England to Belgium

 

Panorama in Ghent

Imagine leaving your tiny house for nearly a year in cold, rainy England with no heating. The unglamorous side of vanlife travel is that we spent several jetlagged days washing bedding, cleaning, shopping and repositioning stuff. Meals were functional and fit in whenever possible. We needed to wait until we got to the continent before recharging our phone sims so communication was intermittent and searches often failed. We spent one day each in rainy weather in Bristol, Cheddar, and Folkestone before driving onto the ferry for France. 

Arriving in Calais, we headed straight for the tiny town of Henù, France where Dermot’s grand uncle was buried. I was struck by how beautifully tended this grave was in the small cemetery after over 100 years. Birds were singing and the spring flowers were in full bloom.

Our photos here, click “i” for info.

 

The following is written by Dermot:

“After several failed attempts on other trips we finally were able to visit my grand uncle's grave at the Cimetiere Militaire De Hénu in France. He was Lt. James White and served in the Royal Army Vet Corps during WW1. He died on March 16th, 1916 in France, age 32. He was the son of Thomas and Anne White of Tulla, Co. Clare. I don't know when his grave was last visited by a family member, but I'm glad to have finally visited. 

Ironically, another of my grand uncles, Con Colbert, was executed in Kilminham Goal on May 8th for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. He was a Captain in F Company fourth batallian. Colbert rail station, Limerick and Con Colbert road, Dublin were named in his honor. Some Tulla people will remember his brother Dan Colbert. Dan and his wife Nancy lived in the corner house on Main St and the road up to the graveyard. 

This is not an unusual Irish family story of one family member serving in the British Army in WW1 and another serving in the Irish Volunteers/Irish Republican Brotherhood for Irish independence from Britain.”

It had been a long day of travel and spent that night far outside of Lille, France, but the campsite was marginal and Rick Steves had no recommendations for what to see there so we headed for Belgium. Having already visited Bruges and Antwerp on our last trip, we opted for Ghent. 

We arrived at "Urban Gardens Camping" and were offered either a muddy hardstanding site with a big "pond" in the middle we'd have to find our way around; or soggy, muddy campsites that came with the warning that if we got stuck, they couldn't pull us out. We choose the one that wouldn't require a tow truck.

Ghent is less touristy than Bruges so we enjoyed the less crowded streets. We visited St. Bavo's Cathedral then half-wandered, half-followed Rick Steves walk. There were pretty canals and the distinctive Belgium architecture that invited us to explore even in the rain. The following day brought more rain and more mud so we did another load of laundry then set out for the second part of RS’s walk. The quiet streets were a joy except when we forgot our place and wandered into the bike paths!

Belgium

Central Station Antwerp

Bruges

Taking the ferry to Calais was a bit nerve-wrecking but also fun. We’d researched and fretted about the post-Brexit restrictions but nobody asked us what we had. 🤷 Driving on the right side of the road was a relief and when we arrived in Bruges we were amazed at the bicycle paths in addition to sidewalks, sometimes on both sides of the road, and the many people enjoying them! We arrived to self check-in at Camping Memling. There was a Carrefour grocery/mini-department store within walking distance and we spent far too long trying to decipher the labels. That’s when it really hit us. We were out of our English-speaking comfort zone and really traveling now!

Click this link to see our photos

It was a bit too late to tackle heading into town but we found bicycle oil at a Brico (which is like a Home Depot) and ate an uninspiring dinner at the restaurant in the nearby strip mall. It would have been great to rewatch the movie "In Bruges" but our internet connection wasn't up to the task. 

 

The next morning we got out the folding bicycles we’d completely neglected for four years, added some oil and air and everything worked! The three kilometer ride in was easy and we were able to lock them up in a leafy park just beside the Burg square. We enjoyed the sights there including the Basilica of the Holy Blood where we witnessed a ceremony which invited us to venerate the holy relic. Heading for the Markt (Market Square) we realized we had happened upon market day and roamed around soaking in the market atmosphere with its fresh cheeses, sausages, prepared meals and more. 

Rick Steves lists the three most important experiences to be had in Bruges: Beer, Chocolate and Biking. So we got a seat on the Markt and started experiencing - dark beer for Dermot and Kreik (cherry) beer for me. Thoroughly refreshed we strolled through the streets. The weather was so lovely we took a boat ride through the canal and took many pictures of the charming houses and bridges. We ate a dinner of mussels and rabbit stew and headed back to camp for the night.

The next day we followed biked back into town using a different route to check out the windmills and more back alleys. When we reached the Burg Square we again ditched our bikes and followed Rick Steve’s walk and enjoyed more beer, a sandwich and huge portion of pate with hearty wheat bread in a small bar hidden down a tiny alley.  We slipped into a chocolate shop and selected our favorite flavors to dip into whenever the mood struck. The culmination of our walk was at the idyllic and peaceful Begijnhof. We sampled more beer and enjoyed dinner at our first Irish pub of the trip. There are very few towns we’ve come across that don’t have an Irish pub. 

Antwerp

Our original plan was to head for Amsterdam the next day but there was no vacancy at the closest in campground so we decided to spend the next few days in Antwerp.  As I entered the location into our Garmin that morning, it warned me the destination required us to travel into a Low Emission Zone. Oops! That required some time to figure out what we needed to do to avoid heavy fines but we registered and finally got on the road. F.Y.I. - it seems our diesel van will not be welcome in 2025.

Having only 2G internet service through T-Mobile was limiting so we set out to get sims for our phones and mi-fi device. Turns out we needed our passports to purchase pay-as-you go so no joy that day. We did enjoy experiencing using a pedestrian walkway under the river, seeing all the different ways people use their bikes to get around, and the vibrancy of the city. 

Trying to boil water for tea the next morning we discovered we had run out of propane gas! Ah, the joys of vanlife. Luckily, there was a tiny bakery at the campsite with fresh pastries and they also served coffee! With passports in hand we set out on yesterday's mission but took the very cool waterbus across the river this time. We got sims for our phones but apparently the mi-fi is a no go. We’ll see if we can manage continuing to post without it!

We again followed Rick Steves walk and enjoyed the lovely Central Train Station (shout out to Mary Murphy alerting us to this must-see) and many other sights along the way. Finally, we enjoyed a Belgium waffle to round out our first experience of this inviting country.