The Binkybus: France & Belgium 11-22 Jun 15

The title should read "Alsace & the Black Forest" but the joys of motoring holidays mean that things can change very quickly and one has to adapt. We arrived in France on Thurs 11 Jun after a very uneventful journey and crossing, stopping at a Carrefour to stock up with cheap fuel and even cheaper wine. As we headed out for the last leg on a newly tarmacked road, a French garcon-racer totally ignored the 20kph speed limit and generated a hailstorm of stones as he sped past. With a loud crack, a stone hit the edge of the windscreen and formed a nice 4" crack which started to work its way across the screen, not helped by the very high temperature. Then the fun began...

We parked up at our first planned stopover, the lovely Chateau du Gandspette and started the calls to the insurance companies. I won't bore you with the unending saga of dealing with these most unhelpful of people, but the bottom line is that the insurance company's windscreen cover agent in France (Carglass - part of the Autoglass Group) will not repair motorhome windscreens. After many frustrating calls, it was finally agreed that we should head for Belgium where there was a better chance of getting a repair under the insurance policy. As nothing could be done until the following Monday, we stayed at Gandspette and enjoyed a good rest, some nice meals and a trip into St Omer for shopping and a poke around.

Very flat is Belgium

Cracking Windscreen

St Omer. Now - where did we leave the bus?

On Sunday 14 we drove to our first stop in Belgium, Camping 17 in Bredene. This is a pretty basic site, but ideally located, and here we discovered the excellent coast tram that runs from the Dutch Border to the French Border along the coast of Belgium. We went to the Pub in the evening and discovered that beer is considerably cheaper - and better - in Belgium.

Mon 15 - After calling Autoglass to arrange for a windscreen, which had to be ordered, we decided on a trip to Bruges. Taking the coast tram to Ostend, we boarded the excellent train to Bruges and had a very nice day bimbling around this historic city, albeit it was packed with tourists and, of course, the lunch was very expensive. We resisted the urge to go around the chip museum!

On Tue 16 there was still no news on the windscreen so we moved up the coast towards Zeebrugge/Holland and found a very nice site, Bonanza 1 in Blakenberge. The site is not so close to the sea and a bit of a walk into town, but is in a nice, quiet residential area. We had a walk along the front and a beer in an excellent beach bar.

On Wednesday we relaxed and wandered around Blakenberge.

On Thu 18 we decided that we would buy a day pass and take the tram from the Dutch border all the way to the French Border. It was a looooong day and one not to be repeated, but we can now say that we have done this amazing feat (yawn).

On Fri 19 we moved to Camping Ter Duinen in Den Haan, a site we had visited many years ago with friends. We wandered into the town, wandered back again looking for food, found nothing and went to bed. Not the most inspiring of sites and we wouldn't go back there again.

On Sat 20 we took the tram to Ostend and a train to Ghent, which, in some ways, we preferred to Bruges as there were less tourists around. The public transport system in Belgium is so much better than ours - our tram ticket on the coast also covered the trams in Ghent. Bargain! There was still no sign of a windscreen appearing and we were being given the runaround, so we decided to bang out and arrange for a replacement at home.

On Sun 21 we crossed back over the border into France and parked up for the night on the Gravelines aire. Gravelines is an interesting place and the weather was fine so we bimbled along the road to Fort Mahon Plage before returning for a glass of wine outside the bus.

On Mon 22 we were up early for the early crossing. So early that we were there before the usual directing staff and found ourselves in the crossing queue when we really wanted to be in the shop for breakfast and wine. It would appear that once you are in there is no way back, so an early crossing was made and we headed to the Ashford Outlet Mall and parked up early for breakfast and a bit of shopping before heading home and, hopefully, a repair of a windscreen by good old UK fitters!

Postnote: The windscreen was eventually repaired at home by Autoglass after we had to wait for a screen to be delivered from - yep, you guessed it. Belgium. You couldn't make it up!