Where has the last year gone? I know that we didn’t actually take delivery of Fawks in the UK until January, but he was delivered to Belgium a year ago. So it was time to go back and have the annual ‘habitation check’ and sort out a couple of little warrantee issues.

Although the weather is a little unpredictable at this time of year, we wanted to try and get a little bit more out of our trip than just the habitation check, so had once again arranged the campsite in Brugge to see the Christmas markets. Perhaps third time lucky? Then as a last minute impulse, also decided to squeeze in a couple of nights in Antwerp.

So, following on from a quick stopover in France in Hondeshoot as we normally do to stock up on some cheese and wine, we had a few nights in Werchter with Jurgen and the team who carried out the habitation check and work on Fawks before we headed over to a very cold and slightly snowy Antwerp for the weekend.

We had booked to stay at City Camping Antwerp (36.22 euros p/n) which over the winter is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. It is a pretty basic campsite without hard standing located in the high emissions zone on the opposite bank to Antwerp itself – but it worked perfectly for what we needed.

Although I had been to Antwerp about 25 years ago – and it had definetely changed since I was here last – Keith hadn’t ever been, so although two days isn’t a huge amount of time, it was enough to give a good taste to decide whether we wanted to plan to come back again. 

The campsite was pretty empty which surprised us, but probably due to the Christmas markets not opening until the following weekend. Thankfully there were plenty of pitches to choose from and it was dry and cold, as although we had been told the pitches were hardstanding – they werent. 

After parking up on what looked like the ‘least soggy’ pitch, we headed out to do a little recky to see what Antwep had to offer.

As the campsite is on the opposite bank of the river there were two options….. ferry or the tunnel – we opted for the tunnel (St Annas Tunnel) which was built in the 1930’s and is 572m long and 31.57m under the river with the most beautiful wooden escalators taking you down (and back up the other side) which reminded me of those that used to be in place for the London Underground in the 1980’s… rattling and moving all the way!

Antwerp is a beautiful city with a fantastic mixture of architecture, cafe’s and boutique shops and the bitter cold and winter light gave it an extra special Christmassy feel.. The freezing temperature – it was -3 plus the wind chill – however gave us many an excuse to pop into a cafe to get some shelter and enjoy a bit of Belgium hot chocolate and coffee, they do do them so well!

We woke on the Sunday morning to the most incredible sunrise. Unfortunately by the time I got back from my morning run , the pink sky had disappeared and quite quickly, it started to snow…. as if we needed an excuse to increase the number of pit stops as we explored Antwerp!

From Antwerp we headed to Brugge, where we had booked once again to stay at Camping Memling (25 euros inc.)….. this time we made it though and were really surprised as to how quiet it was bearing in mind the Christmas markets had already started.

Both Keith and I had been to Brugge before, although once again our last visit was 25-30 years ago so alot had changed unsurprisingly. So after lunch, despite it being a bit grey and drizzly, we set off into town to walk around the perimeter to find the four remaining windmills – there used to be 25 – and to work our way around the waterways to see what Brugge had to offer – apart from Chocolate and Beer that was!

Like Antwerp, Brugge is a wonderful city – albeit a small one – with some incredibly beautiful architecture. Each and every building is a different shape, size and has a different facade. Being a World Heritage site almost every building is impeccable too which makes it even more lovely to admire as you walk along the sides of the canals and explore.

We were only in Brugge for a couple of nights as with Antwerp, and although we weren’t only visiting for the Christmas market if we had been, we would have been disappointed as not only was it fairly small, the stalls they had which weren’t food and drink were just full of tatt… which was a shame.

We made up for it though with a fantastic meal at L.E.S.S, a wonderful restaurant that we had found through an American Express offer and although we probably wouldn’t ever go there and pay full price for the food, it is fair to say that it was exceptional…. and we got to eat moving seaweed which made our day!!

Despite being booked on the Shuttle to come back to the UK on 6th December, whilst in Antwerp we noticed water coming from above the windscreen on one side when we dropped the jacks down and had contacted Jurgen as we were concerned there was a leak. He had asked us to go back as soon as possible so they could have a look but we decided that instead of cancelling Brugge again, we would head back afterwards and delay the Shuttle.

So on Wednesday morning we headed back towards Werchter and after some investigation they resealed the marker lights as there was some condensation and we thought we were good to go again… until we dropped the jacks again on the Friday morning.

We moved the Shuttle once again and this time they pulled the front of Fawks apart to investigate further, resealed the marker lights again… just in case, turned the heating up to ‘Sauna’ level, as well as installing fans to help dry the area out…. a full on operation! As the area was so wet we decided to leave it to dry out over the weekend and test it on the Monday as we still couldn’t physically see any water coming in when the area was sprayed.

Monday morning came and the area was far dryer. Jurgen ordered replacement marker lights from Phoenix but by this point we were fairly confident that there wasnt any water ingress, it was just a build up of condensation which we would have to manage better. We have always been really good at having windows open both during the day and overnight, as well as additional ventillation whilst showering and cooking – however, along with the increased level of insulation on the Phoneix to the old motorhome and us not having the heating on very high, it obviously wasn’t enough.

Thankfully though there wasn’t a leak and no damage was caused – which is the most important thing. And we now know what we need to do to manage it better going forwards. Unfortunately though, it then took another four days to track down the replacement marker lights which had been ‘express delivered’…… sods law! Needless to say we arrived back into the UK 10 days later than planned, although looking on the bright side still 9 days earlier than last year when we travelled back on Christmas Day!!

Although I am not convinced it was worth staying the additional 10 days for, the delayed return meant that we did make it into Leuven to see their Christmas Market which was better than expected – may just go back if we end up here whilst it is on again next year!!

It has been a busy ten days since we have been back but we have managed to catch up with a few friends and family and as is our way, have a fantastic Christmas day Curry bonanza in the motorhome… what more do you want out of life?

On a food front, apart from switching away from the Electric Yoghurt maker and now using a Thermos flask – yes, a standard food thermos flask – to make our cultured yoghurt which not only doesn’t use electricity also takes up less space…. we have also found a couple of new delicious recipes to share

– Veggie Hotpot – a proper winter warmer
– Mushroom Rice with Smokey Chickpeas – The original recipe called it a Paella but I am not convinced the Spanish would take that well… although a lovely flavour combination, albeit we still need to work out how to get the chickpeas crunchy.

We are settled for a few weeks now, ready to start thinking about new adventures in 2024…. Happy New Year to one and all!

…. and just in case you are interested the route we took – albeit with a little bit of a detour covering the same ground when we went back to Werchter from Brugge….