Capellen

We had a great nights sleep at the Chateau and it was unbelievably dark with an incredible amount of stars out.
We woke up at 7am and I didn’t want to push my luck or upset here so by 8am the bed was away, we were dressed and ready to move.
At 9am we left the Chateau and headed just six miles down the road to the Royal Dinant football club, here there was a huge empty car park and we thought we’d be staying here the night after walking around the medieval city.
We stayed in Wanda until 10:30am having cups of tea and toasties before setting off on foot into the city. It was all downhill for the 1.5 mile hike which meant it would be uphill all the way back.
We entered the city from the south heading straight for the river that I rode past yesterday but on the opposite side, then we turned left and came to the huge and rather imposing town hall. From here we turned right and headed for the high street which for a very touristy city seemed quite like any small town high street. We popped into an oxfam shop to look for a jacket for Ellie but couldn’t find one and then went into another shop that was a little bit like Superdrug in the UK and brought some sweets to take home for Ben. Then we mooched around looking through shop windows until we turned down an alley and came across a guy making sculptures and selling them from his garage. He had some weird and wacky things he’d made like lights from chair legs and he was currently drilling through a plate when we spoke to him.
From there we turned right and back down to the river front and here we started our hunt for real Belgian Waffles.
Even though it was now midday most shops and restaurants were still closed but a little further up the river we found a patisserie and struck gold. They had Belgian Waffles to go so we bought one each and sat by the river eating them. They were delicious.
From here we headed back the way we came and crossed the saxophone bridge that has a saxophone for every European country on it. Besides the Citadel itself I think this is the biggest draw to the whole city.
Just around the corner we found the house of Adolfe Sax, the creator of the saxophone and it’s now a free museum telling the story of how the saxophone came to be with some amazing photos from the 1800’s.
Here we learnt that Dinant plays host to the world saxophonist contest and it’s a very prestigious event for the under 30’s.
Besides the Citadel which we weren’t going to, and the saxophone bridge Dinant had very little to offer except for how beautiful it is from the river so we started back to Wanda.
It was all uphill on the way back and then sun was now fully out and cooking us at 22° and we had a hard 1.5 mile slog up an 8% gradient all the way back to Wanda. I couldn’t wait to get my shorts on once we got inside.
It was now just 1:30pm but as we’d had a bit of a rush this morning we both had a little nap and then at 3pm I thought we could probably make it half way to our next destination in Luxembourg before dinner time so I started looking for a camp spot on park4night.
Luxembourg isn’t as friendly to wild camping as a lot of other European countries but I found an aire that is free with electric, water and dump station 80 miles away in the town of Koerich so we got Wanda travel ready and set off.
It was pretty much a straight run on a single motorway most of the way but half way along we both spotted what looked like a dead raccoon at the side of the motorway. We couldn’t believe it was actually a raccoon, but we both saw it clearly and started thinking what looks like a raccoon? It definitely wasn’t a badger.
Ellie googled it, and we couldn’t believe it when the answer came back that this part of Belgium and Luxembourg has over a million raccoons.
Apparently they were shipped in, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and were released for there fur. Now with no fur trade they are thriving and are everywhere.
Now we definitely going to be keeping a look out for raccoons.
At 5:30pm we made it to koerich and found a Motorhome aire free of charge with just 4 spaces and we got the last one. The aire is lovely and the town itself is beautiful but we are next to quite a busy road but beggars can’t be choosers and we’re more than half way to our next stop.
By 6:45pm we had,had dinner and I had a shower as we have access to water then we settled in for the night.Read more