MERDE ET SACRE BLEU!

Before reading below – click on Ghent on the left hand side.  I stuffed up the sequence of pages and can’t seem to rectify it.

Yesterday morning we set off from Ghent on our way to Bastogne in Wallonia (province) which is supposed to be where some of the prettiest parts are in Belgium.  As we were travelling for an hour of so, we noticed a strange noise we hadn’t heard before.  It was noticeable mostly when slowing down and seemed tyre related.  We drove (at highway speed) for a bit before deciding we really need to check the noise – it was getting worse.  We wanted to get to Namur but saw a tyre place just out of Nivelle so stopped there.  We were now in the ‘Only French’ speaking part of the country and No One spoke English.  The first tyre place referred us to a second tyre place (im not sure if it was just that they couldn’t understand us completely or didn’t want to).  Fortunately at the second tyre place a customer spoke a little English.  The manager told us the pneu (tyre) would go ‘boom’ if we didn’t get it looked at and referred us to a third tyre place back in Nivelle.  We went there but again no one spoke English so we had to explain in our best French what was happening – a very difficult proposition.  At the end of it all our back tyre had a massive depression (this was the one supposed to have been replaced before we bought the van) and would certainly have exploded had we kept driving.  Two new tyres later and we were off to Namur.  We were very lucky, shudder to think what could have happened.  It was too late to find a camping ground so we did our first night of wild camping in a rest area where another camper was south of Namur.

We heard a few noisy hoons during the night which kept me awake hoping we weren’t going to get hassled.  It is a learning experience, remembering not everyone who makes a noise nearby is out to get us.  It is something we have to get used to, but is difficult as we don’t know the areas.

Up earlyish this morning and off driving to Bastogne.  What a beautiful part of the country we travelled through today.  Quite a hilly part of the country as we near Luxembourg but the van coped well (especially with new tyres).  Would loved to have stopped in some areas on the way but it can be very difficult to find parks as it seems the whole town have parked their cars on the sides of the roads leaving nothing for anyone else.  I am very impressed with the countryside given the negative things people have said.  We think it is an incredibly lovely country.  Bastogne is a small interesting little town that we will explore more of tomorrow, going to the museums etc.  It is the 70th anniversary of the WWII Battle of the Bulge where the Americans liberated Belgium and the main square is named after the American General McAuliffe who, when asked to surrender by the Germans, replied ‘NUTS’ and has been revered ever since.

Belgium has more different beers than we have ever seen anywhere.  I have been drinking the cherry beer which is lovely, but that’s because no one here wants to sell cider – even though Stella Artois make it here.  Scot will drink any beer there is on the menu – I am sure he has gone through half the bottles in the photo in the previous blog…..lol  🙂

We have been looking for bikes on our travels as we seem to be the only ones walking anywhere in Belgium.  Today we spotted some being sold at a roadside house so stopped and checked them out.  Great buying considering what we have seen and the prices here are generally very high for bikes.  These ones are well maintained and the lady does them up to sell.  Good luck finding these makes up for the bad luck we had when Scot backed into a roadside bank when trying to do a 3 point turn and smashed up the back corner bumper.  Where will we ever find a fibreglasser to fix the damage???  Thank god for duct tape – an absolute necessity in our tool kit.  I keep thinking I really should be driving rather than navigating, but am not sure where we would end up??????  I don’t want to visit Siberia just yet…….lol.