in the hot sunshine and enjoying the chatter of the TMS team on
Radio 4 for the final ODI against Pakistan. We have had a fair bit of hot
sunshine for just over a week now, I think that summer has returned in full
force, but looking at forecasts it may not be with us for too long.
We are now slowly making our way towards Paris and stopped off last night in
Epernay, one of the Champagne towns, just south of Reims. By the time we had
checked in at the site, the local municipal, it was getting on in the
afternoon. We walked the short distance into town to have a look around and
also see if we could get a tour of one of the champagne houses. After first
checking with the tourist information office we made a brisk walk to the
Champagne de Castellane, it was the only one still doing tours that day. We
made it just in time to join a very interesting tour of the works, from
fermentation, through the cellars, all the way to bottling and packing. It
was very informative and well presented by a nice young French lady who
spoke very good English, although she had to confirm a few words every now
and again. The free sample at the end of the tour was most refreshing and it
was no surprise that we made a purchase, just the one bottle to keep for a
special occasion. It is most fortunate that it happens to be Sue's birthday
today!
After the present opening ceremony this morning, didn't take long I'm
afraid, we set off again further west and are now not that far from Paris at
the town of Varreddes near Meaux. I think the lady at the site reception,
who spoke no English, made a nice little cash in pocket. She did not want
passports and was not too forth coming with a receipt, no questions asked.
Only one night here so no fortnight in Barbados for her on what she pocketed
from us!
Tomorrow we will hit the site we are aiming for north west of the capital
and probably stay there for 3 days giving us enough time to see plenty of
the city's sights. I think we can get a multiple day travel card for the
transport side, and you can also get a 'museum' ticket that gives you entry
to several museums for a reduced rate. We just have to decide what we want
to see and make a plan.
It has to be said that our diet, which has generally been very healthy, has
taken a dip with Germany and now France. So many tasty sausages, pates, and
cakes to be consumed. Not too mention the great fresh bread with jam or
cheese. I think we will have to do many a mile around the Paris streets to
fight the war of the waistline!
Cheers
M&S

What an absolute shower

The weather was not great for our day out in Cologne some sunshine but
mostly grey skies and showers. The cathedral, the main attraction of the
city, is very impressive indeed but very black and dirty on the outside,
although they seem to be in the slow process of renovation and cleaning. It
is quite huge and very simple inside, not overly ornate like its Italian
counterparts. As to the rest of the city, we spent most of our time in and
out of shops to keep dry and strolling around the streets in the odd dry
moment so we did not really get to see many other highlights. As this was
going to be our last stop in Germany and we were particularly hungry we
decided to eat out. A nice old bar we found with an interesting menu had
finished serving food for the day, so we just enjoyed a beer or two of the
local Kolsch beer, only produced in Cologne, and were entertained by their
1920's 'automatic tuba-accordion'. This was a most amusing and musical piece
behind the bar that consisted of automated models of two men, one playing
the tuba and the other the accordion. It is like a jukebox and you can
select from a range of tunes, and then watch and listen as they do their
thing. You have to see it to believe it. After our beers we set off to find
somewhere to eat and found a nice if touristy place near the river that
specialised in pork knuckles, Eisbein. We ordered and tucked into a large
grilled Eisbein each, washed down with a large beer, and were suitable
stuffed. Thankfully our cycle to and from the city was dry, and not far on
our full stomachs.
The next day we headed off to our next country on the tour, Holland. The
first campsite we tried near Vaals was full due to some horse event going on
nearby. This was the first time we had encountered this problem, the full
site not the horse event. Thankfully we had an alternative not too far away
near Gulpen and found plenty of space there, and probably a nicer site
anyway. Most campsites you visit have nice free showers that you start and
stop, as you want. Some have time limited, to save water, via tokens that
you buy, or get included in the price, but you can also start and stop
those. At this site the showers were included and were timed. Not that this
really saved any water. You got 5 minutes worth, non-stop. So the water ran
even while you were not using it and trying to lather up and wash. The first
morning I got caught out and was not rinsed off before the water cut out.
The shower was on a time switch and you could not start it again for another
few minutes. Thankfully it was not cold so I just stood it out and kept
hitting the button until the water flowed again. What a stupid system. We
had a nice two nights at the site and also enjoyed our first hot and sunny
day for the last 6 or so weeks.
We left Gulpen and headed south to our next country, Belgium, we will return
to Holland some other time. We are now down in the south of Belgium near the
French border at the small village of Poupehan. We are staying at a very
nice site next to the river Semois, and are pitched on the riverbank. The
site is very peaceful and quiet but apparently it was packed out during
summer, and they actually had a hot summer here. They also have silly timed
non-stop showers here that are activated by an electronic tag. I can't
imagine how they think it saves water. Anyway, we had a wet day yesterday,
horizontal heavy soaking drizzle all day. Thankfully they have some English
paperbacks that one can borrow from reception and we spent a nice day
engrossed in a book or two. Today was lovely and sunny, but with a strong
chilly breeze at times. The lady in reception says that it should be dry for
the next few days, lets hope she is spot on.
We will chill out here for most of the week, if it stays dry, then cross the
border into France. Our current plan is to head towards Paris and stop there
for a few days. Then turn north up through France and back into Belgium to
visit Bruges. From there we will wind our way down the coast to Calais in
time for the trip back to the UK.
Less than four weeks to go now. Not that we are too concerned. Don't have to
worry about going back to work or anything like that!
Cheers
M&S