Spring 2025 off to Portugal (again) week 1: Dodging rainy weather

Hello everyone. I hope you understand my writing this in English for friends and family who don’t know Dutch. We had some last minute repairs BEFORE our departure (there’s always something that goes wrong) but lucked out with gorgeous spring weather for our start (as usual) in Maastricht. Because of bad weather in the south of Europe (oddly enough) but not the north, we decided to hang around in Belgium and France for a while (I know, rough life.) At the recommendation of our camping neighbor, we visited the lovely Belgian city of Tongeren,  just a stone’s throw from Maastricht. (Look at old tower/port in J’s glasses).

Next we camped outside the little tiny town of Rochehaut, nestled in the steep hills of the Belgian Ardennes near Bouillon.  (Note to self: Check out La Roche next time). Photo is from popular and horribly touristy lookout point. 

We moved on to the huge but also very old city of Auxerre (France) and stayed along with other campers in a park across the river. If the Port de Plaisance view below  looks familiar, it’s because we’ve stayed there before! 

Blois was next as I wanted to revisit the city (when the shops were open, to be honest). We had also decided to head for the west coast of France where the weather was now dry. Again a lovely (and big)  old city with multiple cathedrals,  palaces and huge mansions built up above the Loire river. 

Finally, with the sun creeping repeatedly out from behind the clouds, we stayed in the middle of nowhere (six spots at a farmer’s) and bike rode into the again incredibly old but clean city of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast (Bay of Biscay). Maybe the protestanism for which La Rochelle established itself is responsible? Cleanliness is next to Godliness afterall (and I seem to have missed that lesson).Not the most exciting travel tale but — hey — we managed to dodge a lot of bad weather!