A day of exploration. Thursday 11th August - Ladeuze

 

“Vertrouwen” is not a tiny ship.  She’s a twenty-five metre long slab of ancient steel in the shape of a former Dutch working barge, yet had Andrew not “reported in” a few days ago we may well have slipped quietly by without noticing her, hidden in plain sight.

 

But he had, and we didn’t, and as a result last night we had one of those happy catch-ups that have become a regular feature of our travels of late.  As usual we couldn’t possibly swap four years worth of news in one night so it was pretty clear that we’d have to stay another day so that we could pick up from where we left off this morning.

Andrew has taken a year or two to travel the distance we have covered in the past week, so he’s had more than enough time to learn a thing or two about the history of the surrounding area.  When he kindly offered to show us some of his favourite bits from the comfort of his air-conditioned car, we of course thought it would be rude to decline.  The entire region seems to have a reason to celebrate giants and witches in no particular order, and confusingly even giant witches. Festivals are held regularly in many of the villages to commemorate these and stranger goings-on in former times. We seem to have lost some detail in our translation  of the historical connection to all of this (and the absence of the museum in Ath didn't help), but there seems to be a quite romantic portrayal of a mix of historical and fictional persona. Curiously no real mention made of the terribly grizzly consequences for those who were accused of dabbling in those arts, possibly because those particular kinds of barbecues were no fun at all for the attendees.

So with more questions than answers in hand, we moseyed up hill and down dale, through villages and farmland, learning a little more as we went, of geomancy and giants, of energy lines and witchcraft  and owls and black cats, stopping only for shrimp croquettes and Belgiums finest potato chips, and possibly the occasional refreshing fizzy drink to nicely round off our time together.