After a while you get quite good at travelling you learn a few tricks and - even get a little cocky, we have been in Europe for almost a year now and the ‘that will be fine’ attitude begins to rear its ugly head. This belief is intense enough to ensure that you believe you control things, which are clearly outside of your control, the weather for example.This happened to use over the weekend, it was a reality check. My sister Rose and her boyfriend Mike had been travelling around France and decided to come for a visit over the weekend. Really it was the lure of a hot shower and a bed that ensured they knocked on our door, not us. They had been camping for over a month and they where getting tired, dirty and after last nights deluge wet.
I arrived home after work on the Thursday to the smell of a freshly baked cake and everyone sitting in the kitchen drinking wine, (it was good of them to wait for me I thought) The night continued that way, had dinner, talked about ‘stuff’ nothing specific just ‘stuff’ followed by more wine and even a whiskey or two. The next day we had decided to drive into France and visit Metz before heading towards Vianden and Echtenach (both beautiful towns in Luxembourg). Metz, as always was nice; the passing rain showers didn’t even deter us. On the way to Echtenach however the torrential rain forced us to actually slow down because the windscreen wipers couldn’t keep up.
It was when we arrived in Echtenach that Rose discovered her shoes (complete with holes in the toes) surprise surprise where no longer waterproof. We went for a quick walk around the village and had a compulsory ice cream stop enforced by Nicci. Echtenach is a very old and beautiful village situated on the Luxembourg German boarder which is also the river Sure.
After this we decided to try and get to Trier which is a shopping village in Germany (that would make 3 countries in one day – not a bad feat). But 2 inches of water on the road and thunder rolling above us helped to make the decision that a Friday nights shopping might not be the best idea, so we headed for home.
Over a bottle of wine we decided that tomorrow we would head towards Brugge, Belgium. Being small and expensive to get accommodation in Brugge we booked a room in a city called Gent which was 40km away.
Proud because the accommodation was so cheap and we where organised we all disappeared to bed. The next day we drove up towards Gent, a very quick stop in a place called Spa (the home of . . . you guessed it Spa’s) we thought a relaxing dip may be in order – it was here we discovered that in Europe the only acceptable swimwear for guys are Speedos. Not being very interested in wearing budgie smugglers we left in disgust.
Gent was about an hour away so after a quick bite to eat we jumped back into the cars and soon after arrived. This was when we found out that the campsite ignored our email. It was now fully booked we had no where to stay. The campsite did kindly offer us a room for tomorrow night ‘Gee thanks’ I thought. After trying to book into a number of other hotels we discovered that Gent is a popular tourist spot and was subsequently booked out. . . No problem, onto plan B.
We drove the remaining 40km to Brugge. Plan B was simple - have a huge Belgium stew; and LOTS of beers so that when we sleep in the cars that it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable. In hind site I don’t know how a 6ft guy sleeping in the back of a VW Golf hatch back would ever be comfortable but that was the idea.We woke in the morning to the sound of heavy rain and the buzz of mosquitos in the car. We quickly packed up the cars and had a look around the city of Brugge – in the rain.
About mid day we headed off towards Apre and Arras. Both small cities where the home of vicious fighting during World War Two and subsequently we had family buried here. We stopped and found two very beautiful grave sites. One of the cemeteries backed onto a wheat field which waved in the wind and overlooked the French countryside. Then for the first time that weekend the sun even came out for the occasion, but it was still bitterly cold.Getting late on Sunday night and the thought of work creeping back into my head I decided it was time to head back to Luxembourg. We said good bye to Rose and Mike and went our separate ways, they where heading to Paris while I was going back to work – gutted.
Just to finish the weekend not only did the rain begin but Nicci went into a service station to buy dinner and in the process managed to leave my wallet there. Once we realised what had happened we had to turn around and drive for a further 1hour to ask if they had seen my wallet (they hadn’t).
By the time I crawled into bed it was well after 12pm and all I wanted was to go to sleep and hopefully wake up from what was quickly turning into a real nightmare. I was tired, wet and without, cash, cards, drivers licence etc.To top it off Nicci had tried to smooth out the situation not with an apology but the comment ‘oh well at least you wont have any more problems bad luck comes in threes’ then when I was kicking the car in anger she quietly asked ‘please don’t hurt the car’. It just goes to show that there is little your in control of and sometimes it all goes wrong, I guess one weekend like that a year is not that bad.
