Feel like a Belgian tour...26th July - 9th August

If you are on the coast De Haan is very pretty. Einstein lived there for a while but his house is not open to the public. Probably only worth an hour or two and there was a good chocolate shop.

Also a tram runs the length of the coast. Fabulous beach.
 
We stayed a Urban Gardens in Ghent- there was a bus stop right outside the site that took us to the city centre
 
The whole coast from Dunkirk up is lovely, with huge beaches and as Puddleduck said a tram runs the length of it so you could pitch up in (say) De Panne or Middlekerke and explore from there. As others have said, Bruges and Ghent should also definitely be on your list.
No worries with the language as they all speak better English than we do 😃
We passed a lovely looking place called Dinant on our way back through the Walloon region the other week and have added that to our list.
If you're heading to The Grand Est part of France (Strasbourg area) , the Alsace Wine Route is great for campers with beautiful little villages along the way. Have fun 👍
 
We are moving today to have a week in Nieupoort which we love. But no one has yet mentioned Oostende. We sailed there from UK nearly every year for 20 years. Make sure you go to Bruges and keep a sock in your pocket. When they bring the bill for coffee it will stop you being loud . Only kidding, it is lovely.

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PaulC70 said:
Never been to Belgium but quite fancy giving it a go, been to France so not first time abroad in MH.
Likely ferry to Calais and turn left with a stopover night in Dunkirk methinks. Then onto Ypres / Bruges / Lille / antwerp. But only because theyre the only places ive heard of lol.

Anyone else done Belgium and got any recommendations at all. Not cycling as wife uses mobility scooter, but most other things go, we like village / town / city stops mainly i guess.

My main concerns the language barrier, I know they speak German/ French / Dutch apparantly but theres a reasonable amount of english speaking too, bit like parts of france?
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I highly recommend Ghent, not as busy as Bruges but lots to do and see. Botanic gardens were amazing. Everyone spoke English! The only down side is that its a University city with a third of the 270K population being students, which meant that there were young people everywhere enjoying themselves. It should be banned! Have a great trip.
 
PaulC70 said:
Never been to Belgium but quite fancy giving it a go, been to France so not first time abroad in MH.
Likely ferry to Calais and turn left with a stopover night in Dunkirk methinks. Then onto Ypres / Bruges / Lille / antwerp. But only because theyre the only places ive heard of lol.

Anyone else done Belgium and got any recommendations at all. Not cycling as wife uses mobility scooter, but most other things go, we like village / town / city stops mainly i guess.

My main concerns the language barrier, I know they speak German/ French / Dutch apparantly but theres a reasonable amount of english speaking too, bit like parts of france?
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I’ve heard that Ghent is lovely a bit quieter than Bruges, we’ve just been to Bruges and all English speaking
 
Made it to Bruges :-) Staying at least one night at Camperplaats Bargeweg https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=17876 although it appears none of the EHU are working at all :-/ Annoying but not the end of the world. Now off into town to have a gander, a beer and a waffle!
 
PaulC70 said:
Made it to Bruges :-) Staying at least one night at Camperplaats Bargeweg https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=17876 although it appears none of the EHU are working at all :-/ Annoying but not the end of the world. Now off into town to have a gander, a beer and a waffle!
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That would be a surprise thats not normal, might be worth having a chat to the man in the office building on the far edge of the coach carpark 8where they pay) he is the Guardian and usually very helpful.
 
PaulC70 said:
Made it to Bruges :-) Staying at least one night at Camperplaats Bargeweg https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=17876 although it appears none of the EHU are working at all :-/ Annoying but not the end of the world. Now off into town to have a gander, a beer and a waffle!
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Was ok this morning! When you pay for exit, its not at the barrier..there is a glass building in the coach park , with a machine in front of it- use that one. Also the loo disposal is the sink....even thoughtl the sign is confusing.
 
Try Dinant (https://maps.app.goo.gl/EMM7uo64r5twnkPn6) It's a lovely little Riverside town with a Fortress perched on the rocks above, well worth a visit. Make sure you visit the WW2 Air-raid Shelter exhibition, but only do so if you are stable footed, it's the most giddy I've ever felt whilst sober.

It's also know as the birthplace of the Saxophone with a little free museum dedicated to Adolphe Sax.

We stayed at a location on park4night on the opposite side of the gorge overlooking the Fortress, it looked stunning at night all lit up. https://park4night.com/en/place/298190

The instructions on how to book a spot are on the link above, the chap who runs it only speaks French, but don't let that put you off as he is very funny and does his best through universal sign language!

<M>
 
ChrisL said:
I could quite happily live on a diet of Moules Mariniere with french bread, frits and chocolate for an extended period, accompanied by a bottle of Pouilly Fume ofcourse. Heaven :giggle:
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I can't eat shellfish and am coeliac so that is the first two items not allowed as they would make me seriously unwell. Frits are great if cooked in uncontaminated oil. Some chocolate is okay and some isn't, I always have to ask. I am also teetotal as I've the experienced the toll on friends and family when there is an issue with alcoholism.
 
I remember our first proper moules et frites in Brussels in a lovely bar/restaurant with a view of the rather disappointing Mannekin Pis. We ordered, and a huge moules pan was delivered to our table. We both said that’s a lot of moules, only to be presented with a second huge pan. We also discovered using an empty moules shell as clippers to eat the rest.
 
Puddleduck said:
I can't eat shellfish and am coeliac so that is the first two items not allowed as they would make me seriously unwell. Frits are great if cooked in uncontaminated oil. Some chocolate is okay and some isn't, I always have to ask. I am also teetotal as I've the experienced the toll on friends and family when there is an issue with alcoholism.
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Really sorry to hear of your conditions and life experiences, my Niece is coeliac so I know a little of what that's like, and always take extra care when cooking for her. I have known a couple of alcoholics both died early because of it but it hasn't stopped me drinking in moderation.
 
orridge said:
That would be a surprise thats not normal, might be worth having a chat to the man in the office building on the far edge of the coach carpark 8where they pay) he is the Guardian and usually very helpful.
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jim999bob said:
Was ok this morning! When you pay for exit, its not at the barrier..there is a glass building in the coach park , with a machine in front of it- use that one. Also the loo disposal is the sink....even thoughtl the sign is confusing.
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I wandered round all the points when we arrived with the multimeter after checking my lead which was ok. All ehu I checked (about 10) not working, I assumed it was site wide so plugged in anyway and it came on a few hours later and has been fine overnight :-)

I'd sussed out about where to pay, will suss out the loo disposal this morning as we are staying a second night. :-)

Next Stop said:
Try Dinant (https://maps.app.goo.gl/EMM7uo64r5twnkPn6) It's a lovely little Riverside town with a Fortress perched on the rocks above, well worth a visit. Make sure you visit the WW2 Air-raid Shelter exhibition, but only do so if you are stable footed, it's the most giddy I've ever felt whilst sober.

It's also know as the birthplace of the Saxophone with a little free museum dedicated to Adolphe Sax.

We stayed at a location on park4night on the opposite side of the gorge overlooking the Fortress, it looked stunning at night all lit up. https://park4night.com/en/place/298190

The instructions on how to book a spot are on the link above, the chap who runs it only speaks French, but don't let that put you off as he is very funny and does his best through universal sign language!

<M>
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Will have a look but with the wife using a mobility scooter not likely to be a goer :-/

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So, bit of a boo boo came to light in last couple of days, completely my fault I have to say and the only excuse I have is that we ended up rushing our plans in the end and the snag with the reverse camera.

So whats the boo boo? I thought our reg document was in the van in the bag that holds all those bits! Guess what? NOPE! So even though I know my MH is permissible in the LEZ (Antwerp, Brussels & Ghent) I cannot register it :-/
So we've abandoned Brussels and Ghent entirely as wife's mobility deems that we stay as close as we can to get most out of her scooters battery and I don't have to hike too far. We did stay in Bruges on the aire for 2 nights and loved Bruges, one night just outside the ring road in Antwerp, Uber in and walked back (that was a lot of steps) but enjoyed Antwerp.

Last night we stopped in De Haan, as suggested earlier in the thread, the car park though has a hell of slope but theres plenty of on street parking as you can see :-) Lovely seaside location.

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And I thought the caraven clubs were regimented!

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Today we move on as there's some sort of event taking over the whole town of De Haan from tomorrow and lots of restrictions and I've booked 2 nights at the Ypres Aire so that's the plan until Sunday morning.
Then we have a whole week before our return to the UK so have no clue what we're going to do lol
 
It's a good idea to keep copies of all your documents in the cloud, including your registration documents, driving licence, insurance etc. I keep a folder in Dropbox, accessible wherever I can get Internet.
 
Update, managed to get my son to get the v5 and send some photos and whatsapp them to me, applied yesterday for the LEZ in Ghent and got a reply quickly, however when I translated it it was basically an acknowledgement stating it can take up to 14 days :cry:
 
Well for the first time ever we've stayed somewhere more than 2 nights! Urban Gardens in Ypres, great place / facilities etc and Ypres itself, lovely!

Cannot say the same for Ghent sadly, deliberately went here today and best place to stay is a 1 hour walk in and out so my plan was to be uncomfortable and try public transport with the wife and her mobility scooter after researching the De Lijn website re the nearby tram stop which looked perfect and so much talk on their website about accessability etc etc!

Bought 2 tickets, got on the tram and then conductor comes shouting down the tram and threw us off stating her scooter was too big! (105 x 60cm) I've seen bigger prams and wheelchairs! He wasn't having any of it so we're really pee'd off and it's put a right stain on the visit frankly so much so I'll definitly not be back to Ghent and it's now put us off Brussels completely and will even make me think twice about bothering with Belgium in the future :-/
 
PaulC70 said:
Well for the first time ever we've stayed somewhere more than 2 nights! Urban Gardens in Ypres, great place / facilities etc and Ypres itself, lovely!

Cannot say the same for Ghent sadly, deliberately went here today and best place to stay is a 1 hour walk in and out so my plan was to be uncomfortable and try public transport with the wife and her mobility scooter after researching the De Lijn website re the nearby tram stop which looked perfect and so much talk on their website about accessability etc etc!

Bought 2 tickets, got on the tram and then conductor comes shouting down the tram and threw us off stating her scooter was too big! (105 x 60cm) I've seen bigger prams and wheelchairs! He wasn't having any of it so we're really pee'd off and it's put a right stain on the visit frankly so much so I'll definitly not be back to Ghent and it's now put us off Brussels completely and will even make me think twice about bothering with Belgium in the future :-/
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Sorry to hear of your bad experience, I've only ever been to Ypres (3 times) but I always found people to be friendly and helpful, we even had a few beers with the police chief in the Menin bar, next to the gate, who offered us the use of a holiday flat he had in the town as there'd been very heavy rain and the campsite was very wet.

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