Adventures With Harvey

From the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea

With Paris done and dusted for now and our next rugby game not until September 29 in Lyon, there was plenty of time for a bit more exploring with Belgium being our next target. Last year we visited Ghent however that was during their annual festival and the town was an absolute zoo! A fun zoo, but total chaos all the same with about a dozen music stages set up and what seemed like a million people. Although the weather was changeable this time, the town was still magnificent with waterways, churches, cobbled streets and the most stunning architecture. Team pink actually got caught in a thunderstorm and ended up sheltering under a bridge and making friends with some (thankfully friendly and harmless) homeless people!

One nearby part of the world held a high level of interest mainly because of its name – yes, we’re talking about the province of Zeeland in southern Holland. Although the spelling is different, this is the place that New Zealand is named after following discovery by Abel Tasman and we’d also heard that it was a very popular destination for camping and summer holidays. Although we visited and spent an overnight in the seaside town of Vlissingen, our highlight of Zeeland was on the northern side of the peninsula in the town of Yerseke. The most striking feature of the geography in this little town is its massive flood defences which were built following a catastrophic deluge in 1953. All along the waterfront are stop-banks so high and solid that many have roads along the top, or at the very least walking and cycling trails. (the storm surge in 1953 reached the unbelievable height of 5.6m so no wonder they built such mammoth sea walls!) Yerseke is also famous for its seafood industry with a large fleet of trawlers in the harbour and oyster beds all along the shoreline. A stroll through the town shows that most of the structures post-date the flood mentioned above however it is still quaint and beautiful (in a modern type of way). Up on the flood bank are dotted a number of seafood restaurants which was too much of an enticement for we Travelling Woodies - how would they compare with our most excellent cuisine at home? We decided on a lunch of two courses, the first would be oysters and then, at a different restaurant, a pot of mussels would be shared. I know this will horrify a number of our NZ friends however au naturale is not the preferred option for either of us when it comes to oysters – we’ll happily eat them that way if dished up however there are other styles we prefer… including grilled with cheese and other yumminess on the top which was the case with this entrée! They were excellent and easily as good as anything we have tasted back home. Secondly it was a stroll down the road for a pot of mussels which were tender, plentiful and delicious, slightly smaller than at home but perhaps a little more succulent. The meal was excellent and in your author’s opinion, easily as good as back home.

The other reason for our northern loop was a return visit to Antwerp and our friends Tom & Caroline along with their youngsters, Anna and Louie. These guys have become very close friends and it felt like arriving home as we returned to their lovely place in Schilde on the outskirts of Antwerp. As usual we were treated to a delicious bbq meal as we sat outside and caught up on all the news (in fact our last visit was all the way back in December) and solved a few problems of the world. It was also a good opportunity to borrow a ladder and give the roof box a much needed sort out, as well as laundry, vacuum cleaning and other chores that had been backing up. A visit there would not have been complete without a mission into town to revisit some of our favourite markets in the whole of Europe. Due to circumstances last year, Antwerp became a ‘home away from home’ and the markets were as excellent as we had remembered, especially the cheeses, dips, olives and other food stalls. It was a lovely warm sunny weekend and we enjoyed lunch at a little market stall while watching the world go by in between foraging for supplies to fill Harvey’s fridge.

At this point we had a slight conundrum… there were still almost 2 weeks until we were due in Lyon so what ought we do between now and then? During our machinations team pink proffered the opinion that there had been too little time spent at a beach in the sun on this trip. She had a point – the 2 weeks we spent with Deanna in Croatia were extremely enjoyable however the other time spent close to the ocean (Spain, Portugal, Italy & southern France) had been accompanied by weather that was insufficiently warm. A quick look at the weather forecast and our mind was made up. We would dive south and spend our last bit of free time on the Côte d’Azure where the weather was forecast to be warm and sunny – we knew a couple of lovely little spots from our visit there in the Spring so that would be the plan!

The drive from Antwerp to Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer is almost 1200km so we broke that up into bite sized chunks of around 300km per day, however before we left Belgium there was one more stop. Yes, we’re talking about one of the most famous battle sites in the world: Waterloo! On longer driving days we often find ourselves listening to a podcast and one of these is a series about Napoleon and although we haven’t listened to all episodes yet, what is apparent is just what a military genius this diminutive figure was. Although he was finally defeated at Waterloo, this is just the tail end of around 20 years of French dominance. Prior to this Napoleon (who waged and won his first campaign in his mid-twenties) was successful against many different European coalitions who tried to end his dominance. At Waterloo there is an excellent museum, massive circlorama (circular painting depicting scenes from the battle, similar to what we saw in Wroclaw), and the ‘Lions Mound’ which is a 40m high conical pile of dirt with a huge bronze lion atop, built around 10 years after the battle to memorialise the 40,000 or so men who lost their lives there.

Our stop in Dijon ended up being 2 nights as it was a convenient mid-point break with 2 large driving days either side. We found a lovely parking spot right by the canal (or perhaps canal boat park, it was hard to exactly tell… but it was nevertheless a waterway) which was within walking distance of the town. Known for the mustard which bears its name, Dijon also has a load of history and beautiful architecture as many of these French cities have. The local tourist office provided us with a pamphlet giving a one-hour walking tour with explanations at each stop – it was another day of changeable weather including the odd clap of thunder however we enjoyed our wander through the town all the same, including the obligatory stop for a mustard tasting and small purchase.

Our final overnight stop was in Vienne just south of Lyon before pushing onto the coast yesterday afternoon, back to Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, just across the water from Toulon. We’ll spend a couple of nights here before heading a bit further around the coast to Saint-Maxime for our final few days of sunshine and warmth before heading back north for the rugby. In a sad but happy coincidence, our friend Nina from back home has ended up in this part of the world due to a bereavement – the happy thing is that tomorrow she’ll be coming to hang out with we Travelling Woodies for a few days which we are very much looking forward to!!!

Before we finish this edition please allow me to proffer an observation… to pontificate a little if you will. One thing European countries majorly disagree on is the issue of nuclear power generation. Some countries such as Germany and Belgium are phasing out their nuclear power stations entirely. However not so the French – these guys can’t get enough of them – in fact the country has 56 and you spot one almost daily when driving through the countryside. I wondered what European youngsters thought about the question so asked our young Dutch friends a month or two back when we saw them. Their answer? They neither knew nor cared, it wasn’t something they’d thought much about, they didn’t know if Holland had nuclear power stations and it wouldn’t bother them particularly if they did. I found this most interesting given the lightening-rod nature of the nuclear issue in New Zealand during the 1970’s and 80’s when we were young. Almost every young person then would have been aware of the issue and had an opinion, almost all of them anti-nuclear.

Anyway, enough of that. I think that’s about all there is to report for now, thanks once again for keeping us company – until next time this is Adventures With Harvey signing off with love and best wishes to you all.

Dave & Anita