Friday, 18 July, 2010
Yippee, we seem to be getting into some sort of routine again and didn’t forget to take the camera this time. Rita and Theo did their utmost to show us as much of the surrounding area as they could and we started in Dinant with a visit to the caves. A very interesting character who had grown up in Belgian Congo a long time ago and since then had lived in many places and held many jobs was our guide and in a mixture of Flemish and French managed to tell us about stalagmites and –tites. The caves are extensive and on many levels so we had many steps to deal with, fortunately quite wide so Rita did not get claustrophobic.
One special one was this pair which didn’t meet in the middle due to a draft in the cave
After the caves it was off to the citadel, just in time to join the guided tour of this very impressive fort, life in the middle ages sure wasn’t easy for a soldier judging by the stories of the many battles and hardships they had to endure.
The church in front has some very fine examples of copper craft, a skill Dinant has been known for since the middle ages and they are very proud to let you know that the saxophone was invented here.
The tour made us really hungry and we found a very nice ‘brasserie’ serving excellent food and rolled out of there a good hour later, why we rolled you can see here
The next stop was at the abbey where Theo’s uncle had lived for many years, the only joint site of the catholic and orthodox faith, we visited his grave and both churches. After the visit we took the long way home along the river Lesse with fine forests and views.
