Summer Holiday, 28 August 2022

This morning we were in Düren, but of course it is Sunday, so all the shops are shut. We didn't head on very early, but used the services, and the SW went for a leg-stretch while I read and did puzzles on my tablet. 

It was always going to be a driving day, as we are on the way home. We started off cross-country, a mixture of extremely nice roads and really rather awful ones, much too narrow for the WoMo really. Fortunately there was not much traffic. 

We joined the motorway just before the Belgian border. It would appear that the secret to Belgian motorways is to go on a Sunday lunchtime - very little traffic and no hold-ups! 

Our original plan had been to stop at the car park for the Ronquières inclined plane, but for some reason neither of us was keen. I remember it as dark and gloomy, but that was in December a few years ago! 

So anyway, I found that a car park on the outskirts of Mons was recommended, but when we got there, it was a bit full, and we felt as though we were intruding. Also no shade, and it is hot again! So a bit of detective work finds us parked up at this lovely canal bridge

(even though the cars make a noise going over it) with a view of the Strépy-Thieu canal lift,

which we love. We would have gone there, but they have stopped overnight parking, alas. This place, however, is almost nicer. 

As I had barely been out of the WoMo - just to buy rolls in a random convenience store at a petrol station - we decided to go for a walk along the canal bank to the old lift

(one of the ones the big Strépy-Thieu lift replaced) and back the other side. It was a lovely walk, although you had to walk down to the roadway to cross the canal, and then back up the other side up a 19% slope! But we took it slowly and I managed, although I know I've taken exercise. Now cooking a big casserole and enjoying a lovely evening.