7th April 2019

Fully serviced and packed up we headed off from Ypres for our short journey today, staying in Belgium for another night.

Very close to Ypres we called in at Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery to pay respects. Blown away by the sheer numbers and well kept graves we strolled round for quite a while. Also here are the 35000+ names of WW1 soldiers with no known grave who’s names didn’t fit on the Menin Gate.

Then it was on to Durbuy, claimed by the Belgium’s to be the smallest city in the world. Twisty turns and more countryside along with the tour de Belgium, Sunday cyclist 🚲 made it a fun drive there.

The aire in Durbuy is a simple site on a rivers edge, on arrival Neil quickly called dibs on me going in so Lisa and I got the job of booking in. A small Chinese looking Belgium man who was incredibly friendly welcomed us into his hut. His English was far better than my Flemish or French but we had no chance of understanding each other. I handed our passports in and from then he called me Lucy, I guess it could have been worse he could have thought I was Neil!

He indicated we could pitch in any space but then followed us round the site shaking his head and moving cones, eventually we just stopped and he gave us a thumbs up so we were in.

We decided to let the dogs have a swim in the river but neither were very keen, both novice swimmers they required quite a bit of encouragement. We couldn’t have been luckier with the weather, with the sun shining a quick swap to shorts was required as we sat out to let the dogs dry off.

A walk into town was essential, a very touristy town it was full of sights. The men walked round commenting on cars and motorbikes while I spotted red trousers and looked out for tat shops.

In the centre I spotted a noddy style land train which I was drawn to, reading the poster I thought it was €30 each so was put off only to realise it was 30 minutes duration and was actually only €6, we promptly boarded the train.

We enjoyed a great train ride round Durbuy, the translated tour guide was very informative and then a bonus we got taken to a tower over looking the whole town. Dasvid chose to stay at the bottom of the tower but the rest of us including Dug climbed the windy concrete steep steps and enjoyed the view at the top.

After our train trip we located a restaurant I had picked from reviews on trip advisor, they allowed dogs inside and served pasta, what more could I want.

Our walk back to the vans saw us call in at a small cocktail style bar. It looked like they were packing away but then soon filled up after we walked in. The waiters helpful answer of no when Neil asked if they had a lager like Stella ended up with us having the only lager type beer which was 6.9% we feared sore heads so didn’t have too many else Lucy would have been guiding us back to the vans.

Overnight Location: https://www.campercontact.com/en/belgium/luxemburg-b–luxembourg-b/durbuy/3491/mobilhome-du-vedeur