Belgium

Since coming into palliative care, one of the themes has been to live as much as possible while it is still possible. So one of the things I really wanted to do was to take our camper van abroad. This is something we did many years ago in our old T25, so being able to try this again was a big ask but something I really wanted to do. And Rachel (palliative care nurse) said she thought it was a perfectly doable thing at this point. And as we’d been away a couple of weeks before, we decided it would be a go-er – with preparation in terms of medication and so on being in place as well. Going via the channel tunnel, the driving on the other side was actually less than this side – the places we wanted to visit were Bruges, Antwerp and Nieuwpoort – both for visiting but also to keep the driving legs reasonable. A total of about 650 miles, 340 on this side of the tunnel.

We stopped in Folkestone the night before – and I have to say that I’d visit the seaside part of it again if given the opportunity.

But an early morning visit to the channel tunnel, and then a short drive to Bruges. There’s a public car park for camper vans where you can stay overnight that has limited facilities (water and drainage but no toilets), and we got a good place there and got set up… and headed into town, after a bit of a revelation for me. Using chatGPT as a travel guide. It started from a picture that Summer had sent us from ‘In Bruges’, and we thought it would be funny to try to recreate it. ChatGPT identified where the picture was, and offered a walking route seeing the sights… which was a really good way to see the town. We saw stuff that we didn’t see last time, and the route worked really well. So I thought it would be a good idea to use it for the rest of the trip!

We had lunch in the square where we did a terrible job of recreating the picture, and then walked back to the van. And then it really hit me – the combination of late night, early morning, not eating normally and so on meant I just ran out of energy, and that was the end of any meaningful activity for me – no matter what, I was sleepy and just done in. It took a couple of days to get things right (and it’s tricky when you’re travelling), but certainly an important lesson learned; I knew I didn’t have any ‘reserves’ like I used to, but this really hit home.

We were only in Bruges for one night, so we packed up and moved on. And had we taken another minute we would have been charged more – we stayed for 23 hours and 59 minutes. Value for money!

On to Antwerp, which was a more traditional campsite, albeit close to the city. It’s on the other side of the river from the town centre, but well served by the water bus which is 1€ return – incredible value. But we had to wait for the campsite to let us in… during which time a part for my mountain bike was delivered to site…. the place where I ordered it from wouldn’t deliver to the UK if the order was less than €200 but were happy to send to belgium. Part wasn’t available in the UK, so I’m really pleased it all worked out. Got into the site and got set up…. all good, and home for the next 3 nights.

We took a brief trip into Antwerp for the early evening, and it’s a lovely place – very friendly, and lots of options to eat and drink as well as the usual case of European cities with very old squares with buildings with lots of history behind them. But nothing was cheap! Good, but not cheap.

And another lesson learned – still, the lack of energy meaning that after a short time, it was time to come back to the camp site on the water bus, which was quick, cheap and efficient.

The next few days were spent exploring the town and resting in between. As things have developed, it’s definitely getting harder getting eating right in terms of energy levels – if I leave it too long or eat the wrong thing, then I can really struggle. And this then becomes an emotional issue; it’s really difficult not to compare myself to who I used to be, when I could spend all day on my feet exploring or looking after the family or T. Now, I’m the one who needs to be careful, and needs to take much more of a break than before and cut things short. It means we can’t visit museums and other things we used to love doing as standing around for long periods really can be difficult.

Antwerp is a great city for a number of reasons, but one of them is the bikes. You can hire a bike for €5 for 24 hours, and pretty much ride it as much as you want. And this meant it was really easy to get into town on the next day which was a public holiday so the water bus wasn’t running much. And the bonus? We got to ride through a tunnel under the river, getting the bikes down there on an escalator. Next level stuff, and peak us, really. Brief video of the escalator:

https://share.icloud.com/photos/05avgk0Ve2nGPL2xubvbx5xfg

T is not a confident cyclist (I definitely am), and it’s such a mark of how great she is that she went with this, despite it not being in her wheelhouse at all. But we had another great couple of hours in the city because of this, so it was well worth it! And Antwerp’s cycle lanes are divided from the road so it’s much safer than it would be in many places in the UK. Cycling is more efficient as a way of getting about, testified by my heart rate being lower when cycling than often when just standing about, let alone walking.

There are some lovely things to see in Antwerp, and this piece of public art near the main square is definitely one of them:

Coming back to the site, it was apparent that over the water there was an ‘event’ which was pretty much a full on euro-style rave. The basic pattern of the music was this: 30 seconds of a classic tune you knew… and then 3 minutes of bass heavy dutch techno riffs based on the classic. It was pretty funny, although I don’t think the other (older) people in the camp site appreciated it quite as much as we found it funny! Probably made worse by the weather being so hot, so it was really quite a party experience for the people over the way if no-one else.

So Antwerp is a great city, and I’d thoroughly recommend it if you want somewhere you can take your camper to but still be in the city. Next, it was on to Nieuwpoort, but via an absolutely HUGE camping shop that T had found in Ghent. So she drove to it, and we spent an hour looking at a place which had everything for camping in it, and bought a few things that were apparent from our second trip out. Nothing major, but certainly needed, like a table for outside (which was a lid for a footrest, so double duty) and a few other bits an pieces.

And here’s what hit me when I was in there. Shopping like this is now really difficult for me. I remember loving doing this with T in the past – we’d go to a place like this and be thinking about what we could get and plan to use it. But now…. even when I really try, it’s difficult not to think that I won’t be making much (if any) use of anything we buy. There’s so much stuff we could have thought about, and so many trips we could have planned… but they’re not to be. And while I’m better at dealing with that now, it’s still there, and even more so when it’s something where you’d be planning a future with it.

Then it was on to Nieuwpoort, which I’d planned to stay at because it halved the drive back, and we had planned a scenic, slow drive back on the coast road as we’d done this in the past. Nieuwpoort sea front is a bit bling, but we were a fair way from there. The camp site was massive (2000+ places to stay) and very efficient (number plate recognition to get you on site, I literally didn’t speak to any staff member at any point), and clean, but maybe a little soulless. But again, we got set up and while it was a little cooler, it was still nice. The evening had food trucks from off site so we had brazilian food for dinner rather than cooking which was good. T was dressed up and looked great – most people seem to give up when they are camping! Back to the camper, and final night sleeping in Belgium

The next day, drove along the coast road, and visited a couple of places on the coast – Bray-Dunes which was a pretty run-down coastal town with an amazing beach… and then onto Dunkirk. I’ve not been before, and we tried to find somewhere on the coast to park, which we did, but had to walk some way for lunch… via some pretty interesting sculpture/public art:

A giant octopus with a bird’s head on one tentacle, and others nesting in another. ChatGPT failed as my guide as it couldn’t help me with any info on it. But we did find a great place for a bit of lunch on the beach, and then back to the Channel Tunnel, and back to England.

At the start of this, I was thinking we (OK, I) would make 24 hours and need to come home. But at no point (even when I had a real low in Antwerp) did I think I needed to go home. I just needed to manage my food and water intake well, and make sure I kept on top of it. Throughout the entire time T has been supporting me, making sure we have everything we (OK, I) need for eating and drinking, and it’s been working for the most part.

We had a great time in Belgium, and got to use the camper – something that I never thought I would do when we bought it. We had an objectively good time, not just one that was good in context. We got home later than we thought, but other than that, it all ran like clockwork. A real boost to both of us, I think. Certainly one for me, to know that something I was really scared of doing a week before was not only possible, but enjoyable.

This post was written after the event… but dated for the day we came back; we left on the 28th April and got back on the 3rd May.