Amsterdam and Belgium

Thursday 04 August

Awoke to torrents of rain which is fine as we're heading off this morning towards Amsterdam. Sylvi had visited Amsterdam in 1992 on her Trafalgar tour and although didn't see much, but wasn't really impressed at the time. We should have recognised the universe trying to steer us away when Sylvi was bitten on the left calf by a large wasp when we stopped for lunch shortly after entering the Netherlands. Luckily not allergic but it was a nasty sting.

Onwards anyway travelling through the flattest land we've seen to date. There are a lot of corn plantations, wind turbines (only a few old windmills) and a lot of cattle in the fields. The atmosphere has a distinctive smell of cow poo and there is pollution haze in the air. Some roadworks on the highway also made for lengthy delays.

Sign number two from the universe was when our GPS directed us to our camping site via a road with a bridge too low for us to travel under. We changed directions and continued but the camp was full (sign number 3). Sylvi didn't think that was such a bad thing as the residents looked a bit too bohemian for her taste. It's Amsterdam Gay Pride Weekend, so everywhere is very busy.  The parade is on boats in the canals, watched by 500,000 people.

Not to be deterred (just yet) we headed for another camping site, Gaasper Camping Amsterdam and were directed to wait outside while a site was located for us. Unfortunately it didn't have power so we turned the fridge onto gas for the first time.

This is a really nice camp site with lush manicured lawns on which you are not allowed to put any large mats which might cause fading. There is no toilet paper in the facilities though. There isn't even provision for any, you just have to bring your own. There is also no soap, hand towels and only cold water at the hand basins. For the showers you pay an extra 80 cents Euro for hot water. By this stage we were starting to feel like Amsterdam really wasn't the town for us.

Friday 05 August

Lots of campers leaving so we probably could have waited and got a powered site, but decided to just head on towards Belgium instead. We are learning to trust our instincts, so will leave Amsterdam for another trip!


More roadworks on the five lane highway reduced it to two made for an additional hour of travel. The local radio stations were getting into the Gay Pride weekend, with one counting down the "Homo 100", with lots of Kylie, George Michael, Village People etc.  A bit different from Triple-J's Hot 100 back home.  Made for some fun while sitting in the traffic.

We were heading for the town of Gent in Flanders where we plan to do day trips to Bruges and Brussels. The first camp site however was full so directed us to Camping Groeneveld, a small but well maintained site within close reach of Gent. It also has no toilet paper, soap or hand towels, but many signs telling you to keep the place clean. There is also no laundry unless you want to do hand washing.  We went exploring the nearby town/street and continued further exploring the countryside. We were about the only walkers as everywhere is made for bicycles here.

This really is a very beautiful area with gorgeous, modern brick houses, beautifully maintained gardens and many large farming properties with healthy looking cows. We came upon the highlight of this region – The Castle of Ooidonk – which is magnificent on the outside, as are the surrounding gardens.

Back at our camp site we discovered why you don't feed the roaming ducks. Cute as they are, they like to leave large deposits behind as a thank you. We won't be doing that again, at least not so close to our patch.  In the distance you can hear a timed gun shot ring out to scare away the birds from the corn plantations. As birds sleep at night too, we assume this will stop when night falls which luckily is much earlier then Norway (around 9pm).

We will go into the larger town of Deinze tomorrow to explore. We'll have to walk the 6km there as no buses run on the week-end!!

Saturday 06 August

A little bit of rain to start but it cleared to just overcast by the time we set off to Deinze which is a pretty little town but many shops were closed being the week-end. This being the country of dykes, we crossed a counter weight bridge just before it closed to let a large pleasure boat through.

As a wedding had just finished and the guests departed, we took a look at the local church. The massive number of flower arrangements decorating every inch of the church were spectacular in themselves, and the church itself was impressive with life size statues of saints, gold, marble and wood carvings.  Next door was the Tourist Information where we were basically told there was nothing much to see and we should catch the train to Gent. So that's exactly what we did as the mall area was under renovation and lunch there didn't appeal.

The Belgium train attendant sitting amongst his coins and ticket machines apparently couldn't actually sell us a ticket but wrote out a pass we were to show the train inspector to buy tickets onboard. Two train inspectors came into our carriage but neither of them approached us so we got a free ride. Plus another one on the tram from the train station into the city of Gent.

Wow. This city is impressive. Just about every building looks like a medieval castle. Between the years 1000 to 1550, Gent was one of the most important European cities. It was bigger then London and second only to Paris in size and mainly ruled by rich merchants until 1302.

After lunch we just walked around admiring everything but did take a look inside St Bavo's Cathedral which reminded us of St Vitus in Prague for size and grandeur. The “no photos” sign was being ignored by everyone so we did too and snapped away. This was almost a museum with all the artwork, statues and ancient relics in the crypt. Totally spectacular.

We had been warned off Bruges as it was too touristy, and advised Gent was a better option.  Well there were heaps of tourists in Gent, but it had a very good feel, with lots of interesting places, and people eating out all over, including in this old building with many smoked hams hanging from the ceiling.

Just before we had to catch the tram homewards, we came upon the Castle of the Counts so didn't have time to visit. It certainly looked impressive from the outside.

So what started out as being a fairly ordinary visit in Belgium actually turned out to be very interesting and beautiful. 


More photos here.