Wollonia to Waterloo

I read an article in an English camping magazine about the beauty of Wollonia,a region in the south east of Belgium. It's close to Luxembourg so we headed there for a look.

    The houses changed to stone facade,large, and quite pretty, and the first major town, Dinant , was lovely.

  It sits on the river Meuse which is a very busy waterway to Paris and the south.

  To enter Dinant from the south you have to pass through this gap in the rock which is only 400 mm wider than a campervan with the mirrors in. It was fun to watch the vans stop ,and the wives jump out and guide hubby through.

 Reminded me of when we tried to take a Chevy van through a gap in a redwood tree and got stuck !

It has a big Jazz festival here and The saxophones are a permanent display. 

 We intended to bike along the river but couldn't find a camp near it. They were all full of permanent trailer home people, scruffy, with lots of dogs and beer bellied Belgiums.

  The river was very industrialized and the roads busy so we left it and went looking for a camp further west. 

  When we came across one in the grounds of a chateau we thought we were right. Yeah right !

  It had 750 sites and was set up like a theme park. Kids and dogs by the thousand. Also twice what we'd been paying in France. Never mind, I've seen Wollonia and it's not an area I'd rush back to.

The next morning after a good sleep in, we set the sat nav for Waterloo. Don't use it often but drivings not so easy here. 

  Waterloo ,kids, is where Wellington defeated Napolean. Google it!

 Its a huge tourist attraction and that big hill is a man made monument. When you climb to the top the battlefield is explained ,out there in front of you.

  Now ,I come from a mural town and some of ours are big, but this one , painted in 1926 of the battle, is 110 meters long by 12 high. They built a special round pavilion to house it and you can stand on a platform in the middle to view it.

  Just fantastic !

  We've dropped back into France tonight, I DO like France, and are in a town called la Quesnoy . It has a special NZ connection which I'll tell you about next time.