I bet you can’t remember me mentioning that we would visit Belgium on our journey. There is a good reason for that....I didn’t mention it and neither did we intend to be here. The Eurotunnel crossing was on schedule and cheapskate me decided to set our sat nav to avoid toll roads from the outset. We don’t have a particular rush to get to our starting point and I prefer to see the towns and villages. We were sent onto free motorways to Lille and got caught up in congestion and just when we expected to go south toward Reims we were sent further east....into Belgium....towards Mons. I have never been to Belgium before, however, at this stage I had had enough and pulled over into the Aire de Bury, hoping to find some black puddings. Again, I was disappointed but I checked a ‘Park4Night’ app to find somewhere to stay. Hence our visit to the nondescript town of Peruwelz. The best part of it is the canal port where we stayed which was very picturesque and peaceful. There were several other camper vans staying and it cost us 2 euro for the night, payable at the bar next door.
We quickly cemented our visit to Belgium by quaffing a beer....
We had a little walk into town and discussed our knowledge of Belgium. It was only a brief conversation as you might expect and we vowed to learn more. I asked Janice if she knew any famous Belgians - she could name only Jean-Claude Van Damme and Tin-Tin. When I googled the same question, I didn’t get too many more responses. Peter Paul Reubens, the artist and J-C Van Damme are definitely tops, Janice was, kind of, right about Tin-Tin because the author Herge is Belgian and surprisingly Audrey Hepburn is actually Belgian too. Also there is a man called Adolphe Sax who invented the saxophone. Belgium has a King! He is King Phillip and he has a palace in Brussels. I have definitely learned something today but I don’t know why the Belgian flag is the German flag on its side? I feel a bit of a ‘Walloon’!
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