Gent to Eeklo

Today is Saturday. Not the best day to visit the headquarters of Tom Tom in Belgium we discovered. As we are on holiday we both have no clue as to what day it is so I can not blame Mr Fluffy entirely for this one. As you will see from the photos the Tom Tom HQ appears to be something of a work in progress. Just a tad of building work is going on in the general area so needless to say we were unsuccessful in our quest to rectify the sat nav disaster.

Look Carefully for Tom Tom HQ sign

'I'm sure this is Tom Tom HQ...no really'

We went on to the aire in Ghent which was hideous at best and likely a dogging spot at worst. There were a lot of truckers in the general area and it was about 10 miles from the attractive town centre. We decided to head on to Eeklo which is a lovely town and the aire has a reassuringly devilish statue at the entrance. There are statues all around us here and we are loving that it is free. Met a Dutch cat that travels everywhere with its owners who were extremely pleasant and explained the aire to us. The kitty litter tray in their teeny van was a bit of a put off for me but the cat was very sweet nonetheless. The parking area is right on the canal and we met a very chatty British chap who lives on his narrow boat and who regaled us with stories of his travels down the Rhine. Some of his experiences sounded quite hairy to say the least.

The Eeklo Devilish Aire Guardian

Walked in to town and dutifully visited the church of St Vincent where we were greeted by, what I can only describe as, a very sprightly Belgian version of Julie Walters playing Mrs Overall. Complete with dowagers' hump and with mop in hand, she happily offered us very tasty boiled sweets as we gazed at the altar, before she went whizzing off to the entrance of the church to grab us some guidebooks in English. Off she went again, back to her mopping, smiling and bowing as she went. A very unusual experience but a very pleasant one at the same time. Despite it being a relatively modern building (late 19^th century) it was extremely ornate and beautifully decorated inside – we highly recommend a visit.

 

Dickie complete with narrow boat man in the foreground

We are turning into a techno delight here as Mr Fluffy has worked out a way of sharing a wee fee hotspot with me and I can now listen to the tele (yes I am a tele addict) via my mobile phone with headphones so I don't disturb his non stop download of sat nav updates.

We've managed to control our waffle consumption thus far to nil but we are loving the Belgian bread and custard tarts. Hopefully our daily walks will burn off some of the calories.