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Spring Tour 2009 – Day 2: In the morning we visited Bouillon, not a broth but a Belgian town located in a sharp meander of the river Semois. The massive Castle of Bouillon (first mentioned in 988) sits high above the town center and is a popular tourist attraction. In town there was a medieval market with knights and traditional products. We were lucky to have some sun, when we walked around Bouillon.

Spring Tour 2009 – Day 1: After dinner we drove 358 kilometers from Almere to Herbeumont in Belgium. Taking the same route as on our return from the Solar Tour brought back some painful memories.

Herbeumont has a large and quiet camper park and is just around the corner from Bouillon, a place we wanted to visit before going into France. It was almost midnight when we arrived and there were a lot of motorhomes already.

For us it was just a place to stay for the night, but if you want to stay longer, there is a castle ruin not far from the camper park, and a 6.9 km walking/biking path starts here, which goes through the valley of the Aise.

Winter Tour 2008 – Day 1: For the night I had picked two possibilities in Belgium. First we tried the parking in front of the mine museum in Blegny, but the parking was closed with a gate and drunken youth from a nearby pub wasn’t too inviting either. In and around Blegny our Garmin navigation system insisted on sending us through small local roads, which were prohibited for transit, so it took us a while to find the way back to the freeway using main roads.  Even though we set the vehicle type to ‘Truck’, the Garmin routing software has the tendency to use small secondary roads as short cuts.

50 kilometers further we tried the next camper park in Hamoir along the river Ourthe. Going up and down the hilly landscape we had to get through some heavy fog, but it helped to be able to see the route on the display of the navigation system. The camper park was a well-lit gravel pit next to a tennis court, scattered with muddy puddles. We arrived around midnight and were the only motorhome there. Just for the night this was good enough.

The last day of our tour had a sad ending. On our way through Belgium we all of a sudden saw a dog next to freeway and stopped for him. Our worries came true. The dog, which looked like a German Shorthaired Pointer was seriously injured and escorted by the Belgian police we took him to the nearest available veterinarian in Recogne. The dog  only had a simple metal chain as collar and wasn’t chipped nor did he have a tattoo. According to the doctor he was about 7 years old. The examination revealed several injuries and unfortunately the veterinarian wasn’t able to perform the kind of complicated operation which would have been necessary. We had to put him to sleep, which broke my heart. We only knew him for a short while but it seemed to be a kind dog and based on his appearance I don’t think he had such a great live. At least he didn’t have to die in pain, thirsty and hungry on the side of the road.

Credits go to the Clinique Vétérinaire à Libramont for helping us and the dog and not charging for it.