Brussels - Dinant, Belgium

Sunday 14th November 1999

Jean invited us to stay longer but we really needed to keep going if we were ever to finish the trip. Next stop was France and then on to England so we thought we should get rid of our last few Belgian francs. By buying chocolate of course.

Jean joined us on the walk back towards the city to find an open chocolate shop. The first couple that we tried were closed but we found one just next to a big antiques market that is held every Sunday. Chocolates in hand Jean took us to meet a friend of his, Patrick, who owns an antique shop. He was planning an exhibition of Australian artifacts and it was strange for Anita and I to see the Aboriginal works so far from home.

Before we left Jean suggested we have a quick look at another antiques shop, Rambagh, with an absolutely massive selection of near and far Eastern antiquities. Many of the large works were familiar to us from our recent trip, particularly the huge carved doors which could have come from any of the run-down Medersas that we'd seen.

We eventually returned to the van and said goodbye to Jean. We'd had a wonderful few days and our memories of Brussels would be very different from those we expected.

We headed south towards France, passing the edge of the Ardennes and some very nice scenery, with chalk cliffs rising up from a river and lush green pastures.

By the end of the day we had not quite made the border so we stopped near the town of Dinant, in a lay-by a little way off the road. It was unfortunately littered with rubbish bags but once the curtains were drawn we couldn't see them.