Hi,

In an earlier entry I said that I was going to let you know how I got on in the Ardennes (southern Belgium and northern Luembourg), well we travelled in our Land Rover Freelander towing our caravan, started out at 02:00 Saturday morning, and got to Dover a little earlier than expected, P & O Ferries obligingly offered us an earlier sailing, which we accepted gratefully, we had bought club class lounge seats, the lounge was nearly empty, so we tried to sleep (not very successfully). Anyway an hour and a half later we were in France heading to the belgium border near Liege, where found that little improvement to the surfaces of Belgiums motorway's had been made, the pot-holes are shocking in places. So we finally arrived at La Roche en Ardenne 5 hours or so later, we were soon befriended by a Belgian couple and a Dutch couple camped adjacent to us. I was a little concerned prior to setting out from home, that there may be an amount of Transphobia in such a rural place, I have to state that my concerns were totally unfounded, I don't think that transphobia exists in the Benelux countries.

Our friends from The Hague visited us staying in a small hotel in an adjacent village, we had a brilliant BBQ with Begian sausages and also some ostich and kangaroo steaks that I had purchased in England, what are they like? Kangaroo tastes like steak but is a little more dense and chewier, and ostrich is similar to a good quality pork steak, the sauasage was outstanding, the price of booze was amazing and I now have to lose the extra 2 and half kilosweight that I gained in a week, cest la vie!

We had days out across the border in Luxembourg, we shopped for clothes, food, drink, and eat in restaurants on occassions. In Begium we travelled to the German border, and also across to Dinant and Namur, trying to get a real feel for the place, because it's a strong possibility that we'll move to Belgium in the next few years to retire. My wife was born in Brussles, parented by an American father and Taiwanese mother, so she has a strong affinity to her birth country, even if she moved to England when she was only 4 months old.

I am surprised that there aren't very many British tourists in the area, but also pleasantly thankful ! 

Photos are on the edge of the ravine in Luxembourg City, a partial view of La Roche en Ardenne taken from the castle ruins, and of that Begian favourite frites with mayonaise, & yes they were nice! but I only had that one portion all the time away - honest!

Next holiday is Luxembourg in September, I'm already looking forward to it. But the funny thing is I don't worry about travelling abroad as Eve anymore it's just natural to me, me being myself as I have alluded to in earlier postings and comments.

Cheers,

Eve