2018-10-11 Day 30 Thu

The end of our visit to Ran and Belgium. A farewell and thanks to Ran for turning us into tourists for 2 days.
I drove out at about 10am heading for Echternach in Luxembourg, where Ran has told us would be a nice place and some lovely walks.

It feels that finally we are on our way. Our Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia trip has started.

A month of work and most jobs complete. It feels good to be starting our travels again. I drove the first 120km’s mainly on highway and not at the speed limit of 120kph. The steering wheel gets the shakes up really bad again at 80-85km’s, we will have to put the front tyres on the back. The only time the shakes have really stopped was when we had 4 brand new tyres on her in Chile.

We did a food shop in Echternach then sat by the lake and had a late lunch. Leaving the lake on a back road we tucked into a side road under some acorn trees, and yes the acorns are falling!!!!

225km

2018-10-10 Day 29 Wed.

Today Ran took us to the Atomonium, and little Europe. The Atomonium is the representative of crystal form of iron and is 102m high. It was built in the 1950's and is the most visited site in Belgium. We rode the elevator to the top and after a walk around looking at the city of Brussels we had a beer. The walk through Atomonium was interesting but in one of the balls was a light and sound show which was really neat.

Down to earth again and a wonder around little Europe which has models of all the major attractions in each European union country. A warm day for this time of year about 24℃.

Although the day was interesting and there were very few visitors it was not as interesting as yesterday, and enforces our quest for nature and space.

A farewell and thanks to Ran for turning us into tourists for 2 days.

2018-10-09 Day 28 Tue

Ran drove us to Durbuy which is a historic small village, the smallest in Belgium. We first of all had a Belgium Waffle which was pretty good and very light. Then we wondered around, had a coffee and left.

We noticed a castle and drove up. It was a type of retreat and yoga center. We had an interesting vegetarian lunch then continued onto Dinant.

We had a quick look at the small marina where the boats need to be lifted out over winter as the river freezes. The river is dammed here with movable dam walls, there is a lock for boats to pass up and down river. John is still pondering over how the movable dam walls works.

We were too late to enter the cathedral, A citadel is perched on the promontory overlooking the town. We sat on the river promenade and drank one of Belgium's cherry flavored beers. A neat town with lots going on. The bridge was lined with large saxophones.

A good day and nice to have someone else driving and navigating.

2018-10-08 Day 27 Mon

Again we took the opportunity to climb up to the top of the sea shore dike. This one had been bombed by the allied forces as they landed and liberated the town.

Further north we explored the moveable dike (they allow and control the flow of water in and out) and drove a big circle of about 170km to get back to the latitude we started from.

On to Brussels via Brugue as “In Brugue” is one of JYB’s most liked films which we had watched together. Our little drive through Bruges was entertaining and with all the narrow one way streets made it a bit of fun. We just hoped the old bridges were still strong! A quaint old town.

On to Brussels and Ran. We finally found their house and then followed Ran to park EC in the nearby supermarket car-park for the night.

Ran and Bridget live on the second floor of small apartment building with 3 apartments. In the middle of Brussels. They were very welcoming to us. We had not seen Ran since his very short visit to us in China in 2008.

Had some nice wine and chatted about the past, future and present - and slept on the couch in their lounge.

 298km