Heading Home via Holland & Belgium

After saying we'd had enough of lakes I'm not sure why we ended up in Roemond in the southern Netherlands which is situated on the banks of the Meuse River and is also home to the Maasplassen, the largest connected water sports area in the Netherlands. We had read the town itself has very nice architecture and waterfront dining, and it's other big attraction is the huge designer outlet shopping park (think Bicester Village) - the fact I don't like clothes shopping is one of my key strengths (maybe my only one) for Colin.

We managed to park up in a central marina in the town. It was a bit of a gloomy day but the town did look very nice on first impressions. The shopping streets were full of nice boutiques and quirky stores. Colin was attracted into a very nice looking mens clothing store where we got talking to the English owner Mike. He was a fascinating character, having been born in the UK, he had left at the age of 19 the join the army based in Germany and had never returned to live in the UK although he still has family there. His work has taken him to the US, and all around the world, but he'd settled in Roemond for a number of years (having had 2 Dutch wives and some kids). He'd been running his shop for a couple of years as his retirement activity. He was a very good salesman too, as Colin parted with a lump of money for the shirt he'd seen in the window.

We enjoyed dinner in a waterfront wine bar and a sunset back in Lo11y.

We couldn't stay a second night in the marina which was fully booked for the weekend, so we had another walk around the town before heading off to another marina to pick up a hire boat for the afternoon.

The boat hire marina was very modern and had a fabulous looking restaurant and terrace attached to it. We could just about cope with a lifestyle of tootling around in a boat and pulling up at nice bars and restaurants in the sunshine. We'd got some cold drinks and snacks with us unfortunately. It was a really nice little boat and the weather stayed fine all afternoon. We cruised across open stretches of water interconnected with the river which took us into Belgium and back. There were some nice holiday homes with moorings around the lakes, and several bar/restaurants where boats can moor.

After handing the boat back we drove to a nearby campsite. The owner looked very excited when we pulled in asking if we were here for the 'Cool Campers' event the following evening. When I looked blankly at her and said we were just passing through for the night she looked a bit disappointed and said 'but you have a cool vehicle'. We felt bad for her now - we hope she did get some cooler campers the following day.

We had a final push to get us to Bruges where we had got three nights booked in a campsite just a stones throw from the historic centre. We caught a bus to the train station then it was just a 20 minute walk to the main square. It was a hot muggy afternoon and the place was heaving with tourists. It felt a bit overwhelming fighting our way through the hoards and we were starting to doubt our decision to end our trip here. We had visited Bruges for a couple of days around 25 years ago when we bought a painting of the white tower with the blue shutters (see photo below) - it was nice to see it again. Since then we have cycled through Bruges on two of our Ride for Hope trips.

We did one of the touristy canal cruises which at least meant we could enjoy the views of the buildings and canals without the crowds. Despite our initial reaction to the crowds, it is a very stunning place. It looked even better once we'd had a couple of cooling drinks before dinner.

The following day we caught the train to Gent which is just 40km from Bruges. The train was bang on time, spotlessly clean and comfortable - can you believe Colin complained that it was too boring?

It was quite a walk from the station into the historic centre and this part certainly wasn't like the picture perfect streets and canals of Bruges. We had booked a free walking tour so that we could get a better understanding of the history and buildings of the city. Our guide Tatiana was born in Russia but had lived here since being a young child and was passionate about the history of the city, which had once been the main port and trading area of the region before falling out with King Carlos V of Spain in the 1500's.

It was a very interesting tour and we came away with a great appreciation for Gent. There were still plenty of visitors here on a sunny Sunday, but it was much less 'in your face' tourism.

After the walking tour we had a couple of hours to ourselves, and we had a look in the cathedral before taking ourselves up the Belfry Tower which had good views over the city, but the 11 euros for the ticket to go up in the lift wasn't so good. We did another canal cruise, then we had lunch and a beer in a brewery (which had interesting gents urinals) , and bought some of the brightly coloured sweets shown above, that are unique to Gent. They are fruit flavoured jelly sweets originally made to insert medication in to make it more palatable.

We had a smooth uneventful train journey back to Bruges.

For our final day we headed back into Bruges again where we had booked another free walking tour to get a better understanding abut the history and buildings. Our guide was very entertaining and gave us lots of fun stories and facts about the city. Being a Monday it wasn't nearly so crowded as the weekend which made walking around more enjoyable.

It was a hot day, so after having a cold drink and the worst meal of the trip (mussels & frites ironically) we headed back to the campsite to get ourselves sorted for an early departure the next morning.

Later in the afternoon we got the Bromptons out to cycle around the cycle path that went all the way around the edge of the old town. We marvelled at how lovely it is for the locals to have such a great network of cycle paths to go about their lives in the city.

We stopped for some liquid refreshments at a pop up bar by a canal, busy with people stopping for a drink on their way home and other tourists.

We spent the rest of the evening with our trusty steed Lo11y. She has performed brilliantly again on this trip. As always Colin has an extensive list of jobs he wants to sort when we're home, but hopefully nothing major.

We reflected on what a wonderful 7 weeks we have had on this trip, seeing some fantastic sites, visiting interesting cities, meeting some lovely people and enjoying nature.

We had an early start but a smooth drive to Calais and an even smoother sailing back to Dover where we got reacquainted with bumpy road surfaces and heavy traffic of the UK once again.

So for this trip 'That's All Folks'. We're back in the UK for most of July, before heading off to Ireland for a month in Lo11y to drive the Wild Atlantic Way.