Our stay in Flanders (northern France & Belgium) exposed us to a part of the world neither of us had experienced and yet was interlaced with the familiar. It is a largely agricultural area sprinkled with brick towns. It's a place of people carrying on with their everyday lives and there is not a castle on every hillside.
I feel now that I am getting into the rhythm of this long trip. For the first time in years I can sit over a coffee at a sidewalk cafe for hours without getting antsy. We are spending a lot of time just quietly observing little slices of life that present themselves to us; the ultimate reality TV. The days are blending together nicely, flowing sanguinly along. I am glad I have been keeping a daily log to contextualize our travels and to keep them all from melding into some ephemeral half forgotten dream.
We took a ferry across the English Channel to Dover and have explored Hastings and Brighton so far. The site of the battle of 1066 was amazing but the 14 mile uphill bike ride in heavy traffic not so much. My wonderful cousin Ali has been putting us up and putting up with us. It's nice to have social attachments again. Even so, I must say that, so far, Beth and I are getting along better than ever (she reads this you know).
Tomorrow off to Portsmouth for 2 days and our last glimpse of England. Then a 24 hour ferry to Santander Spain. We are thinking of renting a camper van there so that we can camp in the mountains and on the beaches.
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