DUNKERQUE 20-22 April (with a touch of BELGIUM)

We arrived into Dunkerque late afternoon, not terribly impressed with what we saw.  We knew this wouldn’t be a quaint little French village but more an industrial port city, but we came here to see if there were more relevant WW2 sites/memorials/relics.  Unfortunately there wasn’t anything to see, except the sea!

The next day we decided to leave Dunkerque for the day and ‘pop’ into BELGIUM since we were only 33kms from the France/Belgium border.  Instead of just popping over the border, we headed into Bruxelles, capital of Belgium.  Bad decision.  We couldn’t wait to get out of this city.  It was dirty, nothing old and historic about it and there were so many beggars.  We gripped the kids hands as we walked down the cobbled shopping mall, dodging revolting stuff on the pavement and beggars wanting money.  One beggar we saw really frightened the kids, he walked on all fours, obviously couldn’t stand upright because his legs were all bent the wrong way.  He has clearly spent his life walking on all fours.  He was pushing a tin in front of him and calling out for money in his language.  He was dirty and smelly.  We definitely needed to get out of this city but first, Corky had to satisfy his quest for having a McDonald’s Big Mac in every country he visits in the world, he was not going to miss his opportunity in Belgium.  Once conquered, we got in the car and got out of Bruxelles.

Heading back towards France, we saw the turn off to Bruges.  We thought we would give Belgium one more chance at redemption so we turned off the freeway towards Bruges.  Wow, we were impressed.  This is more like it; a classy, historical, romantic, cobbled town.  Wow, wow, wow!  We wandered down through the crooked cobbled streets admiring the shops and smelling the waffles being cooked at every corner.  There were people everywhere enjoying the spring weather, restaurants and ambience off Bruges.  Wish we had found this earlier.  We sat as the sun set in a restaurant overlooking the large square and ate Belgium waffles with cream, chocolate, strawberries and ice cream on them – just the way they should be.  Corky and I enjoyed a Belgium cherry beer.  The bells of the nearby cathedral chimed at 7pm and they tolled for at least 15 minutes.  Soon it was time to leave this European glory and head back to Dunkerque for our last night on French soil (for a while anyway).

Corky and his favourite car

 Off to the UK tomorrow (Harry was pretty much over his chicken pox by now which was good timing – he just has little scabs all over him now)..... x