Adventures With Harvey

Getting back on the horse

Greetings one and all. Yes, Adventures With Harvey is back and if you’ve been wondering where we’ve been for the last month, the answer is Antwerp. Belgium has been our home for far longer than we expected, in fact precisely one month extra. Anita’s accident happened on our 6^th day in Belgium (and due to be our second to last), the final duration of our stay ended up being 5 weeks.

The big question I’m sure you’re all wanting to know is how is Anita doing?!? The answer is pretty well actually. It’s now around 24 days since her operation and she’s getting better every day. The swelling has completely gone and the bruises are fading by the day however the pesky pain, although much reduced, is still her constant companion. Each day Anita does plenty of exercises, and your author now wears a new hat; amateur physiotherapist, helping her each day with stretches and working to increase mobility. Anita is so incredibly resilient and I couldn’t be prouder of her bravery, optimism and cheerfulness.

As with this entire adventure, people have been just so very kind to us. Lately that has been our Antwerp friend Tom and his family, we have been parked up in their driveway pretty much ever since the accident and their hospitality, camaraderie and kindness have been just amazing. We are truly humbled and grateful in equal measure.

It was a big moment three days back when Harvey’s wheels got moving again and we finally left Antwerp – it’s a lovely city but you can get too much of a good thing after a while! Although we were keen to head for Scandinavia as previously planned it was just too far on this occasion, given the short time we have available. Why short time you may ask? The surgeon wants to see Anita again on 6 September for a follow up and x-rays along with a more intensive physiotherapy plan, so even an abbreviated trip to Norse country would have been between 3500-4000km and it was just too big an ask, given our patient is still far from 100%. So, baby steps it is, and we’re currently parked up in a large bus parking area in Cologne, Germany (the nearby motorhome park was full but there are a bunch of others here with us in the same boat). The big 4 countries on this trip that we planned to spend time in are France, Italy, Germany and Spain. We’ve already done a couple of months in France with more to come later, Spain is earmarked for the coming northern winter (pretty much the warmest place at that time of the year) and Italy for spring next year, so Germany was the obvious destination for now. The other reason was proximity, the town of Aachen was less than 200km away from Antwerp so, after passing through Holland, we have enjoyed 3 nights there getting reacclimatised to living and travelling in Harvey, and of course exploring the town.

So what to report from the last month? Not a great deal compared with other blog posts, of course we haven’t exactly been idle, however apart from a trip to the zoo in the very centre of town, Anita hasn’t been able to venture far or do a great deal each day as she recovers from the surgery and anaesthetic. Your author has (with difficulty at times) kept himself out of mischief with a load of cycling – at the time of the accident our bikes had done less than 100km and now mine has around 750km on the clock. I discovered a nearby woodland so have enjoyed a few excursions on my e-mountain bike. There have of course been a couple of big rugby tests (with very mixed results ☹) which were both watched at the Irish pub in the centre of Antwerp, each time making friends with the South Africans there who love their rugby as much as your author. I also discovered another tank museum, this one run by a bunch of elderly volunteers and only open 2 afternoons per week – mainly cold war era hardware but plenty of it and easily enough to keep your author interested for a few hours (even if google translate worked overtime due to all the captions being in Dutch)!

There are also a few other attractions in town, amongst them the Red Star Line Museum, housed in the same building that around 2 million folks passed through between around 1874 and 1934 en route to a new life in North America. Having been to Ellis Island in New York, your humble correspondent felt privileged to have now seen the port and facility from which many of them departed.

Belgium is also of course known for brewing beer, so a visit to De Konink, arguably the most famous of them all was certainly in order. This company has been brewing beer in Antwerp since 1833 which is 4 years longer than Belgium has actually been a country and is still one of the most recognised brewers in this part of the world.

On a trip to the local camping ground to dump waste and fill water I bumped into a friendly Dutchman who invited me to join him and his friend that evening at a reggae festival. I’ve got to say, it’s not exactly my first choice of music genre but it was free, I was at a loose end, and there were masses of families and other fans there soaking up the atmosphere. The highlight was seeing Julian Marley, son of the famous Bob, playing with his band. Close your eyes and you might have actually thought it was his father singing!

In the last week we were delighted to discover that our good friend Jeff from Colorado was in Belgium and keen to say gidday so he jumped on a train to Antwerp. It was the Assumption Day public holiday and we spent a very enjoyable afternoon having lunch then wandering around the stalls of the huge Grote Markt in the centre of town.

Aachen is a very interesting little town, originally a spa town settled by the Romans, it has played a pivotal role in German history. A famous chap by the name of Charlemagne made the town the geographical and political capital of his vast Frankish empire in 974. Believe it or not, between then and the 16^th century more than 30 German kings were crowned at the cathedral there which also houses the remains of the aforementioned famous gentleman. We spent a lovely afternoon exploring the town via a self-guided walking tour, followed by a visit to one of the many shops selling printen, the local speciality which is a type of spiced gingerbread.

Although the setbacks on this trip have undoubtedly tested our resilience, the travelling Woodies are delighted to be mobile and look forward to bringing you news of many more adventures. We promise it won’t be so long between drinks next time.

With much love to all

Dave & Anita

Watching the All Blacks at the Irish Pub - thankfully this week the boys turned up to play!

Antwerp is the home of the famous painter, Pieter Paul Rubens. So of course there are plenty of his paintings in St Charles Borromeo, the church partially designed by the great man himself.

another Rubens over the alter

fountain (under repair) in the main square, Antwerp

Plantin-Moretus museum contains the world's oldest printing press - the museum has been here since 1876 and this photo shows their collection of ancient typesets

part of the library dating back to 1640

Harvey's home for the last few weeks

Julian Marley and band

watching the concert with my new Dutch friend

2 massive coal barges being pushed into a lock by a tugboat

Museum aan de Stroom - a magnificent view from the rooftop viewing deck

an old delivery van inside the De Konink brewery

these lads were understandably cock-a-hoop after their team taught our lot a rugby lesson

OK it's time for a quiz - one of these characters is not actually bronze but a mime. can you spot which one? (answer below)

Gunfire Braaschat museum is run by elderly volunteers, is only open 2 afternoons per week, and contains a fascinating lot of cold war era military hardware

always happy in a tank museum :-)

during 1944-45 the nazis fires almost 2400 V1 and V2 rockets at Antwerp. Of these, the defenders, using a collection of anti-aircraft and artillery, managed to shoot down all but 211 of them