Does a travel blog really need to be chronological?
I’m starting this near the end because travel is very much about the people you meet as the places you see, at least in my experience.
Travelling solo tends to attract others like moths to a light, however the more people you travel with the less likely others will connect with you. Maybe there’s a curiosity about why is he/she is travelling alone, or just an act of friendliness for fear that the person may be lonely? But whatever the reason I have been surprised by the number of interactions others have made with me. I went through a period during my first few bike tours after Rachel died that I refused to instigate a conversation with others, ‘only speak unless spoken to’ became my motto, I didn’t want to come across to others as that lonely old man desperate for company. I can do this on my own, I don’t need help.
Of course I have met so many lovely people on my travels and now I’m not so uptight about instigating conversations, no I still don’t want to be perceived as that boring, lonely old man, but not to interact is missing an important element from the great experience of travel.
This is a very long-winded way about why I’m starting this blog near the end of the trip.
My mate Paul and I are in a bar in Bruges, our last stopover on this short trip around northern Belgium in the Boxster. On the table next to us is a couple sampling a tray of 6 beers, a common pastime in this neck of the woods, for finding out which is your preferred tipple. I hold my hands up, I instigated this connection by commenting on their selection, and from those few words came a lovely interaction with a German couple who, it transpired, were great travellers and also fellow bikers. The “no we’re not having another drink” changed to “another beer please” and although it didn’t get messy, we probably all stayed longer than originally planned as we exchanged travel stories and photos of motorbikes. Would I regret not getting their contact details? Maybe, we got on so well, but I don’t want to be that perceived as………..Yeah you guessed it.
Sometimes I need something to inspire me to write, or more recently, cobble something together on YT. The interaction with our German biker friends was the catalyst for this.
Back to the chronology of the trip:
DFDS Newcastle/IJmuiden Ferry.- bring your own food!
At €32 – €44 for any meals on board I considered the child’s menu at €13 – it’s as much as I can eat in one sitting anyway but I had visions of the Ricky Gervais scenario.
There were nachos available in the nightclub, and desperate for some kind of sustenance we plumped for that, but never again!
Our Travel Companions
Convenience is the name of the game with this crossing, especially for us far northerners and Scottish.
Whilst on the subject of our northern neighbours, there appeared to be an unusually high percentage of passengers wearing their traditional attire, men in kilts seemed to outstrip the usually high number of hen and stag weekenders. It soon became apparent that the Tartan Army were on the march to the Holland v Scotland football match in Amsterdam. All good natured stuff even into the later hours after I’d retired to our cabin, when I believe it was shirts off on the dance floor, I scene I have no regrets from missing.
Talking of our cabin, I have lost count of the number of ferry crossings I’ve done over the last 14 years but I have to say our cabin is the smallest 4 berth I’ve ever been in, compact in the extreme. It was bigger than business class on an aeroplane, not that I’ve ever experienced such luxury, but not by much!
The road to Waterloo
Staying with the football theme, if there was a league table for best countries to drive in then surely Holland and Belgium would be facing relegation, no wonder these countries are so great for cycling.
By the time we’d cleared the very busy motorways displaying signs referencing Amster-something and Rotterdam we weren’t far from crossing the border into Belgium. Motorway travel is no way to see a country but sometimes it’s needs must. So for a change from motorway scenery we chose the N14 to Mechelen, this did nothing to warm me to driving over here.
There wasn’t any realistic alternative to the Brussels ring road which lived up to expectations of being a congested stop start affair.
By the time we arrived at Waterloo I was left with the feeling that no wonder these two countries feature so highly in the list of the most populated countries of Europe!
Waterloo
Apparently it’s 226 steps to the Butte deLion, I counted 225 but I’m not going back to check!
Rachel and I had visited the Waterloo Museum many years ago but didn’t give it the time we wanted so it served as a good excuse when Paul mentioned to me “How about a couple of nights away somewhere”? I think his idea was possibly a short jaunt over the border to Scotland but hey 🤷🏻♂️
After most of the day at Waterloo we booked into a hotel about thirty miles away, it turned out to have a Lebanese restaurant, I’d never had Lebanese food before so left it to the waitress to choose for me 🤗
Ghent & Bruges
Rachel and I had been to both these places and I also took Ray and Ken on the bikes when we did the Western Front Way back in 2022, but Paul had never been. I enjoyed showing him around the places and didn’t need to have a raised umbrella for him to follow me.
Following photos are Bruges
As you probably have gathered I’m delving into YouTube so will not post them in any blogs. They take much more doing than the blog so inevitably will be published randomly. If you are interested in them then they can be found here:
Looks like you had a good time – not sure about Lebanese food 😳x
😆x
Marie I agree I’ll stick to beer if I’ve got to eat that I don’t know how Raymond would have managed 🤣😂
😆 they may have done him chips 🤔
Was that the strong Beer you boys were swilling down 🍺🍺🤣
Only up to 10.5% 😬