7. Jul, 2016

7. Jul, 2016

6. Jul, 2016

WEDNESDAY 06-07-16

Well what a dreadful night that was. The kids next door didn't finally stop making a noise with music, screaming and shouting until about 05:00 this morning. I have to take The Chef's word for that as by 03:00 I'd had enough and put some swimming ear plugs in which greatly reduced the noise. The only problem was having laid on one of them in the night I had to extract it from my ear with a pair of tweezers this morning.

Had this been in the UK I would have tried to sort the problem out, but we're not, we're visitors here and so I, uncharacteristically, put up with it.

Having scrubbed up I went over to the Reception Office to demand our money back for tonight's pitch fee, allowing us to move on this morning. But it was shut, and it remained shut.

We were undecided what to do but eventually decided to catch a bus in to Ghent as planned as we are so close, well about 16km, not the 6km as claimed, and it has cost us so much in site fees to be here.

The number 14 bus which we caught from just down the road took us to the railway station in Ghent, where we changed on to a tram to take us in to the city centre. All that for €3 each which wasn't bad.

What can I say about Ghent? It has a lot of interesting architecture, lots of trams, some canals, and oh so many of the same shop brands you'll find anywhere else on the planet. In all honesty we could have been anywhere. What was working against us was the fact that we were very tired having had so little sleep last night and the sun had come out which made it feel rather warm.

Lunch was at Pizza Hut of all places, mainly because we wanted somewhere to sit down for a while. We both ordered the buffet and the extra salad, that, and one bottle of water and a coke, plus a tip - €30. After enjoying eating it in the warm sunshine we felt full, and in need of a little siesta, but it was not to be. We carried on looking around for a while before finally throwing in the towel and making our way back 'home'.

On our return we were greeted with more noise and music, though not as loud as it was yesterday, but the day is young, and I'm confident we'll have the same problem again tonight. I think when the manager of the campsite told me yesterday it was a Youth Archery Club, I think what he meant was a Youth Activity Club. That would make more sense as to what is going on.

We have one of the worst pitches on the site for the noise as they are just over the hedge from us. I would without hesitation move to another pitch deeper in to the campsite, but the ground slopes, and further down the slope towards the small lake and glorified ditch, the grass is very soft. The vehicle is already sitting on our four wooden plywood boards to try and avoid us creating four dips which could be difficult to get out of when we leave. One idea is to wait until much later on and then move on to a bit of roadway near the bathroom block. That will mean we would be ready to just start the engine and escape whatever time of day or night we decide to do it.

As a payback I have gone on to a campsite review website and given this place a damning review.

We had some good news later this afternoon. I phoned the small campsite at Ypres and asked if they could take us for three nights starting tomorrow, and they can. If we turn up after 11:00 the pitch will have been vacated. I was so pleased. This holiday has been on a bit of a downward spiral, so now at least we will end it on a high note. I can take the video camera down to The Menin Gate Memorial service held every evening at 20:00hrs. We can also look at renting a couple of bikes for a ride through the WW1 battlefields again.

I've just come back from the campsite 'dump station' which I found earlier, just to check to see if it was clear yet, and no, it wasn't, some Muppet of a caravan owner has done the usual, filled their pitch up with caravan and awning and associated paraphernalia and having then run out of space, looked for somewhere else to park the car. Well the dump station still has the van with a towbar parked on it. How stupid can you get? So with no other option, I have now just dumped all of our grey water on to the grass where we're parked. That will help lighten the load for our hour's run to Ypres in the morning, or if it goes insane here during the night, to a Truckstop on a motorway enroute to Ypres.

The ducks have been back to be fed again, they know a soft touch when they see one.

6. Jul, 2016

6. Jul, 2016