In Bruges

I havn't had a wifi signal for a few days, so have a bit of catching up to do! 

So, back to Monday night.....

Sammie having a farewell cuddle from the Landlady of the Plough and Harrow, near Deal ...

On Tuesday morning we were up at the obscene hour of 05.00!

We arrived at the docks at 06.15 and because we were a bit early they put us on the earlier boat.

At 06.30 we were off, we were still asleep! 

The squash us in with the trucks ... 

The dogs have to stay in the van, but it is only one and a half hours so they are fine ...

Once off the ferry it was a left turn and one and a half hours later we were in the centre of Bruges, at a motorhome parking station.

25.00 Euros a night with electric hook up water and elsan ...

Our mission was to find some locations of the best film ever 'In Bruges' ...

Elaine was feeling a bit weary, so I took my trusty side kick, Sammie and took off to the city.

Our first task was to spot the clock tower used in the 'Fat Americans sketch'.

The place was absolutely heaving with tourists, I don't think I have ever seen such a concentration of tourists in one spot.

This chap stuck out like the proverbial dogs balls ...

The tour boats were loaded to the gunwales ...

Aha the clock tower!

Opposite the clock tower is the market square ... 

It started to rain so I headed back to base.

In the early evening we put on the wet weather gear and went for another walk around this fascinating little city. 

Reflective shot ...

Belgium is famous for its chocolate, you can even buy chocolate spanners ...

It started to get quite wet and miserable, so once again we headed back to base.

On Wednesday we woke to a nice sunny day, we listened to the dulcet tones of radio 'Klara'.  

(Our dear friends, and some of the nicest people on the UK canals, Roly and Bev, own a lovely recently repainted boat called Klara.  It is also the name of Elly and Mick's (of NB Parisien Star fame's) dog!  So this is for them!) ...

How did I guess that the owners of the matching and parked exactly the same bikes would be Dutch.....why do they do it? 

As it was such a lovely day we once again went into the centre of the city.  It is only a 10 minute walk from the motorhome park ...

It looked fantastic in the warm sunshine ...

Having a rest ...

There was a market in full swing ...

Of course we had to sample some Belgian Beer ...

Perfect for people watching as well ...

Arty shot ... 

We ambled around the back streets to get away from the tourists ...

The motorhome park is next to the coach park and marina, you can see our van behind the two boats ...

We left on Thursday morning, filling the water tank first as we didn't know where we would end up.

They were queuing up like narrowboats at the water point ...

I like the price of diesel....78 p ($1.56AUD) a litre ... still not as cheap as Oz but a lot cheaper than the UK ... 

We spotted this at a roadside stop......instant...4.00 minute pizzas! 

Our plan was to try and find a nice riverside stop so we could spend a couple of days there and, for once in our lives, make some sort of plan..... 

This is where we ended up after a four and a half hour drive ... 

And what a spot it was ...

Absolutely perfect and with the added bonus of a lot of passing ships ...

We don't have any electric here, just water grey waste and elsan disposal - mind you they do charge £3.55 a night (5 Euros / $7.10AUD) ...

There was a lovely rainbow last night, but we didn't get any rain.  We sat drinking and talking to our lovely neighbours 'till quite late ...

I usually have the front bed and Elaine has the rear bed, but we swapped last night so I could watch the ships passing in the night!

Today is glorious with a nice temp of 26 degrees ...

This ship just cruised past!  The river exits at Le Havre which is about 50 miles 80ks away at a guess.  I will have to try and find how far up the river these big ships can go ...

Hopefully by the end of the day we will also have a plan of sorts of where we are going!

NB I have just checked, the large ships can go as far as Rouen 75 miles or 120 ks inland!

Back by popular demand we have resurrected the the fluffy pen GPS.

Here we be!