After a few days at my dads near Lille, we headed off to Ghent, our first stop.
We’ve visited a few of the historic towns of Belgium in the past—what with my dad being so close—but we’d never seen Ghent which is weird really as it’s only an 1h30 away.
Anyway, what a beautiful old city it is. Compact enough to walk around with lots of historical flemish architecture on show. A boat tour on the canals seemed popular with other tourists (which were plentiful, from all corners of the world).
But for us, a bag of chips and lots of walking was all we needed to take it all in.
After a few hours, we headed back to the van and went off to find somewhere to camp for the night—we decided before we set off on on this adventure, that we would wild camp as much as possible, which basically means finding a quiet parking location in a rural setting. Of course that also means no amenities, so we can only really do it for about two/three nights before we have to find somewhere that does have some.
Just outside Ghent is a lake with parking in a affluent location, that is popular with the local joggers. Perfect for us, it even had a port-a-loo, what a bonus!
A successful first night in the van. We were rather happy with our lot so far.
The next heading was Aachen in Germany, but it took rather longer than we anticipated to get there as I was driving like an old granny, so we stopped off in Holland for the night in the very south of the Limburg region in the Vijlen Woods, just a few miles away.
It was very busy here which seemed strange for a Friday afternoon—lots of locals enjoying the woods and the local pub—that’s because it was King’s day, a national holiday.
For the night, we found another quiet spot in these woods, so far so good. Although it was one of those places that made the imagination run wild, if you let it. ‘Blair Witch Project’ came to mind, you know, where some crazed mass murderer lurking in the night goes around stabbing people to death! Ha Ha!
The only activity we found in the morning was Boar snuffling around the van.
Aachen, is one of many towns in Germany that is an Environmental Zone, you need a clean car to drive into the city centre or it’s Park and Ride. For a 16 year old diesel van, there was only going to be the P&R choice, but it was an easy bus ride into the relatively small historic centre.
The main reason I particularly wanted to come here, was to see the ancient Pfalz, the palace which Charlemagne founded (he his also enshrined here).
Although little from that time still exists—only the chapel still survives, which until the 1500s was used to crown all German Kings—it has been added to over the centuries making for a mixed architectural delight. Beautiful colourings and frescos everywhere, there is hardly a white wall to be seen.
We’ve seen so many cathedrals, churches etc…all very similar in style normally, but sometimes there are unusual ones, just like this. It was worth the detour.
We drove south from Aachen for a while through the very pretty Northern Eifel mountain range, making our way to another spot in the middle of nowhere for the night, near Bad Münstereifel.
Mmmm… perhaps tomorrow night, we need to stay somewhere with a shower…
Ghent
Dutch Woods
Aachen
We’ve visited a few of the historic towns of Belgium in the past—what with my dad being so close—but we’d never seen Ghent which is weird really as it’s only an 1h30 away.
Anyway, what a beautiful old city it is. Compact enough to walk around with lots of historical flemish architecture on show. A boat tour on the canals seemed popular with other tourists (which were plentiful, from all corners of the world).
But for us, a bag of chips and lots of walking was all we needed to take it all in.
After a few hours, we headed back to the van and went off to find somewhere to camp for the night—we decided before we set off on on this adventure, that we would wild camp as much as possible, which basically means finding a quiet parking location in a rural setting. Of course that also means no amenities, so we can only really do it for about two/three nights before we have to find somewhere that does have some.
Just outside Ghent is a lake with parking in a affluent location, that is popular with the local joggers. Perfect for us, it even had a port-a-loo, what a bonus!
A successful first night in the van. We were rather happy with our lot so far.
The next heading was Aachen in Germany, but it took rather longer than we anticipated to get there as I was driving like an old granny, so we stopped off in Holland for the night in the very south of the Limburg region in the Vijlen Woods, just a few miles away.
It was very busy here which seemed strange for a Friday afternoon—lots of locals enjoying the woods and the local pub—that’s because it was King’s day, a national holiday.
For the night, we found another quiet spot in these woods, so far so good. Although it was one of those places that made the imagination run wild, if you let it. ‘Blair Witch Project’ came to mind, you know, where some crazed mass murderer lurking in the night goes around stabbing people to death! Ha Ha!
The only activity we found in the morning was Boar snuffling around the van.
Aachen, is one of many towns in Germany that is an Environmental Zone, you need a clean car to drive into the city centre or it’s Park and Ride. For a 16 year old diesel van, there was only going to be the P&R choice, but it was an easy bus ride into the relatively small historic centre.
The main reason I particularly wanted to come here, was to see the ancient Pfalz, the palace which Charlemagne founded (he his also enshrined here).
Although little from that time still exists—only the chapel still survives, which until the 1500s was used to crown all German Kings—it has been added to over the centuries making for a mixed architectural delight. Beautiful colourings and frescos everywhere, there is hardly a white wall to be seen.
We’ve seen so many cathedrals, churches etc…all very similar in style normally, but sometimes there are unusual ones, just like this. It was worth the detour.
We drove south from Aachen for a while through the very pretty Northern Eifel mountain range, making our way to another spot in the middle of nowhere for the night, near Bad Münstereifel.
Mmmm… perhaps tomorrow night, we need to stay somewhere with a shower…
Ghent
 |
| First night's location |
Dutch Woods
Aachen
 |
| 3rd night in the middle of nowhere |
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