From Arras to Ghent

Saturday August 7th
Today it was time to pack up and move on. Mo and Lou took down their tent; that was quite amusing. Mary wished they had been there to see them put it up. Apparently a fellow camper had taken pity on them and come over and helped. Ka Pai was on hand to help Hamish out as can be seen in the photo. They were off back to Calais to catch the ferry back to Dover. Everyone agreed that it had been an excellent few days in Arras.

Mary and Alan packed me up and set off towards Ghent. It was all very easy and straight forward on the motorways. There was a very small section of piage (tolls). A stop for petrol was an experience. It took seconds to fill the tank, but nearly 15 minutes in the queue to pay. There was only one cashier and people were buying cigarettes that all had to be fetched. Alan set the Tom Tom to take them into Gent hopefully, to find the info center. There were lots of narrow cobbled streets running at odd angles, many with trams coming down and also lots of buses. The Tom Tom decided to take them right to the centre and parking was going to be a problem. After being taken down streets that were closed to traffic, Mary decided she was all over Ghent and wanted to get out. So they pulled over and programmed the Tom Tom to take them to a campsite. Alan took the one at the top of the list. At this stage they had decided to camp a night and move on and forget completely about Ghent, having had a glimpse of the city even if under somewhat stressful conditions.

All went well until they were told to go right and go right again, and every time they did this they were told to turn around when possible, which was not possible. So the route got re-planned and they drove me around the same piece of road several times. This involved going onand off the dual carriageway and over abridge several times. Suddenly they spied another right turn ahead so finally got over to it and they were taken off in another direction that got them to camping signs. By this time Mary had decided she would stay at this camp even if it was the worst in the world or the most expensive ever. There was a barrier that they had to ask to go through and then they drove me through lovely trees and what appeared to be a big sporting complex and into the camp grounds. Just before the entrance they spied a bus stop. This was starting to look hopeful. The girl at the desk spoke excellent English and was able to explain where they were in relation to Gent and also give them maps, brochures and sell them a concession card for bus rides to town. Things were looking up. They decided to stay two nights and use the bus to get back into town.

They got me parked in a lovely spot close to all amenities and decided it would be worth going back into town just to look around and see where everything was. Then is started to rain really heavily, so they went to the coffee shop onsite and waited for it to settle. Finally it was safe to venture out with jackets and umbrellas and they walked the few metres to the bus stop which had a bus waiting and about to leave. They were a bit confused as to where to get off, but after the scary ride in me around the town at least knew vaguely what the centre of town looked like. In the end they stayed on until they reached the terminus.

As it was still raining quite steadily they took refuge in a large shopping mall and then came out to find it had cleared. A quick check of the map and they managed to walk to the information centre and get a booklet outlining the major sites. They also visited the inside of the cathedral which was not huge but interesting.

Alan went and lined up to get cash from a money machine. There were two machines but a beggar had sat under one of them making it impossible for anyone to use it, so the queue was long. Mary went off to browse in some shops and came back as Alan was walking up to have his turn. The girl in front had just left in a huff when nothing happened. As Alan stepped up out popped €20. It was obviously her money, so Mary ran after her and found her in a shoe shop still holding her card. Mary took her back to Alan who had the money, to make sure she was the one who had been in front of him and she was really pleased to get it. She didn’t seem to speak English but understood what Mary was saying when she took her back to the ATM.

On the way back to the bus terminus, they saw a bus coming that was the one back to the camp, so hopped in and got safely back where they cooked dinner and had a much needed early night.