Day 35 Day of Rest - Bruges

An early investigation shows that Bruges is littered with Belgian chocolate shops.........................

Day 34 – 20 km walked – Total of 733 km walked – Bruges

The last hour of yesterday's walk was one of two very brief times on this trip when I truly did not enjoy our journey. We had to walk on a narrow but busy road - drivers seemed to have little regard for us and cut it very fine, leaving dangerously little room when passing. Also a very strong wind had come up and we had to walk under some fragile looking trees - and my foot was hurting. When we eventually got to the only hotel in the area, we had to make such an inconvenient detour for, it was not exactly the Ritz.

This morning everything looked different again, with a blue sky and the sun was shining (we have been incredibly lucky with the weather – for the last week it has only rained just after we reached our hotel for the day or at night). We quickly found a very pleasant off road cycling way that would take us back to the Ghent – Bruges canal. In fact today was the most pleasant walk we have completed since we entered Belgium. The canal was lined by mature trees and fields, for a while there was even a proper non tarmacked walk way for us walkers only. *bliss*

On the way we met to lovely Australian ladies who were cycling across the Netherlands and now Belgium. They were going to Maastricht, the same way we have come west, they are going east. So I dug deep in my rucksack and got out the Chinese Menu style cycle maps we had used, explained the secret of how it works and let them have our maps. Hope they come in useful!

We arrived in Bruges in good time and fell in love immediately. We had to cross the 'Grote Markt' on our way to our hotel. It was as impressive as we have seen in so many other Belgian towns.

But here they have equally beautifully restored buildings away from the main square and canals to boot. Tres romantic, Paris and Venice eat your heart out!

Gary has already decided that we are going to do the full tourist programme tomorrow (he might have to take the canal boat trip in those bright orange buckets on his own though). I am looking forward to taking the camera out and getting some arty pictures.

Today's song choice is dedicated to Gary's mother Lily who today was admitted to hospital to receive a blood transfusion. She has been wonderfully supportive and encouraging throughout our walk and we had to promise hand on heart that we were not coming home early because of her. Honest Lily it is for purely selfish reasons that we chose shorter routes. Our feet and aching bones can be quite persuading.

Gary mentioned this Abba song once before but it was not chosen. Lily you ARE a Super Trooper.

Scientific research continues

I have some good news and some bad news.

My research confirms that Chimay trappist beer is truly one of the world's primier beers.

Unfortunately, however, I have unable to determine whether "red label" at 7% or "blue label" at 9% is the best manifestation of this wonderful brew.

Rest assured, I will continue to pursue my investigation with renewed vigour, knowing we have but a few days left in....er....this country....and gawd bless all who sail in her...hic

Day 33 – 23 km walked –total walked of 713 km – Aalter

I ended yesterday's entry with the words “it is now just two relatively short walks to get to Bruges”.I hadn't measured it out myself and probably should have written: Doris tells me it is now just two relatively short walks to Bruges. The key word here, as Doris pointed out when I asked her, is “relatively”.Less than 30Km each she now informs me. As you can see, today was over 20Km and tomorrow's walking into Bruges is at leat 25Km.

Actually, today's walk would have been slightly shorter, had we not had to take a long detour away from our route to get to our hotel. The hotel is, by the way, is pleasantly situated within hearing distance of a busy ring-road and has air conditioning that periodically leaps into action with all the subtlety of a Concorde taking off. It could be an interesting night and I might have to foresake my intended sobriety for some of that special Belgian sleeping potion.

The walk itself was a pleasant one along the banks of the canal that runs from Ghent to Oostende via Bruges. When I say canal, however, the British amongst us have to forget notions of narrow-boats – it is w---i---d----e.

Getting out of Ghent was a trial in itself – it just seemed to go on forever. Somewhat disorientated, we asked a man, who was emerging from his house with his young son, for directions. We were really only asking for a general direction to get us back on track but he insisted on delaying his journey and study his own map, to help us. Having sorted it out in his own mind, he then insisted on driving us to the point on the canal that we were trying to get to.

So instead of going out with his son, this lovely man, packed me, Doris and his son, into his car to drive us to somewhere that we could usefully restart our journey. Not very far away, as it turned out but we were and are very grateful.

Later on, we were passed by and amazing looking vehicle that seemed to be some combination of a low-lying bicycle and a go-kart. It zipped past so quickly, that I didn't get time to snap a picture. Later, however, we came across it's driver, studying a map on a bridge that we were crossing. Not only could I now get a picture but he was a studying a cycling route map that we had previously been told didn't exist for this area.

“Yes, I'm English,” he responded to by standard opening of “excuse me but do you speak English”.

As an aside, most Belgians seem to speak almost flawless English. They usually respond to my question by telling me, modestly, that they speak a little, before conversing faultlessly.

Anyway, “G”, the Englishman, told me that he was testing the vehicle, which I think he said was called a “velomobile”, as he was thinking of buying one. Despite the slightly worn exterior of this particular model, he proceeded to tell me the technical details which seemed impressive, even though most of it went over my head.

“It goes like the clappers,” G informed me and this I well understood.

He then helpfully read out, what I now know as node numbers, from the cycle route map, charting our journey from where we were to our destination. I thanked him for his kindness and he returned to tinkering with his vehicle.

Later, as we walked along the canal, the velemobile passed us at speed - a cheery disembodied hand waved from the cockpit and it disappeared into the distance, going like the clappers.

I never did add a musical choice for yesterday, so for the second time am going to have a single choice for yesterday and today.

I am not supposed to tell you but Doris has had a problem with her foot that has been troubling her at least a couple of weeks. She has some sort of strain that eases with walking in the morning but stiffens up and becomes painful in the afternoon. But day after day, she laces her foot tightly into her boot and carries on as if nothing were wrong. At the end of today, I think it was particularly painful.

I am not supposed to tell you because, I think, she thinks it might make her sound like and attention seeking, drama queen, wimp. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is nothing short of courageous although I know she will not like me saying it - so please keep it just between just you and me.

So the choice for both yesterday and today is dedicated to Doris and Elton John's “I'm still standing.”

Day 32 – 22 km walked –total walked of 690 km – Ghent

Today was cold and windy – the first time that we have experienced those conditions.

Now, Doris had laughed at me for bringing a woolly hat and gloves. But there is nothing laughable about cold ears or hands and it was she who felt the biting wind first and was quick to take advantage of my prescient purchases, hitherto carried for 31 unused days.

But it was not much longer before my ears began to suffer, the wind whistled through my missing tooth, and I needed to get creative with my cap.

This made Doris dissolve into giggles, only surpassed when I remembered that my wind-stopper jacket has a hood for this very purpose. I will admit that it is not my best look but is was very effective and enabled us both to carry on toastily.

Ghent is a sprawling conurbation, so for the only the second time on this journey, we decided to skip the walk the purist walk into the centre and enjoyed the luxury of train transport for a couple of stops.

You may recall that, after Würzburg, I vowed never to walk across a city again. In fact we have done so, wittingly or not, nearly every time, with the journey into Aachen (but not out) and Ghent, as the only exceptions. Over the next few days, our plan is to walk all of the way into both Bruges and Oostende.

As we want to get out of Ghent pretty pronto tomorrow morning, we decided to stay near the station rather than in the, reportedly, lovely town centre. We we really should have visited but will instead pig out on Bruges, having equally enjoyed Dendermonde below.

Nonetheless, we came up trumps culinary-wise, as just around the corner from where we are staying, is only one of eight (so they told us) organically certified vegetarian restaurants in Belgium. The food, which had a strong African influence, was superb, as was the lovely organic Belgium beer – well I had to try it!

Finally, here, just a stone's throw from the station, is a testament to the Belgium people's love of the bicycle.

It is now just two relatively short walks to get to Bruges.

Today's musical choice: need to have a think - will hopefully post later

Day 31 – 19 km walked –total walked of 668 km – Dendermonde

As we have already said, our choice of destinations is now driven by where we can get accommodation rather than what seems to be a sensible walking target.

We booked this evening's accommodation two days ago, at the same time as we booked last night's in Bornem. Incidentally, although last night's hotel was delightful, there was, unfortunately, a market on the square the next day and we woken early by hosiery and cheese which arrived around 5:30 am.

Today's walk was shorter than originally estimated, once we had taken Doris's famous “straight-cuts”, and we arrived in Dendermonde at around 14:00, having previously informed the owners that we would be there around 16:00. Not usually an issue but, on this occasion, it could have been, as we were staying in a bed and breakfast rather than a hotel.

Concerns increased as the tail end of our walk took us through endless industrial landscapes, into a place that turned out to be a lot bigger than we realised. Well researched as ever, we were walking into a City rather than a village and not, it seemed, through the best part of town. But if there is one thing I have learned on this journey, it is not to judge one's circumstances too quickly – or at least to be willing to reappraise and re-frame quickly.

On arrival we were greeted by not one but two charming hosts, in a newly, and beautifully, renovated house that has only been open for business for a few weeks. As we are the only residents this evening, and as the owners do not live in, we have the run of a large townhouse. Not only do we have a large bedroom and enormous bathroom, we have a generous lounge, kitchen and fridge full of beer and wine.

Not only that but on arriving back from dinner, we found a note alongside a bottle of trappist beer that can only be bought at the actual abbey. What a lovely thought. And was it delicious? Hell yes, it was delicious. So a big thank you to Linda and recommendation of our hosts at http://www.domusportus.be/index%20english.html and the wonderful beer at http://www.sintsixtus.be/eng/index2.html or less modestly at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westvleteren_Brewery.

And there were these lovely people who knocked at the front door, looking for accommodation for their wedding party in September. I ended up showing around our current “home”. Dieter talks more than me which is saying something. It turns out that, on a number of occasions, he has completed the “death walk” of 100 Km (to be completed in just one day) that takes place every year, in a round trip, from our previous night's location in Bormen. He told me that it begins with the participants in coffins but I wonder if he got that the wrong way around. Blimey – tough geezers.

If you are reading this, have a great wedding and an enjoyable honeymoon in SA.

And finally, we have, through necessity, being doing some planning ahead and thought we would share our potential itinerary.

• Tuesday 28^th May we will be in Gent

• Thursday 30^th May we will be in Bruges and will take a day off to enjoy the City

• Friday 31^st May we will be in Ostend

• Saturday 1^st of June we should have crossed to Dover and be somewhere beyond

We both think that once we get back to England, we will be pretty motivated to complete the journey rather than linger, so think we will get home on Tuesday 4^th or Wednesday 5^th June but, as ever, we will take it as it comes, and if it is later for whatever reason then so be it.

Is it strange to think that we are close to embarking on our last week. Thank you all for your great support. See you soon.

Today's musical choice is the very soppy "Alone Together" by Carly Simon.

Day 30 – 20 km walked –total walked of 649 km – Bornem

Today we had a choice: walk around 30 Km, or more, on reasonably attractive but indirect cycle ways or walk 20 Km on a cycle way that tracks the main road. Having walked 30 Km yesterday, we opted for the latter. It was physically less taxing than the first option but, in the past, we have found that the predominantly road based walking seems to take more out of us mentally – today was no different. It did, however, have the virtue of getting us to our destination just after 15:00, in plenty of time for a much needed siesta.

Our hotel is small but has a very large and staggeringly busy restaurant. Emboldened by this, I asked for all local options and ended up with a slightly off tasting beer, brewed in this very town, and eel in a thick spinach sauce. The latter was good but will not be racing to the top of my all time list. As for the beer, I do wonder if it was not quite right or, perhaps, I have finally met a beer I didn't like very much – quite a shocker, especially in Belgium!

I have tried to sample local beers wherever possible but have to report to my beer drinking friends – they know who they are – that Chimay still stands head and shoulders above anything else I have tried so far. No shame to the others of course, as Chimay is an extraordinarily good beer though surprisingly not widely available over the last couple of days.

This leads me to say that I hope I have not given a negative impression of Belgium. The people are as friendly as can be, they care about food, brew great beer and have some lovely towns. It is simply that they are into bicycling rather than walking. Unfortunately, this has been a problem for us because it means having to walk along cycle ways. Not an ordeal but what seems a gentle detour on a bike often turns out to be a long way on foot and, therefore, not ideal for us.

Belgians seem to be fanatical about cycling: often cycling in large groups, with no age boundaries, in lurid, decal clad outfits at terrifying speeds, on very straight paths. There are others who cycle more sedately but their outfits are rarely less sedate than high camp Abba. If you thought cyclists in London are brave – to wear what they do – then you aint seen nothing.

Doris didn't suggest a musical choice for yesterday, so I will suggest one in honour of straightness, for both yesterday AND today. The cycle ways, canals and roadways may not always go where one wants but they go straight from A to B. A very tenuous excuse to pick Bob Seger and “Still the same”

And finally an appeal to anyone who has stayed in the lovely City of Bruges. We currently intend to spend a rest day there and would be grateful for any hotel recommenations.

Day 29 - postscript

I have woken up briefly, to report that travel and accommodation in Belgium continues to frustrate us. After days of straight roads, cycle ways and canals, we find that there is not direct-ish route west towards Ghent. Instead, we are going to have to take a meandering route that goes north then back again south. This would be fine if we knew that we were going to be enjoying glorious scenery and pleasant walking but, unfortunately, we know that it will be compromises made up of cycle ways and roads. The temptation to jump on a train has never been greater.

Nonetheless, we both want to complete the journey on foot, so will stick at it, at least for the time being, accepting that for now, the pleasure of travelling is being replaced by the pleasure of arriving.

Day 29 – 29 km walked – a total of 629 km – Mechelen

It is Saturday night, 9pm and Gary has just fallen asleep – oh we do lead an exciting life!!! We are getting tired - not necessarily physically but more mentally. No, we are not in bad spirits - quite the opposite but to do this walk we had to adapt our lives to a completely new routine and have found that we need to go with the daily flow to keep ourselves sane. We had agreed to meet up with friends and family before the walk - we also had this idea of pre-arranging private accommodation with kind people. But it turned out that we needed to be fairly selfish and single minded to do what we are doing. We needed to listen to our bodies, see what the terrain asked of us and adapt the length of our walk accordingly. We tend not to think ahead more than a day, as it seems that we can not cope with much more. My apologies to everybody we did not meet and the nearly forgotten 40^th birthday of my brother-in-law Tony. Happy birthday again!!!!!!

Since Belgium and finding accommodation is tricky, we now at least try to book the next night ahead. Last night we stayed at the Holiday Inn in beautiful Leuven, as I was able to get a rock bottom deal for the night and there are two things you can rely on at a Holiday Inn: surly receptionists and two double beds when you ask for a twin room. We had a very quiet room and this morning over a good breakfast we started fantasising about staying another night, having a better look at Leuven and resting up. So we decided we would like to stay if you could get the same deal for another night. Said receptionist took great delight in telling Gary that there was no room at the inn for the likes of us.

We did some quick re-framing and decided that the room was a little gloomy anyway, the wireless LAN overpriced at 30 Euros for 24 hours (they really are taking the biscuit with those kind of prices – I am saving the full rant about the inconsistency of W-Lan pricing for another blog ). Last night we had bought just two hours connection time to write our blog, check the mail and book the next accommodation and the connection was lousy, it kept dropping. AND after our fabulous meal yesterday evening we could do with a good walk. So we packed our bags and did a very quick 29 km. Apparently I was storming ahead at unheard of speeds on our dead straight walk along the canal that connects Leuven and Mechelen. It seems that Chardonnay and three course celebratory meals are working like rocket fuel for me!

Mechelen is another old Belgian town we can recommend for its stunning city center. We are really impressed with the beautifully renovated buildings and the towns huge market squares. Who would have thunk that Belgium has so much to offer!

Part of the reason we walked a little faster was to arrive whilst Tourist information and book shops were still open, as we needed to buy a map for the next part of our journey. Doing that we realised that we have run into the old problem again. The well sign posted cycle network is going to run out half-way through tomorrow and we are probably again reduced to walking on busy roads. It seems to be a county by county issue if they maintain these well posted cycle routes or not. I believe they will be available again around Bruges which leaves us with about 70 km of a problem. I am sure we will find a way!

Day 28 – 19 Km walked today – total walked of 600 Km - Leuven

Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed that the delights of Chimay Dubbel caused me to mistype yesterday's total walked which I have now corrected to 581 Km. Spookily, today's walk of 19 Km makes our total walked to a round 600 Km, with no cheating or rounding up.

With no marked cycle ways to Leuven, we decided that today was about “getting the job done.” Originally, we intended to try to navigate from village to village, on back roads. But starting out in rain and missing the cycle way out of town, we found ourselves on a 19 Km, dead straight, flat, road to Leuven – respect to the Romans who did a lot of stuff around here – nice one boys.

By the way, it is not just the roads that are straight – have a look at this cycle way from yesterday.

The previous night Doris had done her usual bargain hunting and come up with an amazing deal on a hotel in Leuven. Also, as I had spent some time working in Leuven a long time ago, I knew it was a nice place unless the bulldozers had moved in and the university relocated. So we had plenty of incentive to get there and figured out that if we stayed on the main road and really went for it, we could be there at 14:00, to enjoy both our posh hotel and the town. We arrived in the town centre at 13:55, escaping the worst of the day's heat which we had already seen measured at 27 degrees.

[Note for Jsam if he is still reading. The work in Leuven was with Langton for a client named Pencoprint]

We both slept badly last night because although our hotel was friendly and hospitable, it had no air conditioning and was on a main road and junction / drop-off point. The night was a tussle between withstanding the noise and tolerating the humid heat that remained from a day of around 30 degrees. We oscillated between the two, window opening and closing continuously, with sleep the helpless victim.

So having arrived early, we decided on a siesta, from which we have just woken, despite the church clock that chimes every quarter of an hour, in otherwise total silence. We are hoping that the chiming will either stop at a respectable hour or go unnoticed, as it did during our siestas – watch this space.

As the bulldozers have indeed not moved in and Leuven seems to have maintained its leisurely student ambiance, together with more bicycles that you can shake a stick at – stay calm Les, I know what you are thinking – we are off to have a mooch around and find somewhere nice to eat.

Maybe, we'll write some more later but as I will have my eyes open for lovely local trappist beers, then perhaps not...

...now if last night was through rose, or perhaps Chimay, tinted glasses then the judgment that follows is totally objective: we lurve Leuven. This is a lovely place.

A stone's throw from our hotel, is a very long, narrow, street full of nothing but restaurants. It is mostly European cuisine but there are also tempting Moroccan, Japanese and others. All have seating outside and on a warm Friday night it was bustling with diners eating, drinking and just wandering up an down trying to decide. It is a great atmosphere and we lingered as long as our tired limbs would allow.

It is tempting to linger even longer, perhaps a day or more, to try more places and enjoy a really great ambiance. But we both now feel that , although we continue to enjoy the journey, we are on our way home and an additional day here, is a day more away from home. That said, we are greatly looking forward to Bruges and may well take a day out to enjoy it to the full. But for a other travelers, with different goals, we unreservedly recommend Lueven as a place to stay and linger.

Before closing this evening, I need to mention that Doris managed to translate the Chimay label. It turns out that this wonderful beer, one of the top three in the world in my humble opinion, is still brewed by monks who donate most of the profits to worthy causes.

So in finishing this glass in front on me, I am not only doing God's work, I am also contributing to worthy causes. Better have another – gawd bless...hic...never had to walk with a hangover yet...first time for everything I guess...all in a good cause...

Musical choice...hic...hic.... is Queen and “Don't Stop Me Now”....because I am having a good time, having a good time – sing along you bastards!

Oh! I nearly forgot to mention that today we have walked for exactly four weeks, 600 Km and are pretty pleased with ourselves...time for ermm...a toast|

Day 27 – 23 km walked today – total walked of 581 km - Tienen

Today was a lesson in relativity.

After a joyless day, yesterday, I woke this morning wondering how many such days I could tolerate before concluding that this was not what our journey was about, jumping on a train to Oostend and completing the last few days in England. As it turned out, we cracked Belgium's enigma code – to a point – and had good day that ended in a pleasing swell of Chianti and Chimay.

After 5 days in Belgium, buying walking maps that didn't show footpaths, we acquired a map that showed the various cycle routes. The secret to the routes, it turned out, was that the numbers on the sign-posts that we saw littered across the county are not route numbers but destinations – like a bizarre topographical Chinese Takeaway, designed to save a couple of bytes, destinations are referred to as numbers, not words. Equipped with the code, it was easy to navigate. So today, we navigated along pleasant walkways – well cycle-ways really – having to consult neither compass nor detailed map.

A couple of weeks ago, our walk would have been dismissed as boring but after a day walking within inches of roaring trucks and buses, it seemed like paradise.

It was a day of 30 degree heat, in which it was hard to find shade, but when we did, walking amongst field after field of strawberry pickers, we managed to secure a box of freshly picked strawberries – a thing of real wonder when so freshly picked.

And then, this evening, we had a nice Italian meal in the town square, followed up by a couple of beers and glasses of wine in the brasserie under our hotel. In fact, the hotel is pretty down at heel and the brasserie is a busy boozer on a busy, noisy, street but after a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of glasses of Chimay Dubbel, it seemed like the most perfect place in Europe.

Unfortunately, tomorrow's journey will not be as straightforward, as there is no cycle route between here and our next destination, the lovely university town of Lueven, but at least we know that, after that, we can get back to the cycle ways.

Tomorrow is a big milestone. It will be the end of our fourth week; we will have walked over 600 Km and Blighty will be just over a week away.

So after a despondent start today, the sun came out and everything feels very, very good – the journey is everything but we are on our way home and that feels good.

It is tempting to raid the Beatles catalogue again for “Here comes the sun” or “Strawberry Fields” but after walking 23 Km in 30 degree heat without any shade, todays musical choice has to be “Feeling Hot Hot,” by, we think, Bina Mistry but not totally sure.

P.S. my bouyant mood is testified to by the fact that, yesterday, my iPOD (and of course Doris) kept me going. Today my iPOD seems to be broken and I don't very much care. Fortunately, Doris isn't broken and I do very much care.

P.P.S

Here are two lovely guys that we met today. Neither spoke English but it ended up with me speaking schoolboy French to the guy on the right who translated into Flemish to for the guy on the left. Really sweet, warm, interested guys - the only shame being that we were not able to comminicate better.

Day 26 – 20 km walked – a total of 558 km - St. Truiden

We did not exactly fight over who would write this blog because we both felt we might end up writing an angry tirade about the lack of signed walk ways or at least reliable walking maps in Belgium. If you ever wondered what the Romans did for the Belgians, have a look at the map and the road between Tongeres and St. Truiden. It is straight and busy and we ended up walking most of it today. We tried once to venture off to walk between quiet fruit trees but ended up at a dead end where a river blocked our way and the only option left was to retrace our steps.

Gary was a trooper, he had not slept well last night and his rucksack felt incredibly heavy this morning. He could not get comfortable and ended up with back ache. But he just walked on and on and eventually we made it.

He cheered up when we realised that due to the Champions League Final, the town had organised a Ladies shopping evening. We have never seen that many women all dressed up, lingering in a town center. The weather was fantastic (and rather hot) today so the ladies had dressed appropriately.

They are waiting all to do this:

We had lost a lot of time this morning with trying to find a map useful for walkers. We had to wait for a bookshop to open and they sold us a 1:50.000 map which in Germany worked really well. But not here. Same problem as the last couple of days. We can not rely that what is on the map and what is there in reality matches or can be used by the public. Dem you are quite right, we need to fly in the Ramblers Association and get this lot up to speed.

But when you see all the cyclist in their professional gear, flying past us, you realise that in Belgium they are simply more interested in cycling than walking. Eddie Merx has a lot to answer for!

Part of the reason why Gary could not sleep last night was because he tried to be organised and find accommodation for us for the next stages. He simply could not find anything on the route we initially wanted to walk. It seems there is not a lot available outside of larger towns. This is why we opted for St. Truiden today.

But when we fought our way through all those women mingling and finally arrived at the Tourist Information to find that it had closed about 10 minutes before. A man came out, so I thought maybe they stayed open late and went past him to go in. He was quite abrupt and said it was closed. Well obviously it wasn't because he just came through the open door.

We asked him for some help to find a hotel and got a pretty unsatisfying answer involving the word closed and that he was the organiser for the Ladies shopping day and had no time. So I went past him through the door because I had seen a lady still moving about inside. He was close to man-handling me to stop me but I was faster :)). Inside the nice lady organised us a hotel within three minutes and we were happy.

Accommodation is much more expensive in Belgium, where we would pay an average of 70 Euros in Germany we end up paying about 100 Euros in Belgium. Supply and demand I reckon. I think my next venture is a chain of well priced and equipped hotels in Belgium.

Gary's choice of song today is: 'Fuck forever' by Babyshambles, the only thing that cheered him up again after we had to backtrack our walking today to get back to the main road.

Gary adds:

Doris was kind enough to cite me as today's super trooper – cue for a song? – but actually she was more so but I am told I will have to do that another day.

The only thing that Doris missed out was how close we came to a siege in the Tourist Office. As Doris headed for the nice lady at the counter, despite the man's protestations that they were closed, I, who had not seen the nice lady, was heading towards the front door, intending to arrive before the unhelpful man.

I visualised my sturdy walking-boot against the foot of the door, blocking his exit, as I mentally rehearsed the words, “I need a hotel and a map and I need it now,” rapidly followed by, “then you are going to have to call the police.” So would begin the siege of Grote Markt, with Doris and I henceforth being known as the Sint Truiden two.

We have had better days than today but I think that I best leave it there and look forward to a new one tomorrow – all part of the journey.

Day 25 – 29 Km walked today, making an overall total of 538 Km - Tongeren / Tondres

A mixed day in terms of both weather and walking. This morning was warm and misty, before clearing up to give us blazing sunshine around lunchtime, followed by a humid afternoon of thunderstorms and rain.

Walking was just as mixed. This morning we knocked out the kilometres, crossing the river Muese, just south of Maastricht, around lunchtime. But then things went a bit wobbly. Having crossed the Muese, a very wide river, we still had to cross the Albert Canal, which runs parallel and is just as wide. We had two choices. Either walk south a couple of kilometres to the bridge marked on the cycle route and then trudge north again. Or clamber up a slope to the road bridge which would take us a more direct route when we arrived at the other side. We chose the latter.

Whether the alternative would have been any better, we will never know but we soon found that our chosen route did not, in fact, offer us a direct route east. Instead, we had to head north, to get over a mighty hill and then all the way back south again. From then on, it was mostly slogging along roads. Alas, so far, we have not been having much luck with walking routes in Belgian which do not seem to be well marked. But perhaps we are just looking in the wrong place. Tomorrow, we will have an opportunity to look for some more specific local maps than the ones we have been using so far in Belgium.

Having mentioned the Albert Canal, I can not help but mention my old geography teacher, Mr. Croom. Mr. Croom, or Eddie Croom, as we called him – I was never sure whether his name was really Eddie but there you have it – had a speech characteristic, such that he pronounced the world “Albert” as “Elbert” and the word “Canal” as Kennell. When studying European geography, he was always inclined to stress the importance of the Elbert Kennell, much to our collective hysteria. Now having seen the Elbert Kennell, I realise that it is a mighty Kennell indeed and worthy of great respect. But it was Eddie's pronunciation that captured our interest.

Not as lesson passed that term without someone asking, “Sir, what's the name of that big canal in Belgium, Sir?

“I am losing count of the number of times I have told you Murphy, it's the Elbert Kennell”.

Anyway, Eddie if you are reading, you were very tolerant of us and a decent rugby player, so here is a picture of that particular waterway, for you.

And in honour of our waterway travails, today's musical choice is “Bridge over troubled waters” by Simon and Garfunkel.

On a more sober note, walking where we have, we have seen a fair few war memorials. I have, however, been stuck by two so far - although I am sure I will see many more.

We saw the one below yesterday, just outside Lueven. At first, being a poor French speaker, I couldn't understand the inscription but was struck by the stone carved picture, of someone climbing through a fence.

The inscription read “AUX VICTIMES BELGES – ALLIES qui perirent ici par le fil éléctrique 1914 – 1918”

Somewhere near the border between Holland and Belgium, it is a tribute to those who died on an electric wire (or fence). Pretty sobering stuff.

Another one that struck a cord was in Germany, near Remagen, where the allies first crossed the Rhine. As with the the other memorial, it was the powerful look of it that first drew the attention.

This time, at least one of us had the language skills to translate the inscription: “Here lie 1212 victims of war and tyranny. Nearly all died in 1945 at the prison 'Goldene Meile'. To honour the dead and warn the living.”

As far as we can make out, they were German prisoners, captured in the battle for the bridge.

Day 24 – 22km walked – that makes a total of 509 km - Saint Martins Voeren

As Gary mentioned yesterday – due to lack of hotel choices we had to walk south *gasp* and go back north today. Luckily, we found that they do have marked walk ways in Belgium – they do not co-ordinate with my map of the area but we picked up a really pleasant walk past Plombiere and after about 3 hours walking, we were back on track going slightly north and mainly west.

We followed a route marked with a red and white sign through some picturesque scenery until it abruptly ended between a broken bridge and barb-wired fields in the middle of nowhere. As going back is not an option for us, we opted for trespassing and immediately faced a man who claimed he only spoke Dutch even though we were in Belgium.

He mentioned the word 'privee' several times (in French??) which we duly ignored. I whipped out the map and with my biggest smile asked him to point us in the right direction. It took us about 10 minutes of uphill walking (a big feature of today) to get back on track.

Less confident of the red and white marked walkway, we tried to find one or two of the walkways clearly marked on my map. Either the map is completely out of date or (more likely) in Belgium they do not take it so seriously with public way of right and farmers just put up fences where they feel like it.

So we mainly walked on little used public roads with steady long climbs. The weather has improved greatly and we got rather hot and thirsty. But we bravely walked past 'The Kings Head' in Teuven to get to our destination at a respectable time – and anyway, Gary has never been keen on Irish Beer (the pub with the Union Jack flag was featuring a Guinness sign too) he was hankering for something local, brewed by Trappist monks.

After a bit of back and forth with the help of some very friendly locals, we found our hotel for tonight. It is situated in a glorious spot out of town. The room is rather “bijou” and using the equally small shower needed skill but we just took our books and sat outside in their beautiful gardens and enjoyed a rather good meal. Gary got some local beer from Val Dieu which is coming in at 8% alcohol. I can feel a melodious night of snoring coming on.

I am on my third book since we started the journey. My first one was the rather entertaining title 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' the second was a crime novel by a lady called Anna Hold which ended with an open ending and we all know what that means. So I now have to find out if this Norwegian lady is also translated into English and if she has written the sequel. Today I started my third which was given to us by our visitors Rolf and Monique and it is called 'Looking for the Lost' a vibrant meditative walk in search of the soul of Japan by Alan Booth. This is a very thoughtful gift because they loved their time in Japan as much as Gary did his and I my holiday there. And it is about walking and what happens when you walk.

My song choice for today is: 'If you are happy and you know it clap your hands'. I sing it often on the road because I can and because Gary always obliges with enthusiastic clapping.

Day 23 – 22 Kilometres walked today – total walked:487 Kilometres – Kelmis

After just over three weeks in Germany, early this afternoon we crossed over the border into Belgium. We went via a very popular tourist destination where the borders of Germany, Holland and Belgium all meet at a single point.

Actually, there is nothing much to see, except a post in the ground representing the exact spot. The lack of much else did not, however, stop swarms of people coming to the slightly naff cafés and gift shops. Below is a picture of people milling around the very spot. I do have a picture of the cafés and gift shops, to prove that they exist, but it is slightly less exciting than the picture below, so I'll spare you the bandwidth.

We then descended the hill into Belgium, not intending to walk too far today, having already managed to get past the rather large conurbation which is Aachen, with the help of an 8 minute train ride to avoid the worst of the street slogging (or so we thought).

Alas things didn't go quite as planned. We decided to walk all of the way out of Aachen and it turned out to be further than we thought. Then, our chosen location in Belgium didn't have a hotel. The map said the next village south did, so we headed there. No Dice. And so we went on southwards, until we wearily trudged into Kelmis, having walked 15 Kilometres from Aachen. That is a lot in an afternoon, a time when we are usually less energetic, and it was in addition to the 7 Kilometres that morning, walking into Aachen, before we hopped on the train.

The really frustrating thing is that tomorrow, we will have to head back north, almost retracing our steps to our original Belgian destination to get back on our route.

Availability of even modest accommodation may have an increasing influence over our route. Unlike when we were in areas of high tourism, we can no longer assume that large villages or small towns will necessarily have a hotel. We may have to start targeting places that we know have hotels, rather than leaving things to chance as we did so often in the past.

The other problem that one faces in this region is what language to speak – or in my case, what language to attempt to speak. This is the Flemish speaking part of Belgium but a lot of people speak German, as it is so close by. But when Doris popped into a pizzeria to ask directions, they spoke in French. And, I think I heard, a little Italian! Then we pitched up at this hotel - incidentally, we are staying in the Park Hotel which is the fourth time that we have stayed in a hotel of that name – and everyone here speaks German as a first language!

So the problem really is, depending what language you open up with, are you likely to insult anyone? This doesn't seem to throw Doris, who just opens up in German and waits to see what happens. I hover in the background, chucking out a few English phrases, to try to let them know that we are not a pair of neo-imperialists. So far, apart from the pizzeria, everyone has responded in German. Expect, that is, the bloke and two women with the horses and the horse-box who turned out, to my ear, to be from somewhere near Bolton. Their car was registered in Germany and they told us that the live in Holland, so as you can see, it is not an easy one to call around here.

Anyway, I am pretty knackered and off to bed.

Musical choice:

The Who 'Can't explain' after also considering 10,000 Maniacs 'Don't talk'

Day 22 – 18 Kilometres walked today – total walked: 465 Kilometres – Gressenich

A very short entry today, as we have been busy this evening enjoying the company of our great friends Rolf, Monique, Nico and Ines who drove all of the way from Luxembourg today, to join us for a day on our journey.

It was a real joy to see them and spend time with them and I will dedicate today's musical choice to them - Neil Young's "Long May You Run"

Thank you for coming all this way - it was great to see you.

Day 21 – 29 Kilometres walked today – total walked: 447 Kilometres – Kreuzau

The weather was absolutely beautiful today. The walk was flat, pleasant and further than we realised it would be.

Unfortunately, we could not find a hotel in Kreuzau , our target destination. Having already walked 29 Km, we were in no shape to walk anywhere else and had to hop on a small commuter train, much like the Docklands Light Railway, to take us off of our route, a few stops southwards. This took us to a beautiful spot named Obermaubach which is right on the edge of a large lake, nestling within large wooded hills – or perhaps mountains – I have never been sure what qualifies. The area is stunning and very reminiscent of The Lake District in England – it is the Nordeifel National Park.

We has intended to tiptoe around most of this area, to avoid having to tackle the very big hills. But having been, unintentionally, thrown into it, we have decided that leaving without a fight would be bad form. So although our target destination tomorrow is unchanged, we are going to try to walk from here rather than getting the train back up to Kreuzau, as originally intended. It will be challenging but will hopefully also be rewarding.

And although our hotel is the cheapest we have stayed in so far, it served up huge bowls of chunky, home-made soups, a very welcome change from menus that consist mainly of schnitzel and spargel. Eating on the road is getting trying. It is not German food per se, as I am fairly certain that one would get the same experience, with different dishes, at home. The problem is that of essentially the same menu in every place. And I cannot tell you how much bread, cheese and ham I have eaten, for breakfast and lunch. Whilst talking about food, I feel I should also mention that, since we left Bavaria, Bratwurst and Suaerkraut have been totally, and sadly, absent from the menus. A great shame as, together with Weizenbier, it was one of the things I was looking forward to getting a lot of.

Today's musical choice, in honour of the chunky soup, is The Rolling Stones and “You Can't Always Get What You Want”.

Recalculation

Big news – the total distance that we have to walk may be closer to 1000 Km than the 1200 Km that we originally estimated. At an average of 20 Km per day, this could knock 10 days off our estimated duration. I say could with emphasis because unforeseen challenges may yet lie ahead in terms of terrain and injury. And our measurements could turn out to be as fallible as they were before. But if it turns out to be correct, we could be at our half way point within the next few days.

This is because we decided not to follow the E8 which, as I have written before, has a tendency to take you all over the shop, covering relatively small distances with very roundabout routes. This is in contrast to the Niebelungenweg which we followed from Wertheim until we cut across to Rüdesheim and which took us through some epic scenery but in a relatively direct way. I would recommend the Niebelungenweg walk to anyone and, this being Germany, it is fabulously well sign-posted.

And actually, not only was the Niebelungenweg itself well sign-posted but other walking paths in the same area, labelled with numbers on the maps, were also well sign-posted in a surprisingly in, dare I say it, an efficient and practical way - as the tree below illustrates.

Our beloved Niebelungenweg was marked with a yellow square. Below is Doris, reassured that we are on the right track.

Doris didn't include a musical choice for yesterday, so that falls to me.

Yesterday while walking in the rain, on a boring stretch alongside a road, we were passed by a convoy of tractors that were pulling trailers. It looked like they belonged to some sort of circus or wild-west show. The drivers all waved to us, in encouragement, as they passed. I speculated on why and wondered whether it was perhaps because they felt there was some sort of camaraderie of the road. It prompted a song in my head and although the words of the song do not fit, the title does.

When I first mentioned the idea of this pilgrimage to Doris, she simply said that it was a good idea. She probably realised, more than I did, the practical difficulties it would present. But she just left me to explore and dream my new little dream, without a single negative or restraining word.

And when it came time to put one foot in front of the other, she did so with purpose, without complaint and always with an open mind. We have both had various injuries and at times, it has, perhaps, been more challenging than we have let on. But Doris has never been anything but positive and has always been totally supportive and encouraging of me, when I have had my problems. Without her I would have given up long ago.

So, with thanks to Nanci Griffith, this one is for Doris who is “My Brave Companion of the Road.”

Day 20 - A day of rest

Day 19 - 19km walked Total walked: 418 km Euskirchen

We walked all day through rain dressed like blue and black Michelin men. It was very enjoyable to be dry insite!

Decided to stop for today and are now roughing it at the Parkhotel in Euskirchen
(one of my special hrs.com deals because there is a bank holiday in Germany tomorrow - though we still remember what happened at the last 'special deal' hotel !!)

More later when we had a jacuzzi and something to eat...........

Day 18 – 30 Kilometres walked today – total walked: 399 Kilometres – Meckenheim

In contrast to yesterday, both Doris and I were full of energy today. As you can see, we walked 30 Kilometres today, leaving us just one kilometre short of having completed a third of the originally estimated distance of 1200 Kilometres!

I say “originally estimated” because this was based on a route that followed the E8, European walking route up the Rhine to Bonn and then over to Aachen. Doris has, however, hatched a plan, for a slightly shorter route, for the rest of the German route, that is now taking us directly to Aachen.

The distance and time saving will not be great overall but will, hopefully, save us a few days. I say hopefully because between us and Aachen lies a region know as Eiffel – no prizes for what that means. We will either find ourselves cleverly threading our way between some very big hills or walking very slowly over them – keep your fingers crossed.

Actually, the E8 is a bit of a swizz anyway, as it is really just supra-national labelling of, longer well-established, regional and local walking routes. These routes are great if you are a casual walker wanting to spend a Sunday afternoon, taking the most scenic route possible between A and B. Even if it means climbing a mountain and walking 20 Kilometres, to get 5 kilometres further forward as the crow flies (don't ask me why a crow – that's just they way it is). But on a walk of over 1,000 Kilometres, one gets to see a lot of great scenery and that makes gratuitously scenic diversions a bit superfluous. So the plan is to take the more direct route to goal. But don't expect us to be back any time soon– there's still a bloody long way to go.

As consequence of the change of plan, we bid farewell to the Rhine today and re-entered big rolling hills and farmland. As it turned out, it was only really the corner of the river just after Koblenz that was heavily industrialised. After that, the banks returned to gently rolling hills and greenery. Very nice but, for me, never recapturing the sheer panache of the river from Rüdeshiem to Koblenz, with it's lovely old resort towns and villages and acres and acres of vineyards. Ah I do miss that local Riesling.

It was, however, a pleasant change to return to countryside and, I feel, it is worth pointing out a couple of things about the German countryside. In contrast to the UK, German farms have massive fields with, instead of hedgerows, public rights of way that allow one to walk very easily from place to place without restriction. Also, and possibly related, Germany has a network of well used and very well-signposted bicycles paths that almost completely avoid roads. If you are an enthusiastic cyclist and value your life, you could do worse than tour Germany. Not very exciting but I thought you should be told.

Because of this, one gets to see things that one is restricted from at home. Today, Doris and I took one of her “straight-cuts” across what turned out to be a huge farm that took us nearly 2 hours to traverse. Acre after acre of pears and strawberries in particular. Our hands did wander slightly during our journey and I have to say that freshly picked strawberries, grown for flavour rather than bounce, are a thing of wonder. Here is just one field full of the marvellous things.

Which, kind of brings me to the German obsession with Spargel – the German name for Asparagus. Every village street corner seems to have a stall selling it and every restaurant has a page of its menu devoted to Spargel dishes. I promise you that I am not exaggerating. White Spargel seems to be particularly highly prized. Now I know that some people like Asparagus and I think it is kind of okay. Actually, there is a particular place in our garden in Kent where it grows like a weed. But here, it is really a national obsession. Strange.

My apologies for today's straight reportage, lacking in sparkling wit – no change there then, I hear you say – but we are both pretty tired and my feet haven't yet stopped vibrating. Mind you, they are much better than the first time that we walked 30 Km when I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and my feet were just tingling and vibrating. It was very disconcerting that first time and I was relieved the next morning to find that it had stopped.

Finally, those who have followed this blog from and early stage will know that generosity is a key theme. I will not go on about the Buddhist philosophy underlying this, or the link with Karma but suffice to say that being generous in thought and deed is a pretty groovy thing to do – or perhaps be.

(If you are interested in the Buddhist stuff then check out the very funny Reverend Kusala's podcasts at http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma9/dharmatalks.html or through iTunes – yes honest, very funny).

So at risk of embarrassing her, I want to say a public thank you to Johanne who is printing off these blogs and mailing them to my mum, so that she can read, and so she tells me, enjoy them – hello mum xxx. Thanks Johanne – your Karma is stratospheric.

The musical choice today was Doris's and is “What a difference a day makes” by Dinah Washington.

By the way, did I mention that we are convinced that are being observed by the German police, who turn up regularly in our journey, pretending not to notice us. They have employed that stealthy and clever tactic of tailing us from it front, not realising that I saw every single episode of The Sweeney and am not, therefore, taken in - “You're nicked,” I hear people of a certain age bark.

Usually, we manage to nip into the Nieberlungenweg, or similar walking path to lose them. Things got really hairy in Koblenz when we wandered into vans and vans of riot police, allegedly there to police a football match. The whole thing was, of course, staged to entrap us but we managed to evade them by donning our rain gear and ducking into an iffy pizzeria. God knows what will happen now we have nicked some strawberries.

I think that's about it – not sure when we will get online again but do keep and eye out for us – gawd bless.

Day 17 - Walked today: 19 Km – Total walked so far 369Km – Bad Breisig

My turn to write a blog entry and I have to report one of my major disappointments of this journey.

We found scales in our room in Ruedesheim and I jumped on excitedly hoping to report a weight loss – my trousers had been feeling a bit looser. But I had put on 5 kg – a result I had not expected. So I asked Gary to see what happened to his weight. Blow me over – he had lost 5 kg and his little 50^th birthday pooch. We walked the same distance, ate the same things, were not particularly indulgent and he drank beer on top of that.

Life is a bitch sometimes!!! I know there might be some far fetched logical explanations like effect of Thyroid medication and muscle growth but frankly I do not care. One plus of this journey was supposed to be to loose those darn pounds that keep following me around.

So I decided to change my strategy for the evenings – no wine last night and a huge platter of salad for dinner................

This morning I felt like death warmed up when we started walking. I cannot remember that my rucksack ever felt that heavy and that putting one step in front of the other was so difficult. We got to Andernach only by virtue of my bloody determination not to stop until we got there. I spotted a Boots like supermarket and we bought some energy bars and some stuff you put in your water to make it more hydrating ( no idea how one can make water more hydrating but I did not care at that point).

Gary was a wonderful coach and my cheerleader, setting little targets for me to achieve. Let's walk to that orange house about 500 meters down the Rhein and we sit down there. I dragged myself with his help form bench to bench until the promenade like walk way along the Rhein run out into something a little more ruff and ready. The alternative would have been a hilly bicycle route which clearly was not an option today. My legs suddenly woke up on the adventure part of our walk. It was stony, grassy and slippy but somehow I found my stride and we made good time to Bad Breisig.

We found an enthusiastic employee in the local tourist information who manly tried not to be thrown by our request for a two bed room with a bath tub, quiet location and WLAN. We later realised that this resort is favoured by an older generation and there is probably not much call for on-line services. In the end we found a hotel with the help of a brochure they gave us. We managed to find a dodgy connection in the restaurant but it was enough to make Gary's little face light up.

Gary and I have always been close and we have been getting along really well since we started this walk. Today it is my song choice and it is dedicated to Gary for getting me through today. I would not want to do this walk with anybody else but him. As I am rubbish at remembering song titles and artists, here is the bit of text that matters for today (oh, and I had glass of wine or two – purely medicinal of course to keep my strength up -so we do not have a repeat of today): 'HELP'

but even I can remember that that is by the Beatles :)