The Aussie Nomads Motorhome Adventures: July 2011

BELGIUM

It is raining again and as you can see by the photo we are on the highway with a million trucks. Fortunately we have found that if we get in the truck lane we can cruise at 80to 90 kph, no lane swapping and it keeps the nerves settled.

We stayed overnight in Gent and went for a bus ride into the city. The only difference between this city and any big French city is they are flying the Belgium flag.

There was a musical festival on and it was busy. The wonderful men’s loo are in plentiful supply to stop them peeing down every laneway and I guess as usual the women have to keep their legs crossed. This one was right opposite where we had lunch.

This morning we left Gent for Kortryjk. Penny and Russel and Bob and Lois were arriving at the marina late in the afternoon. It was raining again!! We found the Aussies and had late afternoon drinks. While Russel was cooking the BBQ we went down the street to the laundromat and put two loads on. We had dinner and Kevin went back down to put the clothes in the dryer and found out they had LOCKED THE DOORS before the finishing time on the door with our clothes still in the washing machines. After a few phone calls with no success and then finding out tomorrow was a public holiday we were wondering if we would see our clothes again. Next day we were back to the laundromat early and fortunately it was open so after drying it we went for walk around the old own.

These towers were at the end of the marina leading into the old city.

We had come across the Beguinage’s before but this was the first one to explain what they were.

The Kortrijk Beguinage, a little town within the town.

Next stop Ypres or Ieper as it is called now, we found a good free site for motorhomes about 500 metres from the Menin Gate.

Looking through the Menin Gate during the day.

Ieper was completely demolished during the war and it is a marvellous sight to see the town today as everything was rebuilt using old materials and styles and one wouldn’t know it had ever been raised.
Ieper 1917

Ieper was famous for textiles and the magnificent Cloth Hall built in the 13^th century was reconstructed and is very impressive. The main square in an old photograph

The Cloth Hall 2011

The square is typical with lovely buildings and restaurants in the ground floor.

We had dinner in a great restaurant with Penny and Russel and Bob and Lois after they arrived back from their tour. Kevin and I had yummy Flemish Stew our first typical Flanders dish.

At 7.30pm we gathered at the gate waiting for the traffic to be stopped. The atmosphere was amazing with people of all ages waiting for 8pm for the bugles to play the last post.

It is very sombre to read some of the 54 896 names of young men reported missing who gave their lives up to 15 August 1917, because the gate was too small to hold the names of all the missing, those missing after that date 34000 British and New Zealand soldiers are commemorated at the Tyne Cot memorial in Passendale.

The sound of the bugles reverberating around the walls and roof was truly moving.

The others left to go back to their boats and we stayed in Ieper for a few days visiting the various sites on the Western Front. The Flanders Museum in the Cloth hall was very moving and this photo tells of the loss on both sides of so many young men. Some 5 million British and Commonwealth soldiers passed through the Ieper on the way to the battle fields.

We visited Hooges and thought about the futility of war and the young men on both sides dying for a few feet of ground.

This peaceful pool is the Hooge crater hole. There were 19 craters along the Messine Ridge. They came about by the tunnelling under enemy lines and setting off huge amounts of explosives. One mine exploded in 1955 and 3 unexploded mine tunnels are still there somewhere.

A crater after the blast

Also at Hooges are the remains of some trenches.

Just near Hooges we stayed on a campsite on a farm and spent time with a dutch family camping there also. In the mornimg as we were leaving we came across this novel way of distributing bread to the houses and farms around. Put in 2.20 Euro and down the shute comes a lovely fresh loaf of bread.

As we travelled through the country the next couple of days we passed and visited many of the cemeteries dotted through this area. Tyne Cot in Passendale was the largest with cottage garden flowers around the markers and the wall with more of the names of missing British and New Zealand soldiers.

In a little road side cemetery it was very sad to see this marker showing an unknown Australian soldier and the other marker showing only ‘ a soldier of the great war.’

This little cemetery was surrounded by fields

We also came across this grave near Hill 60 just as an old couple were replacing the flowers. The 87 year old man was in the resistance and they care for this grave of two friends in the resistance who were shot at this railway siding in 1944.

The poppies are a constant reminder of the poem by John Mc Crae

‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row’

Now we had paid our respects to all those brave men it was time to look further field.

We have become like butterflies going here and there as we hear from someone or read in a book something else we want to see. Now we are off to see boating things.

We hadn't travelled through the west side of Belgium in our boat and Kevin had always wanted to see the Ascenseur Strepy Thieu on the Centre canal so now it is time to drive down and mark that off of his list.

To turn the waterways into a network to carry the very large modern barges the boat lift has taken the place of 4 old lifts which each took boats up or down 17 metres. The canal has now been extended and one new lift or Ascenseur has two tanks and can take 1350 t vessels up or down 73 metres in one go. There is a video theatre and viewing deck on the top floor and views into the machinery halls and while we were there a double length barge was lifted.

View from the top looking at a 110 m barge

Inside the lift machinery hall.

We then went to the Ronquieres Incline plane. This compensates for a difference in level of 68 metres.

It has two gigantic tanks on rails which slide up or down the slope approx 1km using a counter balance.

Tank with two barges side by side.

WATERLOO BATTLEFIELD

While we were here watching the barge coming down we spoke to a Belgian family who asked if we had been to see the Waterloo Battlefield not far away. We have read the book and seen the movie so why not see the real thing, so off we went to check out Wellington and Napoleons waterloo.

The Battle of Waterloo was regarded as one of the greatest battles in European history symbolizing the fall of Napoleon and an era of peace in Europe. Following his surrender he was taken to the island of St Helena.

Our first sight was of the magnificent Butte of the Lion built 1824 to 1826. it is 41 metres high, 226 steps lead up to the summit and my calf muscles complained all the way. Atop the mound stands an enormous cast iron Lion protecting the globe and symbolizing new found peace in Europe. And as we know that didn’t last for long.

At the top looking over the battle fields.

The Waterloo complex.

We went for a trip in a wagon over the battlefield and to see the Panorama erected in 1912 which houses a huge canvas which measures 110m by 12m. It is a lifelike depiction of the battle around 4pm on 18 June 1815 with the use of 3D foreground models. It was painted by French painter Louis Dumoulin and a team of military painters. It is said to be the third largest painted canvas in Europe.

Enough of battlefields we are off to France

On the way to the south we drove along the side of the Randmeren, it was Sunday and we have never seen so many wind surfers in one place they were like bees in a swarm. I wanted to take a photo so off of the highway and onto a side road only to find out we would need to pay 10 euros to reach the water. We walked down and got one photo as most were in packing up.

There was also the largest shop for wind sailors we have ever seen. This was a third of the shop.

Our next stop was Zeeland and as we had never been here by boat we visited Willemstad, a lovely small walled city with a small harbour nestled in amongst very narrow streets. We found out the narrow bit once we turned a corner and the mirrors were almost touching the sides. We had time for a coffee overlooking the harbour before everyone started moving for the day. After years of driving a tourist coach Kevin is very good with his judgement, even so, we left with our mirrors folded in.

We drove on through Zeeland to Terneuzen seeing the large waterways which have been tamed by closing the North Sea end to create very large inland waters.

This area was where there were huge floods in 1953. At that time all the waterways were open to the sea and under the influence of the North Sea tides. Very high tides combined with unusually strong winds broached the dikes and flooded the surrounding towns. Some of our friends in Perth migrated as children from these areas. We stopped at The Delta Information Centre on Neeltje Jans Island which has models showing how the large areas of water were closed by building huge sluice gates. The island was the construction site for the huge storm surge gates which are used to control the flow of water.

No space is wasted in the

Netherlands

, the road runs along the top of the storm barriers.

The concrete barriers for each gate are huge. They were built on site then floated on huge barges to their positions. This is one built as a spare but never used.