Leaving Berlin we had a big driving day to get as far as we could. 

We dropped Angela at Spandau train station thanking her for being a great tour guide for a fun week and then headed onwards. 

It was the Reunification National Holiday. We saw celebrations at the old east to west Germany crossing point with people at the top of the old towers with German flags. 

We finished the day next to the Rhine at Dinslaken. There was a nature trail there for Glenn to check out birds. The next morning we went for Sunday breakfast at a German cafe costing us a tiny 13.60 euro for 2 scrambled eggs with ham and 2 coffees – a bargain – and very good too! The locals were all there having BIG breakfasts.

There was a huge power station nearby on the Rhine and we went to check it out.

A supply boat for the power station had to carefully inch its way into the very narrow channel made worse by the lack of water in the Rhine after the hot summer.

We had a sunny Sunday morning walk along the Rhine. There were deer in the field and a big buzzard circling overhead – just seen in this photo.

Then it was time to get going again. Our next destination was Waterloo in Belgium. We crossed over the Netherlands and arrived in Waterloo around 4pm. 

We went for a cycle around the 14km 1815 Remembrance trail taking us to the major points in the battlefield. 

We started near the large mound at the crossroads with 3 memorials where we the centre of Wellington’s troops would have been.

We cycled down many ancient sunken farm paths between farms and villages to the centre of the battlefield.

The village of Plancenoit was a large point of battle with hand to hand conflict and a lot of casualties. There were many memorials to soldiers who died.

We cycled on to where Napoleon spent his last night before the battle.

It’s now a museum about Napoleons last battle and showing how the soldiers lived.

We couldn’t see much from Napoleons last observation point – it was very overgrown. 

Hot air balloons came out in the sunny windless evening next to the Waterloo mound.

We had a good look at the mound but as we were so late didn’t have tickets to climb it.

We then moved on west to Ath also in Belgium where there is a good aire. The sunset was quite spectacular as we drove west.

There were only 4 other vans at Ath for the night so it felt deserted. 

The next morning was cold and misty.

We walked into the centre of Ath for coffee and muffin breakfast. Its an old Roman town.

We walked back along the river seeing some synchronized swimming ducks. 

We then emptied and filled in a deserted aire before moving on.

Then on again to France where we stopped in Hazebrouk to do a large clothes washing and buy some wine before crossing the channel tomorrow. We also found an interesting baguette and Glenn found a strawberry tart.

We spent the night in the aire at Cassel just south of Dunkirk. 

The aire is at the bottom of the big hill where the town of Cassel is on the top. We climbed up around 6.30pm to explore the town and have dinner. It’s another Roman gallo town so very old. At the very top of the town the viewpoints from the castle terrace were amazing.

The castle is gone but there is an old windmill, a statue and a memorial in a garden – probably also from the castle.

There was an incongruous modern house for sale. Great location but boring looking house.

We then went for dinner to celebrate our last night in Europe at the restaurant Cote Cour Cassel. It was the only restaurant open on a Monday night – but very glad we went there as the food was amazing. 

We had duck and chanterelles in pastry to start. Then I had pork with polenta chips, sweet potato mash, Glenn had an amazing turkey dush and then we shared a chocolate orange mousse with dark chocolate icecream dessert. It was very gourmet- and very delicious. 

The street was dark and empty when we left.

We then made it down the steep dark path down the hill. We had very good showers in the automated shower with entry using the code we received at the entry to the aire. It’s very automated here.