The predicted rain duly arrived. In the late evening there was thunder in the distance but it was an unusual thunder – it really was like the sound of distant bombardment. It made me think how awful if must have been in the trenches – the noise and being constantly wet and filthy min the mud with no chance of a wash. Ghent did not suffer destruction during the First World War in the way that Ypres to the south did. The front line ran around Ypres which was thoroughly demolished. It also had its cloth Hall which now houses a museum to the War. Ypres is now rebuilt but it was impossible to rebuild on the scale required to reproduce all that had been there. Hence the historic centre of Ghent is so attractive.
The rain started around 10.00 pm. It kept going all night but stopped finally around 6.00am which gave me time to get sorted out and be reasonably dry. After a cooked breakfast of bacon, egg, toast etc I was on the road by 10.00 am. There was a brief ray of sun as I joined the motorway at Ghent but it soon disappeared. It was a pretty grey journey – busy around Antwerp but otherwise straightforward. Again an attempt at sunshine nearing Cologne but it did not last.
Each country has its own character. There was a spell through Holland where everything seems so precise, simple and straightforward. Suddenly even the landscape has changed to become flat and expansive. Germany, on the other hand is seriously serious. The landscape is more like the UK in the area between Aachen and Cologne with signs of heavy industry and an enormous power station outside Cologne with a complicated network of electricity pylons and cables.
Navigating the motorways is pretty straight forward really. Although the ring roads and intersections are complicated – like spaghetti junction - you are only concerned with your bit of it and it’s fine as long as you follow the signs for where you want to get to and ignore everything else. In fact the problem is not the motorways it’s the bit near the end of the journey that’s difficult. I knew that there would be a problem finding the campsite here in Kreuzberg because the map and the google satellite picture didn’t match up. It turns out there are roadworks and new tunnels etc. I missed the turn for the village and had to go a further six miles with no chance to stop or turn around. It is single carriageway, no overtaking, and a river on the right. I finally made it though and set up properly this time –everything unpacked properly , awning up - the works.
It is raining again. But the weather forecast is for better weather tomorrow afternoon.
Statistics:
Number of coutries covered today: three – Belgium, Holland, Germany.
Number of miles covered so far: 551
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