This is part of the fifteenth section of our around the world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map

Coming from Germany or read our previous visit to Belgium

27/4/09 Still enjoying the relax of having every street in Western Europe at our disposal, and an approximate arrival time, we took our time resting roadside at a couple of spots for lunch and a coffee. Our destination, just south of Brussels, at a friend's place, again one we haven't seen for ten years, another traveller. Ewan was first met in 1998 when he was riding an Indian Enfield back from India. A coincidental re-meeting on a busy London street, when he saw us slowly riding past he chased us down on foot, and again we later rode together, along with other friends through Hungary and Romania in 1999. Now married to a Flemish Belgian, and with one young child, he has settled down to a more normal lifestyle, teaching at an international school.

28/4/09 Ewan had asked if we would do a couple of presentations to his classes, and other interested students and teachers at his school. With about 1000 students and 60 nationalities, in itself it represented a good cross section of the world. A bit of adjustment to our recent presentation, to give it a more historical slant, (Ewan is a history teacher) and pitch it towards students, filled our morning, and two presentations later in the day filled the afternoon. A good bunch of mature students they asked plenty of questions, and we wondered if their wealthy, career oriented parents would have been happy with us filling their children's heads with ideas of endless travels.

29/4/09 A small child brings a certain discipline and time frame to a household with mornings starting early, 6.30 am, and work deadlines having the house empty by 7.30. Left to ourselves for the day we watched the movie Waterloo, a 1970's production, dated but still relevant, particularly as we were staying in the town of Waterloo, near to where that famous battle between Napoleon and Wellington finally brought down the former. A ride to the battlefields, the headquarters of both men still stand, a memorial hill overlooking the fighting grounds, and a museum. Only casually interested in the event we chose to look from the outside, noticing spring crops growing where the blood was spilt, life for the those remaining goes on, contemplating how little change it seems wars ultimately bring. Ewan is a beer connoisseur, putting down many beers for aging, as you can with the Belgian Monk beers, and tonight we shared a five year old Trappist Westvleteren, 10% alcohol content, heavy, flavourful and considered one of the best beers in Belgium, if not the world. It went down well with a chocolate raisin flavour, at least that is what we thought it tasted of.

30/4/09 Farewell again to another reunited friend we headed to Ypres. A different war, a different war cemetery, we visited the fallen from World War One, The Australian Fifth Division, well remembered in a lovely garden setting, now peaceful in a rural surrounding, the bomb destroyed woods regrown to mature trees. Ypres was a major battle ground and cemeteries dot its surrounding countryside, a constant reminder of the cost to wars, but although this war wasn't the war to end all wars, the Second World War brought a long stability for the world compared to previous centuries. Ypres itself is a picturesque historical town, destroyed in the war, rebuilt, its centre shows little of the destruction, with tourists visiting the enormous cloth hall, its belfry, and enjoying coffee in outdoor cafe's in the cobble stone square.  Afternoon we rode to Brugge, a place we visited last time in Europe, one of our favourite, although touristy towns. Its popularity seems to have doubled with the squares surrounded by restaurants spilling out towards the centre, the variety of famous chocolates, frites (chips) and waffles seemingly endless. Horse drawn open carriage rides were popular with Korean, Indian or locals, but by late evening most had left the square to a quieter place, the clocktower chiming on unperturbed.

1/5/09 Our first real backpacker's hostel in Europe for this trip and with breakfast included we were with more than twenty  travellers for breakfast, a chance to catch up with the other side of travelling that we enjoy, travellers, not just motorcyclists. Just one night on our own, leaving to visit Ghent, with its small May Day parade in full swing soon after we arrived. Another beautiful city of historical houses, churches and commercial buildings, restored, less touristed than Brugge but beautiful none the less. McDonald's  has a restaurant that juts into the square, a little out of character, and something we have been observing in Belgium, and to a lesser extent the other countries we have so far visited in Europe, the lack of public toilets. Even at McDonald's, there is a charge for the toilet, even if you have purchased something, similar at other restaurants, and something quite different from other regions of the world where toilets have always been free for customers, and public toilets readily available. Consequently we are seeing many men urinating at roadside rest stops, just on the grass, something we didn't expect in Europe, something more akin to India. Afternoon we met up with Chris, a Belgian we had ridden with during the Harley 100th anniversary in the USA in 2003, and rode with for a couple of weeks afterwards. He has travelled around Australia a couple of times and is planning another trip there next year. Chris, a few years younger than ourselves, lives with his parents, and a now adult Romanian orphan they have been supporting since the downfall of the Ceausescu regime, so with their full household we set up the tent in their back yard.

2/5/09 We have been overwhelmed by the hospitality and generosity of the people we have visited in Europe in the last few weeks of travelling. Each has almost adopted us as long friends or relatives, offering samples of the best eats at home or taking us to their favourite pub for a drink or coffee shop for a special eat. This variety of experiences we couldn't get as a tourist. Chris's mother laid out a lovely breakfast of cold meats, crusty bread rolls, sweet pastries and eggs for our breakfast after a long sleep in the tent, often a more relaxed place to ourselves than a room in a family home. The afternoon we rode with Chris to a couple of local Harley shops, through small villages, on our way to a roadside restaurant near Brussels, to meet up with another friend, Herbert. Herbert is a BMW rider, has ridden on all the world's continents, but seems to enjoy the Russian region the most, speaks the language, and is again off to that region in a couple of weeks time. Working for nine months of the year, collecting overtime and extra hours, he arranges to have three months off to travel each year. A demanding workload, but the time off seems to be worth it for him. We had a great dinner, a drink, discussed each other's travels, then Herbert was off to work, the last few days before his next trip.

3/5/09 We had missed visiting Maastricht, in the Netherlands, a few weeks ago as it had been raining as we passed by. Today, a Sunday, it was a good time for a visit, with people out relaxing in the springtime there was atmosphere in the city centre, so we nipped across the border early morning. Another lovely place, but we are already becoming used to the lovely old cities of this region, and their unique appeal is starting to fade. Back at Chris's place by mid afternoon his mother had prepared a meal for the family, a regular Sunday afternoon gathering. The three sons were there along with one grandchild, and ourselves. A dish of meatballs and stewed cherries, fresh bread and magnificent desserts awaited on the table. For us an unusual combination, the meatballs and stewed cherries, eaten together, but here a more normal meal. Some rum and honey liqueur and beer topped off the afternoon of good company.

4/5/09 Chris was off to work before we were out of our tent but his mum had prepared us breakfast and in sunshine we said goodbye and again headed for Brussels, spending the day in the city centre along with tourists groups from many nationalities on tours of the country's capital. By a strange occurrence back in the middle of the 18th century in England, when one of my ancestors, not able to read or write, registered his newborn son at the local parish, spelt his name incorrectly, Forwood instead of Forward. Since that date the name Forwood has stuck, and being original from that time, everyone in the world with that surname is descended from that mistake, and are related. It was the recognition of this mistake that brought my father and an American Forwood family together over 35 years ago, and keeping in touch, their daughter and husband are now stationed in Brussels, part of the US mission to NATO, and invited our visit. They are provided with a lovely home in a leafy suburb, and we were given the most palatial accommodation of our thirteen years of travel. Enormous bathroom, comfortable bedroom, separated by a cloak corridor. Bob is an avid salmon fisherman, and smokes his own catch, so for dinner we had smoked Alaskan red salmon entree, followed by barbecued salmon, shared with a couple of their friends and good conversation.

5/5/09 Bob's wife Barbara is an executive coach and often works from home, so we took a day off riding and enjoyed their lovely home, relaxing, reading in front of a log fire as it drizzled outside, a lifestyle we could come to enjoy, if it didn't mean working to afford.

6/5/09 With Bob and Barbara working in town for the day, and better weather, we went for a long walk around their suburb, marking our territory so to speak. Located in an upmarket suburb the shopping centre reflected the shopper's wealth, specialty shops, and one of interest was the pet shop and its variety of products. At times we feel, although we have been moving through the world, that the world has somehow left us behind. Every now and then we need to catch up with what it has been doing in areas we haven't been, and one area is western consumerism. The range of goods at this pet shop outvaried any shop we saw in Africa. Families without children, or families without grandchildren, or just people who like animals can now indulge them, pamper them, feed them, with every available comfort. In the evening we caught the metro with Bob to meet Barbara by the Galerie de la Reine, wandering along the Rue des Bouchers and ending up at Chez Leon restaurant for moules and frites (muscles and chips) for dinner. An old establishment restaurant it has been serving local and imported muscles for years, and now has a chain of restaurants, but this one is the original.

7/5/09 Early morning goodbye as we left Brussels and headed for Neuenhaus in the north west of Germany along the Netherlands border, so we travelled through the Netherlands for most of the day. We had been promised sunshine by the weather bureau but they failed to deliver it, a higher authority over ruling, we had cloud and cold. 350km's of slow moving traffic on the freeways. Despite the economic slowdown there are still an amazing number of trucks rolling their goods along. Limited to 80km's/hr, and not permitted to overtake each other, they stretch out in a long line. All a product of the improved roads and higher demand for consumer goods. Now that roads are better we can, and do, move further. Distance travelled is more dictated to by time than actual distance. Our parents, travelling for a day might have covered 300km's, a distance covered in three hours today, so we plan longer journeys. We live in larger houses, more building materials need to be trucked in, more furniture, more un-necessary items line the walls, more trucks and cars on the roads.

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