Waking on the sea front in Kyle of Lochalsh was strange. We were parked in a public car park in a space that only just accommodated our 6 meter motorhome. Another 6 inches or even less and we wouldn’t have been able to stay there. As usual we fannied about, not bothering to rush to get ready to leave. We’ve settled into a habit of watching morning TV which consists mostly of perpetually rerun American sitcoms which I personally have probably seen dozens of times before. This morning was different however. At about 8.30 am a notice popped up on screen informing us that the TV would shut down shortly due to low battery level. Within ten minutes everything shut down, as in, no power to anything! No problem I thought, I’ll get the generator out and power everything up. Well with the generator running everything had power and that should have been the end of the problem. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that simple. We still had TV but on switching the TV off, the satellite dish didn’t react and lower itself down flat as it should have. This was a worry as it would be unwise although not impossible to travel with the dish up in the air. Travelling with the dish up wasn’t an option as there’s a good chance it would be wrecked if you exceeded 20mph. Nothing we did would persuade the dish to park itself.

At 9.00 am I couldn’t think what to do other than phone the dealer who we purchased the motorhome from. He didn’t have much of an idea what to do but suggested there might be a fuse under the passenger seat which protects the satellite system. He then said he would go away and speak to one of their technicians. In the meantime I looked under the passenger side seat and couldn’t see a fuse of any sort. I also checked every fuse on the fusebox in a cupboard outside. None of them were blown although I hadn’t really expected them to be really. Neil rang back and he had the technician with him. I had to repeat to him exactly what had happened and he had no more idea what the problem might be than Neil had. At this point Neil (the salesman who sold us the motorhome) said he would speak to Oyster who provided the satellite system. So we were left to wait to see what the outcome was.

The strange thing was that in the short time the generator had been running, the leisure battery was showing almost full charge. We waited a long time in growing frustration as we were meant to be travelling to Edinburgh today and time was marching on. I couldn’t see any solution to our problem and wondered how long it would be before someone turned up to say we shouldn’t be in this car parking space with a motorhome and a generator running. Thankfully that never happened. I eventually rang Neil again only to find he was out delivering a vehicle. Unkown to us he had spoken to Oyster and they had promised to call us and see if they could help over the phone. Well, they hadn’t so far and it was easily more than an hour since Neil had spoken to them. Eventually I rang Neil again and he answered the phone himself this time. He had spoken to Oyster twice already and, long story short it was third time lucky because when he called them again they then rang me within five minutes.

The guy from Oyster (I’m sure he told me his name but I forgot it instantly) was very helpful and the options were a blown fuse at the control box or simply unplugging a certain plug from the back of the control panel and then plugging it back in. This apparently resets the system. As a last resort I could climb on the roof, undo two 17 mm nuts on the arm of the dish and lower it manually. That’s an absolute last resort though as you would then have to have the whole system recalibrated which is quite specialised from all accounts. So, my next job was to take down the panel in the cupboard which exposes the control box. I’d had a look at this before and replaced it quickly in horror at the amount of mind-blowing spaghetti up there. I opened it up with a degree of trepidation knowing I was going to see so much wiring but to my delight as soon as I had the panel open I could see exactly the plug that Oyster man had described. I quickly pulled it out and then put it back in. (Sorry, that sounds filthy I know!) Immediately I plugged it in I could hear the motor on the dish and to our great delight it folded itself down into the travelling position. We quickly turned on the TV again to check everything was still functioning as it should and I’m happy to report that everything seemed in working order.

So at 12.15 pm we were on the move again with 200 miles to drive to Edinburgh. This was a decision I was already regretting as we were literally on the doorstep of the Isle of Skye and now driving away without seeing it which seemed kind of stupid now. However, by booking a pitch with the Caravan and Motorhome club site at Edinburgh we had committed ourselves to being there by 8.00 pm today. Having had such a stressful morning it also turned out to be a gruelling drive with pouring rain which turned to snow a few times and with a couple of stops including one for diesel along the way it took us until 5.30 pm to get there. Checking in was easy and we got to pick our own pitch although sadly we couldnt pay because all their systems were down thanks to some clown with a digger!

Tuesday November 20. This morning we set off for Glenfinnan Viaduct. This is another location I’ve wanted to visit for years. It would have been better in the summer as now with the onset of winter everything is looking a bit dead. However, it’s a magnificent piece of engineering and the view along that curve just begs to be photographed. Ideally I would have liked to see the classic shot of a steam train crossing the viaduct but those tourist specials stop running in September. We parked at the National Trust car park paying £3 for the privilege. Leaving the car park we weren’t sure which way to go so we followed a sign for a viewpoint of the Monument and the Viaduct. The Monument was built in 1815 as a tribute to all those who fought in the Jacobite Risings. All this stands at the head of Loch Shiel amidst stunning scenery in every direction. The viewpoint was at the end of a relatively short but steep walk and we got there only to find that this was not the view of the viaduct I wanted. To be honest I knew it wouldn’t be, but I wanted to see the view of the Monument anyway. The resulting photographs aren’t the best compared with others I’ve seen where all the trees are in full lush foliage but at this time of year that luxury wasn’t an option.

We carried on to the viewpoint for the viaduct that I actually wanted. This took more time and was a little more challenging to get to. It was easy to find though and didn’t take long to get the photo I wanted. The frustrating thing was that on our way down, a train did come across the viaduct and had we stayed just five minutes longer I could have got the shot with the train albeit only a two carriage local passenger service. It wasn’t to be though and I had no idea how often the trains ran anyway.

Once we were finished we had to head back towards Fort William before continuing north towards Kyle of Lochalsh. The reason for this journey was to get to Eilean Donan Castle, another iconic photography spot. After passing through Fort William once more  we stopped alongside Loch Lochy to eat. While we were there I heard the sound of passing jets and looked out just in time to see two F15’s flying low along the length of the Loch. As a fan and frequent visitor to the Mach Loop low flight training area in Wales I wasn’t aware that they flew through Scotland too. Arriving at Eilean Donan Castle it was already getting dark. Last minute photography never works and I pretty much proved it by taking a bunch of bracketed shots (3/5 various exposures blended later in Lightroom) none of which really worked. I managed to salvage two images from this visit. For some reason I’ve not managed to work out yet, the merging of the bracketed shots didn’t work particularly well so I’m only including two images here.

Another half hours drive saw us arriving in Kyle of Lochalsh. I’d already checked out a place to park and it was right in the middle of this bustling metropolis. We parked on the waterfront and having worked out that there were no restrictions on overnight parking we took a walk around the town. We were back at the van less than a minute later! That’s how bustling the metropolis was! We settled down for the night with the wind rocking the van. Considering we were on a public car park we had a peaceful night in Kyle of Lochalsh.

As we were preparing to leave Lomond Woods Holiday Park this morning another camper in a motorhome pulled up behind us as I was topping up our water. As I finished and pulled away he followed us and knocked on the door to tell us our offside brake light wasn’t working. And there we were thinking we’d fixed it. I spent ten minutes fiddling about with the bulb in the fog light as that had previously been the source of the problem but this time it made no difference. Consequently we are now driving around with only one brake light and hoping for the best.

We headed north along the western side of Loch Lomond on the A82. After the previous days unbroken sunshine todays weather was grey and overcast as we drove north towards Glencoe. Along the way I saw a sign for Glen Orchy and remembered I’d read an article in a photography magazine which suggested there might be a choice of waterfalls there. On a whim I decided to take the left turn only to find we were on a single track road with occasional passing places. I drove for three miles passing falling water in various places, non of which were accessible for photography, so on this tiny narrow road I did a 25 point turn and we made our way back to the A82. Further on we reached the turn off for The waterfall at Glen Etive where I had been a couple of weeks ago. I don’t really know why I felt the need to go back to a spot I’d already photographed because I don’t think it likely that I could improve on the first one. As it turned out there was no available parking so we didn’t stop there anyway. I did carry on down the road though and soon we saw the scene below. The sun had broken through the quite dramatic clouds and lit up the distant mountain at the end of the valley. I’ve tried to use the road as well as the river as lead in lines by way of following rules of composition.

Afterwards we carried on towards Fort William. Once again we drove through Fort William and just carried on going because at least on the main road there didn’t seem to be much to bother stopping for. I can only imagine that’s partly to do with being well out of season. We decided to find somewhere to stay the night and made our way eventually to Old Inverlochy Castle. Finding it wasn’t straight forward though as there is also a ‘new’ Inverlochy Castle which is actually a hotel and we almost drove into their car park. However, I realised that something wasn’t right though as Old Inverlochy Castle was meant to be a ruin! Once again the Ipad came out and we drove to the correct destination by following our blue dot in Google Maps. The layby was exactly as described on the park4night app and we parked ready for the night. After cheese on toast and a cup of tea we realised there was no satellite reception. Obviously the fact that we were surounded by trees was blocking the signal. The prospect of Lynne and I sharing a long dark evening in the middle of nowhere with no TV wasn’t appealing so after a quick walk round the castle and a few photographs we went to plan B. Not far up the road was a large piece of flat wasteland also on the park4night app and we made our way there expecting to see other motorhomes and HGV’s parked. We arrived and saw there were no other people parked there but there were no signs forbidding overnight parking so we settled down for the night. There’s a Police station right next to this large empty car park so at least it should be safe.

Balloch is a small town at the southern most tip of Loch Lomond. We decided to stay a second night as it was a really nice site. So we had a Sunday of almost complete relaxation. We did take a walk, following signs for Loch Lomond Shores only to find it’s a small shopping complex. I’d expected lake shores (loch) but was disappointed to find there were no opportunities for photography. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and I was carrying a heavy camera bag and tripod. We cut the walk short and returned to the van. Difficult to believe you could be in a place like Loch Lomond and not find anything to photograph but I just wasn’t feeling the inspiration. I did take one photo of some old wooden posts in the Loch but I’m not sure about whether I actually like it or not.

Back at the van Lynne decided she had a craving for something sweet so less than an hour after returning we decided to go out again. We walked back into Balloch and found the local Coop. It was amazing to see so many people out and about in the middle of November. 20 minutes shopping later and we returned to the van. Shopping in the Coop, Indiana Jones never had this much fun!  You ain’t lived till you’ve eaten Coop’s own brand sticky gooey wine gums, yuk! So that was pretty much it for our second day in Balloch. I’d like to take this moment to remind readers (assuming there are any) that this blog/diary is primarily for our benefit so you’ll have to forgive the occasional day of terminal boredom! We finished off the day by binge watching Jack Ryan on Amazon. Brilliant!

To conclude this blog I have to go back a couple of days to Gretna. I forgot to mention that while we were in the designer outlet there I received a phone call. It came up as unknown which I don’t normally answer but for some reason this time I answered it. Just as well really as it turned out to be the Police. She introduced herself as PC Paul and informed me that she was stood outside our address. My heart sank because I immediately assumed the worst. As it turned out though, they had received a call from a neighbour to say the bedroom window had been left open. I instantly recalled that I had opened the window to let the power cable out to the motorhome. On leaving home I’d forgotten to close it. It was such a relief to know we hadn’t been burgled. When you consider that the Police have had such bad press recently with tales of car thefts left uninvestigated, then they have time to come out to a window thoughtlessly left open. Anyway, Lynne rang Simon and he agreed to go over and close the window and I thanked PC Paul for her trouble. It transpired that it was Roger next door who had called the Police. I have to say that since we didn’t always get along it was really good of them to bother!

Friday November 16. After almost three hours of walking to and fro between house and motorhome we were finally loaded up and ready to go. At 10.45 am we set off for Scotland. The motorhome was low on petrol and we got to Costco which was more or less on our way with 15 miles range left. £80 lighter we were on our way again. Traffic on the motorway was predictably awful. Thanks to a broken down lorry in a 50mph limit with no hard shoulder there was a 25 minute delay between junctions 14/15 on the M6. There was a similar delay further on towards Manchester but with no obvious reason. English motorways, you gotta love em, me, I hate em!

Later Lynne was threatening to die from dehydration because in the rush to get ready we only had one drink before leaving. As I didn’t fancy the idea of travelling to Scotland with a smelly corpse for company (I know what you’re thinking, how would I know the difference?) we stopped for coffee and hot chocolate. It made all the difference and having avoided the grim reaper once more we carried on to Gretna. Lynne joked about going to Gretna to get married. Yeah right! It’s probably just as well you can’t do a u-turn on the motorway!

As we drove through the Yorkshire dales and onwards to Scotland the overcast grey sky slowly cleared and as we arrived in Gretna the sun was blazing away just above the horizon. It was about 3.45 pm when we pulled into the Braids Caravan Park. We checked in with a very friendly Scottish lady and soon got set up on our pitch. It was about then that Lynne worked out that there is a designer outlet just down the road. Needless to say we walked down there later for a look round. Having got there less than an hour before they closed we decided to come again the day after to have a proper look. On the way back we popped into the local Coop. I know we’re in Scotland but I didn’t expect to bump into Rab C Nesbit this early. While we were in the Coop a guy walked in wearing grey track suit bottoms that looked a couple of sizes too small cinched around his protruding belly. To finish off this exquisite ensemble he had on a grey vest with some sort of Thai design. The whole outfit looked grimy like he might have been wearing it for a month or more. The vest was all the more odd considering it was dark and cold outside and he’d decided it would be a good idea to take an evening walk dressed that way.  The real kicker though, was that we’d seen him a couple of hours previously looking like he was returning from work in the same outfit and I’m pretty sure he was staying in the caravan next to us!

Next morning we left the Braids Caravan Park at about 10.30 am and made our way to the designer outlet just down the road. We spent a very boring 90 minutes or so looking at make up and the like during which time I almost lost the will to live. However we did buy some nice new bedding for home which may seem odd in light of the fact that we don’t seem to spend that much time there any more. Having filled up with diesel again we then set off on the road to Glencoe with no clear idea of where we might stay. Along the way the thought occurred to me that we were intending to use the generator whilst wild camping but I had left the adaptor cable at home. Lynne quickly looked online for caravan dealerships and we had a slight diversion to a place called Duncans Caravans in Wishaw. The adaptor cost us £5.95 but somehow we spent £31 before carrying on with our journey. We were soon back on the M74 heading north. It didn’t take long before I was wishing I’d done my homework on the route because as we approached Glasgow the satnav stopped talking to me and I had to make a choice between staying right on the M74 or go left for the M73. I chose the M73 and instantly regretted it as the second it was too late to change my mind it became obvious that I’d made the wrong choice. We were now headed north which seemed an awful long way out of our way to me so at the first opportunity I stopped to look at google maps. We ended up as far north as Stirling before turning off to head west on the A811. I put Balloch in the satnav. Balloch is at the very south end of Loch Lomond and we finally got there at 3.30 pm and immediately found a campsite that I’d seen online. We hadn’t talked about staying on a campsite as the intention had been to wild camp that night but I’d had enough of driving by then so we checked in at the Lomond Woods Holiday Park. We had a quick walk into Balloch at the same time as it was getting dark and the overriding impression was that there was nothing much there except to say you’d be spoilt for choice for places to eat. There are so many restaurants I lost count! I did see a promising location for a photograph and as I’m writing this, the plan is to get out early in the morning and if it’s a success it should appear directly below! Fingers crossed.

Meh! Mediocre photos so nothing to show!

For years now, since becoming a photography obsessive there’s been a location I’ve longed to visit. Well, yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and drive the 380 plus miles to Etive Mor in the Scottish highlands. Lynne has been in Kuala Lumpur for almost two weeks now and I’ve been using her car because mine wasn’t taxed. We declared mine as SORN when we went away to Norway, knowing we would be away for around three months. Anyway, the car is now taxed and given the fact I intend selling it soon, I decided to give it one last good run. Well, it certainly was a good run. It took me six and a half hours to reach Etive Mor in the shadow of  Buachaille Etive Mor. I’m not sure whether I got the name right but basically it’s a mountain with a waterfall in the foreground.

Leaving home at 4.15am Back on the road there wasn’t much traffic on the road and I was soon on the M6 heading north. I used to drive this way regularly when I worked in Crewe and recall enduring years of road works with 50 mile an hour average speed checks. This journey bought those memories flooding back as there are now similar roadworks all the way up as far as Manchester! I can only say I’m glad I don’t have to make that journey any more. At rush hour it must be hell!

The drive became more pleasurable as I approached the Yorkshire Dales. As the sun was rising I saw a lake on the right of the motorway with a beautiful mist hanging over the water. In a spontaneous moment I decided to leave the motorway and see if I could get to the lake. It turned out to be a place called Killington Lake. There was a hard frost and the scene was beautiful with the sun just starting to hit the grasses directly in front of me. It didn’t take long to get the shot as I was conscious of the fact that I was less than half way to my intended destination. Thanks to the beautiful conditions I think it was worth the minor diversion.

Back on the road I continued north passing the tempting pull of the Lake District and continuing on to Scotland. I drove through heavy motorway traffic on the way past Glasgow and on to Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond looked beautiful as I drove by and I was starting to see snow-capped mountains. Thanks to the brilliance of google maps I knew exactly what I was looking for when I reached the left turn off the A82 which took me straight to the Etive Mor waterfall. I made the right choice in putting Wellington’s on for the short walk to the waterfall as the only area where there was a chance of a decent composition was something like 8 or 9 inches deep in mud. Having seen this iconic shot done so many times before I almost expected there to be a crowd lining up to photograph it but conversely I found I’d got the whole place to myself. Standing for any length of time in one place resulted in a fight to drag each foot out of the mud. It’s like the suction of the mud doesn’t want to let you go. As I was setting up two men turned up with tripods and camera gear but having said hello, very politely waited around while I got all the shots I wanted. Having spent 6.5 hours getting there I got the shot and then scouted around for anything else and maybe spent a total of 45 minutes there.

Back at the car I had a cup of tea and reflected on how hungry I was having left the sandwiches I made last night in the fridge at home! I carried on (hungry) up the A82 knowing another iconic location was just up the road. If you google Glencoe landscape photography, chances are this lone white house will pop up in your search. It’s difficult to imagine living in a spot like this but there were people coming and going from the house in the time I was there. The resulting photograph I’m not too sure about but I love the rugged snow-capped mountains in the background. You’ll notice that in the one and a half hours since getting to the area the clouds had rolled in and from having blue sky and sunshine it was now overcast and very dull.

That concluded my time shooting in the highlands and I realise time wise there was a slightly disproportionate amount of time spent travelling compared to actually taking photographs (lots of photography anoraks would say ‘making’ photographs) but I was reasonably confident I had the shot I came for so why hang about. Besides, I was hungry and had another 6/7 hour drive to get home. The funny thing was that during the time in Scotland I had seen loads of motorhomes and suddenly regretted not taking the chance to get away in ours for some of the time Lynne had been away. At least it’s wetted my appetite for Scotland and hopefully I’ll be able to return sometime soon.

On the way home I waited until I was back on the motorway to stop and buy a chicken and bacon roll from WH.Smith. They don’t just sell magazines you know! Also I got coffee which always helps to keep me awake for the long boring motorway miles. Back home at 9.30pm I couldn’t wait to process the days photographs and this last one was the reason for the whole trip. Happy to say it turned out ok and I’m better than pleased with it!

The last day before returning home. After 75 days away we finally go home tomorrow. This morning we went to the station and got the train to Ghent. I expected it to be a quick journey but thanks to the train stopping about ten times it seemed to take as long as it did the previous day to get to Brussels which is more than twice as far away. As usual with seemingly all modes of public transport there was an irritation to put up with. Somewhere behind us there were two people (on a half empty train) sitting on opposite sides of the carriage thereby having to shout to conduct their conversation. The mans half of the conversation was punctuated by all sorts of stupid noises, squeals and at times a passable imitation of the Fonz from Happy Days. Why on earth would you sit on opposite sides of the train if you intended talking to each other? I never cease to be amazed at people who think the whole world wants to hear their entire conversation. When we got off the train we had a long walk to get to the town. It was another hot day, quite amazing for October. I can’t believe the weather is typical of this time of year. It took about half an hour to reach the town and suddenly we were in the tourist centre and it was rammed with people! Our first impression wasn’t the best as the place was so busy. Once again we found ourselves not liking it very much in spite of all the beautiful old buildings. Lynne was looking for chocolate shops to buy gifts but there didn’t seem to be any. Very quickly we decided to go back to Bruges for the chocolate. We did walk round looking for somewhere to eat but everywhere was full except for a vegetarian restaurant where we actually sat down briefly before realising everyone was eating with plastic cutlery out of cardboard containers. Call me a snob, but I hate plastic knives and forks! Needless to say we didn’t hang around and eventually as we walked away we bought sandwiches as we headed back to the station. We then sat in another small square to eat and watch the world go by, mostly on bikes!

The train ride back was marginally less irritating and once back in Bruges we set about finding chocolate shops. Well, in Bruges we were spoilt for choice and Lynne soon finished her gift shopping for this trip. Nothing like leaving it until the last-minute is there? It being a Saturday evening Bruges was heaving with people but somehow it didn’t spoil the experience. Bruges I would say is one of the nicest Belgian tourist destinations with or without the crowds.

Sunday morning came around and we had to pack up to leave. After so long away you would have thought we would be ready to go home but I think we were in total agreement that we had no desire whatsoever to return! The journey to Calais went without incident and we were almost the first on the ferry. Sitting in the lounge during the crossing, I sat watching my fellow compatriots. We really are a motley bunch. Big, fat, small, thin. There was an old bloke sat by us who must have had maybe 4 or 5 teeth left in his head, and they were all a manky shade of yellow/green. A fine advertisement for British dentistry. Having been among the first to drive on to the ferry we were also among the first off. I had to think a bit so as not to end up driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ve always found that after driving on the continent, it’s when you get home and relax that an unguarded moment can catch you out. Back on the M25 we were soon sat in the obligatory traffic jam. If we weren’t depressed already at being back in Blighty we certainly would be after a crawl round the M25! So, after the best trip of our lives and so many different places visited we were finally home. The weird thing was that being home we suddenly had loads of space again, but I would still rather have slept in the drop down bed in the motorhome. I suppose, on a soppy note, it’s a testament to our relationship that after almost three months living in a tiny space and driving just 30 miles short of 8000 miles together we still got on as well as ever. I can honestly say I was only ever tempted to strangle Lynne about 3 or 4 times! I don’t know what on earth I’ll write about now although I don’t imagine there’ll be too many people grieving over the lack of content in the coming weeks but there will be other trips and we’ll be back with more story’s if only to cover the occasional photography days.

We’re on the final leg now, as I write this we have one full day left before we drive home on Sunday 14th October. We spent another day in Bruges on Thursday mostly covering the same ground as before. We did go to Central Station to buy tickets to go to Brussels next morning. We were both amazed to find it only cost €13 for return tickets. That’s two people to Brussels and back for €13! We bought bus tickets next morning and found it costs €6.40 just to get to the station and back. When we got to the station the train was already at the platform at least 20 minutes before time. This left us wondering whether or not it was the correct train. As all the announcements were in Belgian and German (I think) we had no idea what was going on. I asked an old lady who was standing in the doorway of one of the carriages and she went off on a long response, not one word of which I could understand. It seems the only way to know if it was the wrong train would have been if it left before the allotted time for the Brussels train, so she was waiting in the doorway liked an octogenarian coiled spring ready to leap off the train if it turned out to be the wrong one. With less than ten minutes left we decided it must be the right one and got on. Then a small game of musical chairs ensued because Lynne suddenly has to be facing forward in the train. I have no idea what she thinks might happen if she travels backwards. Once we were settled I was glad we declined 1st class tickets (€27) as the 2nd class seats were pretty comfortable and the woman at the ticket kiosk had assured us we might not notice the difference anyway! The journey to Brussels took exactly an hour but we were unsure about which station to get off. It almost goes without saying that we got off one stop too soon. My fault entirely, I lost my nerve amid worries that we might drop off the edge of the planet if we missed our stop. Anyway, thanks to me, we had an extra 30 minutes walking into the centre. Unfortunately, we ended up walking through an area that could have been called Little Syria and justifiably classified as ‘a shit hole’. Not nice at all with gangs of swarthy looking men just sat round doing nothing. I saw one man in particular whose face was really badly scarred with one eye looking like it had no sight. Is it racist to feel uneasy walking amongst these people? They obviously all have their own stories but one can’t help but be reminded of  images in the news not so long ago of groups of young fighting age men travelling through Europe as so called refugees!

Anyway, it made for a pretty uncomfortable walk through those areas until we reached the tourist haven of the central square. Again I was reminded of Lynnes first impression of New York shortly after we’d got married all those years ago. We stayed in the Milford Plaza near Times Square and in a disoriented moment we went out the wrong exit and instead of being on Seventh Avenue we found ourselves on Eighth Avenue which at the time was crawling with prostitutes and a little seedy to say the least. As first impressions go, Brussels was probably not quite that bad but still not great!

It didn’t take long to find the main square with its magnificent buildings. I did my best to take decent photographs but the strong sun overhead and crowds of people everywhere made photography very difficult. I resorted to doing hand-held panoramic shots with the hope of stitching them together later in Photoshop. It took a lot of work in Photoshop to eliminate all the distortion after stitching the images together and they’re far from perfect but I thought it worthwhile including them here.

So, since subscribing to the Daily Mail online, Lynne has become a bit of a political monster and suddenly decided she wanted to see the United Nations Building. I tried to explain that it was miles away but she was having none of it. A warm sticky hour’s walking later we couldn’t find the UN building and had to settle for the European Commission Charlemagne Building. The hours walk seemed like a lot of effort for not very much. As I was writing this, we discussed her political views and in the space of two minutes she went from joining the Conservative party to creating her own party, Scutters ‘R’ us.com. The first party manifesto should be interesting!

Afterwards we walked round spotting wall art of which there’s plenty. It didn’t take long to realise that most of it seemed to be promoting gay life. I kind of lost interest after that. We stopped off in a restaurant called The Old Wild West for lunch. Don’t ask why we would choose a place with a name like that in Brussels. It should have been obvious that it would be basic burgers on offer. The place looked busy because there was one long table with about 20 people sat to eat. Sitting there, we watched one man in particular tormenting a small dog under the table. Every now and then you would hear the dog squeal. Watching this group it was difficult to estimate their nationality but I would have guessed at Italian. Whoever they were, I felt sorry for the dog who looked destined for a miserable life at the hands of his thoroughly unpleasant owner. After eating our mediocre food we went back to the station and boarded the train back to Bruges. The train seemed to be full of young students returning home for the weekend. Should have known better than to travel on a Friday. Arriving in Bruges we left the train and joined the free for all trying to get what seemed like hundreds of people onto one escalator. Half way down, one young woman decided to push past and almost knocked me over. Instead of apologising she turned round and told me I should be standing on the right. Well, I’m well aware that it works that way but given the fact that there were so many people and the whole escalator was packed in front of me, there was nowhere else I could have been. She then had to wait anyway because the people in front weren’t going anywhere fast. So I just put it down to her being a twat, although I would have liked to have smacked her miserable face! One quick bus ride and another exciting shopping visit to the local Carrefour and we were back at the van.

A full day of doing nothing! Potentially the shortest blog ever. No photos, no activity. Nothing! The weather has been so hot we just sat round all day and never went anywhere. It’s hard to believe we could have such glorious weather on the tenth of October. We should have been going home today but we pushed it back to Sunday on account of the predicted weather and the fact that we just didn’t want to go home! Judging by the heat today it was a good decision. Sorry for the lack of content but it’s difficult to write when you’ve done nothing all day. Lazy and brilliant!

We’ve been in Bruges for two full days now. Yesterday we were completely chilled out and didn’t go into the town until after lunch time. We walked in instead of getting the bus and in a fit of optimism we both underestimated how cold it would be walking around the town. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was a bit of a surprise to find that there was quite a chill in the air. If you were in the shade coupled with a brisk breeze it was freezing. Also we made the mistake of sitting outside to eat. The restaurant was just next to the large tower in the main square. The tower is known as the Belfry of Bruges. The food was good but we both made the mistake of ordering ‘blonde’ beer. I knew from Lynnes face at the first sip that she wasn’t a fan and as it turned out, neither was I! It tastes strong and I imagine it to be very much an acquired taste but not one I’m in a hurry to acquire myself. Life’s too short to be drinking stuff that makes you pull a face like the one Lynne pulled at me on her first taste. It’s also too short to be looking at a face like that too!

We didn’t hang around long after eating as in spite of the sunshine we were both borderline hypothermic and needed to return to base to recover. That was it for the day really although we did pop into a local Aldi (life on the edge) on the way back. Whilst there we saw they had on offer a 15 pack of Jupiler beer for sale at €11. We had been drinking this since our stay in Ypres and we both liked it so much we bought two lots of 15 to take home with us. Needless to say that by the time we got back with a bag of shopping and two 15 packs of beer it had become a bit of a struggle to carry them all. The price we pay for our greed!

2nd full day in Bruges has been just as chilled as the first and once again we didn’t walk into the town until gone 12.00 midday. It was a lot warmer today and a lot more pleasant than yesterday. We decided to search out a place we ate in last time where they do fantastic Belgian Waffles. It didn’t take long to find and we ended up sitting at the very same table as last time served by the very same polite young man. Knowing how predictable I can be I probably ordered the same dish as last time but I can’t remember. As I wrote that line, Lynne confirmed for me that, yes, I ordered the same as last time. Predictably predictable.

After eating we went to check out whether we could get to the top of the Belfry of Bruges. It cost us €10 each with the over 65’s concession. What we hadn’t bargained for was what hard work it was getting up the 366 steps to the top. The stone steps were seemingly endless and got progressively narrower as we got closer to the top. When we reached the top I was disappointed to find the views slightly obstructed by stainless steel wire netting. I guess they don’t want anyone getting ideas of jumping like the guy in the film ‘In Bruges’ with Colin Farrell which incidentally is a great film if  you never heard of it. If you ever watch it, sorry for the spoiler!  So I did manage a couple of photos through the netting but nothing brilliant.

Coming down was a lot easier and we headed back to the camp site. During the day we had talked about going home on Wednesday and we were agreed we didn’t want to. Back at the van I checked online how much it would cost to change the ferry booking and the reply came back to say that to travel on Sunday instead of Wednesday would be £0.00. Next we checked to see if we could extend our stay at Memling Camping and keep the same pitch. So now we’re here until Sunday and more than happy about an extra few days in the sun.