Belgium - goats, Gent and Waterloo

Wednesday 30^th April

2 cute kids at the B&B.

Today we travelled via Gent to La Louviere, which is south west of Brussels. We are steering clear of the big cities unless there is really something we want to see. The traffic can be very stressful.

Gent is another lovely Belgian town. It is mentioned in the Lonely Planet as a more real Belgian city than Brugge and the place to go if you want to avoid the tourist crowds. Really!??! When we arrived here and came up from the underground car park we found four tour groups instantly – and it was only 10am. We have been using underground car parks a lot through our travels and originally worried that we would have to take out a loan to pay them – like Melbourne – but have found them to be very reasonable, 7 euro for 5 or 6 hours.

City centre in Gent.

Why use one vowel when they work just as well in pairs!
Where are you when I need you Sophia?
Some of the place names are unpronounceable.

We weren't 100% sure what to see and do in Gent, and which way to head, so we tagged on to the back of one of the tour groups and allowed them to lead us to the cathedral where there is a frieze of about 12 panels of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb done by the Eyck brothers. Various panels have been stolen by various people over the years and some have been returned while others are held in private collections and have been reproduced. There were 4 churches in the space of about 500 metres, all quite different. Not sure if they were different religions.

Part of the artwork - the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

A tapestry in one of the churches.
Representing the Tree of Life and given to the visiting Bishop.

One of the churches - all beautiful and different.

Rob is quite taken with some of the church organs.
We thought we might have got a recital
but I think he was just giving her instructions.

Rob climbed the belfry on another one of the churches and got good views over Gent. Gent also had a canal system and canal boat rides like Brugge. There was also a good tram network through the centre of the city. I wandered the main street and browsed the tourist shops but kept my money in my wallet. There were still a lot of tourist groups in town but they seemed to be spread out so weren’t really a problem.

City tramways.

The belfry Rob climbed.

Dinner was again at a relais just near the hotel. Not quite as good as the previous one but still good food and very reasonably priced. A different hotel chain tonight and if it hadn’t been for the noisy neighbours in the corridor at 5.30, 6.30 and then 7 they would have scored well. I stuck my head out the door at 7.30 to tell them to shush and realised after I had opened my mouth that there were 2 policemen there as well. Too bad. I just said shush and shut the door.

Thursday 1^st May

Today was a public holiday. When we asked what for the guy wasn’t sure how to explain it but said it was to celebrate work – maybe like our Labour Day.

First stop this morning was the site of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. A bit of a trick getting there as the road was closed for roadwork, but we did what the locals did and ignored the road closed signs – just a little bit. It trapped the tourist bus too so is obviously just new works. Here we saw our first wild growing poppies.

Almost out of the Flanders area
but these were the first wild poppies we saw.

The museum included 2 films about the Battle of Waterloo and a panorama of the battle, as well as the Butte de Lion – the hill with a lion statue on top. The hill was closed when we first arrived as a guy was going to ride his bike up the hill – very steep, 226 steps. In actual fact he bounced his bike up the steps. Rob said it was in protest against racism?!? Not sure.

He bounced the bike up 226 steps to the top.
 Apparently was a french champion at some time.

Rob climbed the hill and took some photos. Not a lot to see really apart from the farmland. No relics of the war from 200 years ago. Don’t know why you would expect any – there aren’t too many from WWI which was only 100 years ago.

All uphill to the lion.

Belgium farmland at Waterloo.

226 steps up - and back.
 I'm one of the dots sitting at the bottom.

The Butte de Lion.

We succumbed today to the easy option and had Maccas for lunch. Two things you can count on Maccas for is the menu is easy to decipher with pictures, and the toilets are clean. Today we also used the motorways to get to our overnight stop. Belgium seems to be criss crossed with motorways and the ones we used have been good with well signed and designed interchanges. It certainly chews up the miles when you use these to get places.

We have seen quite a few of these around
and this one is in beautiful condition.

Our hotel tonight is in Liege which is a short drive tomorrow morning to Spa Francorchamps where the circuit race meeting is held this weekend. Tomorrow is practice and qualifying and Saturday is the race. So tomorrow’s blog could well contain car photos – just to pre-warn you all.