Condroz

Headed in to Belgium in the morning as the laundrette we needed was not far from us in that direction, (Maastricht on the border). Shame to leave Netherlands so soon but we’re on a tight schedule. Did some last minute essentials washing to get us through whilst Gary worked for the last day this week. I went for a walk to the local park.
After a spot of shopping whilst chit chatting to Alex/Lucas it was my turn to drive southwest to our first proper stop in Dînant. An old town by the river with a citadel on the hill overlooking. We stopped at the the top of the hill to observe their small military cemetery commemorating French/Belgian WW1 soldiers plus Commonwealth graves of WW2 soldiers retreating from Dunkirk/shot down/crashed/strategic Germany raids. We then headed down into the town and walked along the river. Very pretty town but not much in the way of shopping - hoping to find myself a birthday gift. We walked to Notre-Dame de Leffe, a small abbey built in 1152. From the 1200s the canons started to brew beer for their visitor which turned out to be safer than drinking the water. This tradition has continued on and off over the years though now Leffe beer is brewed at a larger distillery with the abbey still being funded through the profits. Of course, we had to stop for a Leffe whilst we were there.
Dînant is also the home of the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax. There are 60 saxophone ‘statue’ tributes around the town.
Spent a couple of hours here then went on our merry way to our overnight site overlooking the hills (and cows) slightly north east. Lovely last day of my forties.Read more