Two Gents in Ghent – and a coupla gals.

We just spent another 2 days in Belgium visiting the cities of Ghent and Brugge. This time we were meeting friends from NZ, Jenny and Paul, who also happened to have been part of our wedding. In fact Jenny was my ‘Bridesmaid’. I now call her Madge.

Both these canal towns are really pretty, with pots of petunias adorning stone bridges and ornate buildings huddled up together.

 

Brugge by day

Brugge by night

Ghent

More Ghent

The most bizarre Virgin painting - note Mary is squirting milk at a Priest

Our next side trip is due to start today, but our flight has been delayed due to an Italian air traffic strike. Probably have been fed the wrong kind of pasta or served a cappuccino after 11am.

This time we are meeting Sally and Dennis in Rome. We only had 8 people at our wedding and we’ll have met 4 of them within a week! Sally and Dennis were also at the big event, and have spent the last month sailing around the Greek Isles.

The weather (yes I need to talk about it constantly!) has started to improve and we had sunshine Belgium – always helps our enjoyment of any place. We managed to drink some bubbly in the late afternoon sunshine.

Anyway, the forecast for Rome is 29 degrees and sunshine EVERYDAY. Can’t wait to feel some real heat. I feel very nervous packing my bag without a coat…

Will report back next week.

Arrivederci.

Jenny and Kate in Ghent

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium!

Last Tuesday we drove across to Brussels for a few days. It was our 3rd wedding anniversary - can you believe that? We chose Brussels simply because it has great restaurants and German food just ain’t interesting.

You’d’ve thought they would have moved on a bit by now, but pork cabbage and potatoes still reigns supreme. We can buy a fabulous variety of food in the markets here, obviously the restaurants don’t frequent them. Tonight for example we are having my wild boar stew – yum!

Anyway I’ve digressed again moaning about German food. We ate at an authentic Sicilian restaurant for our celebration. God love the Italians, their ‘cucina provera’ is always interesting and tasty. We devoured a delicious meal and fabulous wine, of course.

 

Brussel's main square

Brussels has become a real tourist mecca, and we had to dodge loads of tour groups. We‘ve no idea why so many come here, it’s not that interesting, not that we didn’t have fun, but I wouldn’t go out of my way on a 2 or 3 week tour of Europe. Paris, Rome Brussels???

We stopped overnight in Maastricht on the way home and had a wonderful Indonesian meal. Next day we found a winery – of course! I think there’s only one hill in the Netherlands and this was it. It’s a very marginal area to grow wine grapes and what we tasted was a bit flat. Won’t be rushing to buy more.

 

Maastricht winery

We had lunch in Aachen  - a very appealing mediaeval town, then back to Bonn.

 

Aachen Rathaus

Aachen Cathedral

We’ve done some re-arranging and reshuffling in Boris, creating more space – not sure how we keep managing this, but we do. He’ll be in fine working order when we leave here mid-October.

 

Lawrence doing some spring cleaning.

Legless Again

Just when you thought it was safe, I’m going to tell you more about my broken ankle!!! Sorry, but it just has to be told. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I’ve had the plate and seven of the screws removed. A couple of the screws were so prominent that they were starting to become a real pain at yoga – ouch!

 

Proof

So now I’m on crutches again, hopefully for the last time. Foolishly I decided that I could do stairs this time, being so strong from all the yoga - ha ha. Good plan except that I strained all the muscles in my back and shoulders, so every step for the next 3 days was agony.

Am now back to normal and will be on crutches until Saturday.

As a result of the GP’s Secretary deciding that I couldn’t have a different name to my husband, I was known Frau Johnstone in the hospital, which I suppose was better than being ‘La Americana’ which was my moniker in Spanish hospital.

Lawrence’s sister Helen has come over from Glasgow to visit with her partner Billy, so we’ve had fun catching up. The weather has been fab, warm and sunny, but sadly pouring rain this morning. They’ve been using our old fold-up bikes that we left at Stuart’s last year and are loving riding along the Rhine. Regrettably I couldn’t join them. Can’t wait to get back on 2 wheels.

BBQ Chez Johnstones

Lunch by the Rhein

We’ve started the process of getting our Russian visas. Step one was to get some very grim passport photos taken. As we need 12 month multi entry visas, we need validate them by going to Russia in October. So lucky us, we get to go to St Petersburg – yippee. Everybody says it is simply fabulous. We are really looking forward to that side trip.

Not much else is happening in Deutschland. Asparagus season is over and cherry season is in full swing. Not sure what the next season will be but it does seem to be mandated by law that thou shalt not eat asparagus after June 30. It was really good while it lasted.

HUBBa Hubba

We’re back from our trip to the UK for HUBB and despite my promises, I am going to tell you a bit about the ‘meeting’.

We met up with Darren and Clare, the Bimobil agents in the UK. We’ve become mates over the past year, so it was great to catch up with them and the latest goss over a few vinos. We hatched a plan to spend December off-roading in the south of Morocco, we’ll be 3 x bimobils so should be a lot of fun. We won’t be fooled into getting on a camel again, haven't fully recovered from the last time. We’ll head to Spain after that – I think.

 

Bimobils galore

We did learn a few things from various speakers, mostly where not to go. Lawrence was keen do a ‘road’ in Siberia called the BAM. It’s an unmaintained ex rail maintenance track – that's gives you a clue straight up. The presenter had loads of dramatic video footage and photos (he did it on a motorbike). Towards the end, one of the bridges was in such a terrible state that, without thinking, I said out loud, “Oh we are not doing that!!”. The whole room erupted into laughter - everyone was thinking the same thing. Lawrence has now gone off the idea – thank the Lord.

A Typical BAM bridge - but not the worst.
Photo courtesy of Sirocco Overland blog

Anyway, we met loads of fun people, hopefully we’ll keep in touch. All our cheap wine went down well – a great way to meet people! We even got to buy some Tughriks from an Aussie couple. Apparently that's Mongolian currency, if not it'll be useful for Monopoly when we get home.

Of course, since I took winter clothes, the sun came out and we boiled most of the time. English weather simply cannot be trusted.

We left Donington on the Sunday and met up with Lawrence’s lovely niece Eleanor, who lives in Ely near Cambridge. Went to a fabulous pub with her and her partner Elliott.

Lawrence had decided to fit a winch to Boris, working on the assumption that if you have one, you won’t need it. Clare and Darren delivered it to us at the meeting and we had it fitted near Cambridge. This turned into a real saga as the universal mounting plate was completely useless and the guys wasted a day trying to make it fit. They then had to devise and build one from scratch.

 

Lawrence with Jeff and Oliver from Wicken 4x4

Thanks to Jeff and Oliver for their patience and ingenuity in making it work.

However it did give us a chance to visit the vast and beautiful Ely Cathedral, a real show stopper. We did a brilliant tour, and got to walk on another cathedral roof. 

Lawrence among the Angels

On the Roof

Ely Cathedral from Above

We also managed a day’s sightseeing in pretty Cambridge, I hadn’t been there before. We had a pub lunch, entertained by punters – the professionals making it look easy and the amateurs making fools of themselves. Sadly no-one made a big splash by falling in.

King's college

So we now back in Schweinheim, which feels like home now, plotting our next venture in Boris. Luxembourg I think.