West Kappelle – Bruges

This morning before setting off on the day's travels but after packing up the van and having some cheese on toast and a brew, we went for a walk on the beach.


It was lovely - windy and a bit chilly(or bracing for the more northern amongst us), but sunny and pleasant.

The beach is stunning, and if it was a hot sunny day you could definitely imagine spending a day down there soaking up some rays, and even taking a dip in the (chilly) north sea.

I settled for a paddle.

We set off for Bruges then – taking a 6km tunnel across the Westerschelde (a big sea inlet type thing) which was nice.

We rattled through what was the little bit of the Netherlands on the other side, and into Belgium. It was just as we remembered – dreadful roads, and not much else to say for itself. Really, apologies for any Belgians that might ever read this (but why would they?), but it's just not on the list of places to return to. Nothing to recommend it from what we saw.

We stopped in a town not far over the border to see about some lunch and – hopefully – pick up an internet connection. We got the internet, so we had some lunch. Nothing else to say. We carried on to Bruges.

Bruges – from our first impressions (a trip around the ring road) looks quite nice.

We drove around the ring road – thinking there might be some kind of special (and maybe free?) parking for campervans, and just as we were giving up – I saw the sign!! Yay! Free camping car parking right near the town centre. No facilities (well, there was drinking water), but free, and not bad at all. Absolutely rammed with vans – but we got a little tiny space between a British Transit conversion and a patch of grass – just like having a garden!

Jon was busy updating his CV (we have to go back to work apparently) so I took Top Bike and went to get some food and beer. The decision was that we would eat in the van tonight, see Bruges in the morning and then push off to somewhere near Calais for our last night – to include a slap up dinner and, perhaps, a bottle of wine.

I cycled for miles – managed to find a Carrefour supermarket that we had driven past on our way into town. Was all good though – cyclepaths all the way, and a sunny evening. Just right for a trip out on Top Bike. I have been mostly cycling in the highest gear on the middle chain ring on the bike – to simulate riding a single gear town bike. It's my kind of 'fun' and is very good exercise – by the time I got back to the van my buttock muscles were complaining :) Still, got to work off all the lardy pies and beers we have been drinking somehow.

Talking of beers, I bought a selection of Belgian beers for the evening – one bottle of each of 7, 8, 9 and 10% brews. How nice. Just the one bottle of each though – to share – nothing too serious. Also, slightly randomly, chicken burgers for dinner.

It was all good.

Jon finished his CV, we had dinner, the beers were nice and that was that. Another pleasant evening.

Also, we heard from my sister (Helen, you may remember her from such stories as – Amsterdam) that she got the job that she had been for – still at John Lewis (she works at the store in High Wycombe), but doing something new and exciting! Brilliant news – well done bird!