Journey: Bruges – Ghent – Ypres (81 miles)
A quick peak out the van blind revealed a grey and overcast day, but undeterred we had been recommended a lovely loop walk to see the Bruges windmills and off we went. I loved that even the fence around one had been laced, and I spied a great golden sculpture in a museum garden.
After a bit of domestic bliss, realising the dog outdoor lines worked perfectly for laundry we headed off to Ghent. I have offered to do all the driving in Belgium as they are living up to their reputation for bad driving (twice as many accidents per mile than Holland). I saw so many near misses, darting cars, tail gaiting, a u-turn on a 60mph road with on coming traffic and got cut up by a driver behind me on a slip road. Never mind I expected it so am not too phased, it just requires extra concentration.
Ghent is equally as lovely as Bruges and much quieter. Both cities have fabulous architecture and are nice to potter about. I confess we don’t have much interest in museums or churches but enjoy soaking up the atmosphere of a place and trying the local delicacies – Cuberdons are known as Belgium noses and are conical jelly sweets – we later discovered they aren’t vegetarian! 😱🙈 One thing I’ve spotted is the churches play lovely bell tunes. In Ghent they rolled the bells to Oh What a Perfect Day 😊
We opted to drive on to Ypres as every evening at 8pm they do a WW1 memorial service. Although I was too short to see the bandsman or choir it was a moving service. There was a big crowd mostly young and middle-aged all silent…and then I spotted an elderly couple gently whispering along to the words and swaying 😢
It was also nice to spot that all the major buildings in each town were flying rainbow flags in support of International Day Against Homophobia 🌈 We had a long walk back through the town and along the river back to our wild camping spot opposite Lidl carpark.
SofaWolves 