Europe By Camper - Travelling Europe By Motorhome: Belgium

Smart Times 2012 - Antwerp

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sophie's Smart Car On The Ferry</td></tr>
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3 countries, 900 miles, 3 days. This time the method of transport was not a campervan, but a Smart Car!<br />
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To many motorhomers, a Smart Car is simply a conveniently small vehicle to tow behind your motorhome, but if you look a bit closer there is a lot more to them then that.<br />
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Sophie, who works for Smart of York, won a competition (as she sold a Smart eBike) to attend the Smart Times festival held this year in Antwerp so we duly attended. Being bank holiday weekend the Hull to Zeebrugge ferry was astronomical and thus the only option available to us was to drive down to Dover and back again a total distance of nearly 900 miles. Even then the ferry was still nearly £200 return, although thankfully this was reimbursed as part of the prize. We set off late on Thursday ready to take on the challenge and stayed at a hotel near Dover before catching the early crossing.<br />
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It was so good to be back driving in Europe where they understand lane discipline and have a good road network, it seems everything just "works" on the continent and we really do miss it. One thing we don't miss at all is staying in hotel rooms. You never know what you're going to find behind that key carded door and living out of a suitcase just doesn't appeal to us in the slightest!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smart Crossblades</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smart Times 2012</td></tr>
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Smart Times itself was a real eye opener into the weird and wonderful world of Smart cars and their enthusiastic owners. With hundreds of Smart Cars in attendance from all over Europe, including a good number of the impressive limited edition Smart Crossblades as well as impressive customised and individual cars. The brand has really captivated people's imagination and individuality and the Smart Times is Smarts way of saying thank you by putting on a free event, with free entertainment and food available to all participants.<br />
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We were even able to test drive the latest Smart Electric Drive on the streets of Antwerp, the acceleration on this latest generation of the car is simply startling and is sure to be a winner when it is released next year.<br />
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Adam has never driven a Smart car any real distance but was impressed with their power and handling especially on the motorway. We even managed 55mpg over 270 miles at a cruising speed of 80mph with a boot full of wine - we had more wine in the boot then the fuel tank held (it's 33 litre tank before you ask!).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smart Towing a Pod!</td></tr>
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The Smart Parade and lining up all the cars to say SMART was pretty spectacular too!</div>
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Smart Times 2012 - Antwerp

Sophie's Smart Car On The Ferry 3 countries, 900 miles, 3 days. This time the method of transport was not a campervan, but a Sm...

Brussels

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We stayed the night at a free aire just outside Brussels in Grimbergen where behind us there was a great little bakery which was open at 8:30 when we left for Brussles - fresh Pan Aux Choc's for our breakfast and bread rolls for our lunch! We made our way to the Atomium as the sun was rising - see the above pictures. We then headed for the city centre - we had decided to try and get parked as close to the centre as possible as there were no camp sites or aires near to train or bus stations to use public transport. As luck would have it on our first lap round we pulled<br />
into an on street space just 5 minutes walk from the Grand Palace - the main attraction! We were treated to blue skies for the first hour until it clouded over and grew cold.<br />
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We spent 3 hours walking round the sights - although unfortunately some  of them were a little further afield so we had to miss out the EU Parliament building and one or two others. We also happened upon a slightly more seedy area behind the train station while cutting through - I thought we was walking past an underwear shop when suddenly the manikin moved - it was hookers in a great big window - it was like being back in Amsterdam!<br />
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On the way out of Brussels en route to Luxembourg we filled up with LPG  (35c/L) and Diesel (82c/L), at the same service station we found something we haven't been able to find since England..... Bacon! Three rashers for 2euro! Brussels is pretty expensive for everything except fuel it seems - we've not done a food shop since Germany, except for bread and milk. <br />
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We're currently at a camp site just over the border in Steinfort 11miles from the capital and will be the last campsite we'll be on until Paris - so we've made use of the hot showers and did what we hope to be our last load of washing.

Brussels

We stayed the night at a free aire just outside Brussels in Grimbergen where behind us there was a great little bakery whi...

Bruges

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We woke up this morning to the sound of rain - and most of the other <br />
campers here at the aire buggering off! It's a walking boots and big <br />
coats day ....<br />
<br />
We caught the bus into the centre which only took 5 minutes, there were <br />lots of English buses where we stayed the night and this was also <br />evident in the centre too. The houses and shop fronts were charming and <br />the canals meandered through the streets. However, it seemed quite <br />touristy with the cafe's showing off their Michelin stars in the windows <br />There was also speakers all over the place in the main square but also <br />down the little side streets with 'Proper Crimbo' playing which kind of <br />spoilt the mood and Bruge didn't need these things which we thought let <br />the city down.<br />
<br />
Other than that the little Belgium chocolate shops were lovely and in <br />one you could see the truffles being made. There were lots of little <br />cafe's and lace shops too. It was very wet and rainy but we managed to <br />take a few good photos of the nicer aspects of Bruges.

Bruges

We woke up this morning to the sound of rain - and most of the other campers here at the aire buggering off! It's a walki...

Antwerp

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We arrived in Antwerp and were able to park right in the centre, as we<br />
have been able to do in nearly all of the places we have visited so far.<br />
There was a thick mist in the air and we wandered around the streets<br />
looking at the sights. We found an English book shop in Amsterdam that<br />
had a load of Eyewitness travel guides which we already had for most of<br />
the places we knew we would be visiting - except for Belgium - they were<br />
all reduced to 5 euro and it will come in very handy for Belgium I'm<br />
sure. We wandered into a Gothic style Catholic church and was given a<br />
tour by an enthusiastic (if it little scary at first!) guide who showed<br />
us round. It is certainly nothing like any of the churches or<br />
catherdials we had seen so far as it was mostly wood carvings in place<br />
of stained glass and a large picture behind the alter which could be<br />
changed by a pully system - to keep to congregation interested and<br />
focused he said!<br />
<br />
The guy said there was a lot of Roman influence from the guy (who's name<br />
escapes me) who designed and built the church and this is visable in the<br />
surrounding streets, which it was. This, however, might have had<br />
something to do with all the Italian restaurant's close by - complete<br />
with token Italians heckling you in!<br />
<br />
<br />
As it was our first trip to Belgium we had to sample some chocolates, we<br />
made our way to the smallest and most exclusive looking chocolate shops<br />
and bought some truffles - one of which we're eating right now. Nice<br />
isn't the word! We've split Antwerp and Ghent up into two posts as they were both so nice and wanted to share the pictures of both!

Antwerp

We arrived in Antwerp and were able to park right in the centre, as we have been able to do in nearly all of the places we ha...

Ghent

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So... we like Belgium!<br />
<br />
It is sort of like Germany but without the lack of 'authentic' history. <br />Ghent was a little more challenging to get parked but we managed it and <br />had a good walk around the centre. We've been looking for a Starbucks or an unsecured network we can post our blogs from... no luck yet, but <br />we'll keep looking!<br />
So here are some pictures from Ghent...<br />
<br />
Diesel has dropped to an amazing 85c/litre and we filled up a tank full - having paid upto 1.25/litre it was a big saving. We've also been managing over 31MPG on the last tank thanks in part to the flat Netherlands no doubt.<br />
<br />
Tonight we are parked in central Bruge at an Aire right next to the bus station with about 18 other campers - a handful of which are English.  Tomorrow we'll venture into the centre and the day after we should be in <br />Brussles. I'll try and get Sophie to write the next blogs!!

Ghent

So... we like Belgium! It is sort of like Germany but without the lack of 'authentic' history. Ghent was a little more c...

Smart Times 2012 - Antwerp

Brussels

Bruges

Antwerp

Ghent

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