Monday 9 May 2011

Germany 2007, Day Fifteen, Belgium

Day fifteen 17th June

After a morning shower I went to reception to check in and pay up front, €67.50 total, thats €22.50 per night, then off to the internet room and sent a few emails and checked the weather of the next few days (weather not that good).


Then we set off to walk into town instead of getting the bus, its not as far as I thought and we were there in about 20 mins.  It was dinner time by the time we got there, so we stopped at the first chip shop we came to, a place was on a map for young visitors, that I had picked up at reception.  We ordered set menu No2 (I think), burger and chips with mayonnaise, had to wait a bit, as everything was cooked to order.  As I was eating, I though I had a bit of gristle in my burger but it was one of my front teeth had broken in half, not painful (it was a cap) but it put me off my food.


It was a bit of a gray day and a bit on the cold side but there were some good spells of sunshine, we spent the day walking round sightseeing and window shopping. Later as we got tired, we were deciding where to have a sit down and a drink, when we were just outside this tiny bar, so we wandered over and sat outside. It had a wonderful selection of beers and the food being served looked very good as well, the shame is we haven't got the name of the place (do now, Cafe Terrastje) but we do have photos.  We did have to move inside for a second drink as it started to rain.


 

After the rest, and the rain stopped, we continued with our tour but not for too long as we were getting tired, this prompted us to decided on the bus for the return journey, so we headed in the general direction of the bus stop. Back in the main square (or what we assume was the main square), a street performer was just packing away all his gear, why do I mention this you may ask, well it will all become apparent later on.

Back to where the bus leaves but it was too early to be going back to the site so we looked for somewhere to have a drink. Well there were a couple of bars just opposite the bus stop so that makes it a no-brainer. The first one has wonderful views over the canal and as you would expect in Bruges, wonderful beers as well, Dot orders a Bell Vue Kriek and I settle for a Duvel. From our seats outside the bar we have a good view of the tour boats passing, dot wants to go on a boat trip but I don't.



The bar is actually a hotel and a couple of large BMW motorcycles pull in to the courtyard we are sat in, to book in for the night, soon after another eight or so BMW's show up as well. Soon the courtyard is getting full of parked motorcycles and the staff are starting to looked worried, staff from the other restaurants and bars around the courtyard are also looking concerned. I hear the leader of the motorcyclists being asked to move the bikes to an underground car park near by and used by the hotel, but I can tell they have no intention of moving them. Later (after another drink), when the bikers reappear, changed for the night, I discover (by asking) that they were a group on a customers day out from a London BMW dealership and were off back home tomorrow. They hadn't moved the bikes before we got the bus back to the site.



Back on the street, next to the hotel is a shop proclaiming to be the largest beer shop in the world (don't think it was, our local Tesco has more beer), anyway it had a bar so we popped in and it too had good views over the canal but not the same selection of beer on offer as next door had.



No problem with the bus tonight, we got off at the bar we had used last night but it wasn't open, we did however get something to eat from the chip shop opposite. Just before the bus stopped to let us off, I though I spotted the American couple with bicycles we had seen on the campsite Kehl Germany a few day ago. They where on the main road next to the useless bus stop, so I popped round the corner to offer advice but there as no sign of them, very strange.

Back on site there is a rather old LDV van parked next to us, it has been partly converted for use as a motorhome (it has a mattress in the back) but not that much has been done to it and has a wooden replacement for window in one side. Anyway to cut a very long story short, it belongs to a very young Australian couple, over in Europe doing street theatre, we had just missed there performance in the main square. We help them by charging their mobile phones for them they have all of the wrong adapters. Story is they got this van free from a bloke in Germany and all they have to do in return is get it MOTed back in the UK and take it back, sounded like it was going to be expensive to me.


Had drinks outside the van with a couple who had just done up an old Hymer, he was a bit worried that it was a bit old fashioned but it looked good to me, I think it was because he was next to a brand new Geist, that looked amazing.  I have since come across two of these new silver Geists broken down by the side of the road.

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