At last a day starts with blue sky and sunshine. We loop around town, first to dump some rubbish then to get fuel before heading out to the eastbound motorway. It’s busy but free flowing past Dunkirk, with lots of trucks and mostly industrial sprawl to look at.
Once we cross into Belgium the traffic thins out, the road is beautifully smooth and the scenery returns to the same as the flat Somme we saw yesterday. Near Bruges we stop in a rest area for lunch after which we only have 6 miles of motorway before turning north along the Jabekke straight where, in 1953 Jaguar demonstrated their new XK120 model at 120mph.
From Den Haan we start the unpleasant drive through urban Belgium, with traffic calming, tramlines traffic lights and unfamiliar filter lanes. Blankenberge is a long succession of tower blocks and traffic lights and even less attractive on a busy Friday afternoon than our Sunday here in 2016. At least Zeebrugge’s lifting bridge is down this time avoiding the 45 minute delay, and none too soon we reach the orderly calm of the Dutch border.
Flat fields, trees and traditional houses pass by and then we see the first windmill. Trees become sparser as we approach the Terneuzen tunnel. We plunge into the darkness and head downhill under the Westerschelde sea, level out, then climb to the surface 6.6km later. The toll is unchanged at €7.45
At 15:45 we reach the car park in Middelberg where there is plenty of space.
Ali and Grete walk into town for a recce so we can all visit tomorrow.
Breakfast in France, lunch in Belgium and dinner in the Netherlands. Travelling - love it!