Deep in the forest a monster sleeps...

Hello again everyone - well, I left the last post with a bit of a cliffhanger: what were we seeking, deep in the forest of the Ardennes?

Can you make out what it is?

 



Yes, we had returned to this amazing place....

For the fabulous Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix!!!!!

We had been planning the trip since before last Christmas, with race tickets and accommodation booked the day before my birthday on 12th January.

The track was locked to the general public as this was the weekend before the race, but the real reason for our country walk was to follow a woodland trail that runs parallel to the track giving tempting, fleeting, evocative views of what many F1 fans count to be the best race track in the world...

Looking across to the legendary Eau Rouge section of the track...the
G force exerted onto the drivers at this point is greater than that experienced by astronauts at take-off - the cars are travelling at around 200 mph...

The pit straight...

Lorries with equipment and the cars themselves had already arrived...

FIA vital equipment, this lorry, we discovered later, was carrying the safety cars...

Team Lotus and Team Torro Rosso...

Love the Torro Rosso logo of the charging bull...

A HUGE cheer erupted from us all when we spotted the Ferrari lorries as the driver we support, Kimi Raikkonen, drives for this team...

We then walked into the village of Francorchamps which offers one of the entrances to the track...

Big hotel, this houses a lot of fans come race weekend...

Impressive new house...wonder who lives there...

Hotel de la Source, named after the first bend on the track...this is a place for VIP visitors...

Number 1 son had planned this walk for us, and all were in agreement that it was the ideal start to our European Motorsport Road Trip!

Walking back to the car, we excitedly discussed who we thought would be the winners and losers, who could cause an upset, the latest Formula 1 gossip - yes, our support of this sport is a real family affair. 

The hillside was just starting to show pink/purple hues from the emerging heather....

Beautiful view over to Stavelot and beyond...

Tired, but excited for what awaited us the following weekend we returned back to our chalet for a lovely dinner, cooked by DH.

Back soon hopefully with our visit to the castle of La Roche en Ardenne! Complete with condor!!

Helenxx

Bonjour Europe!

Hello everyone, and to those fellow bloggers in the UK, happy Bank Holiday weekend - spooky to think that the next Bank Holiday here will be Christmas Day!!

I have been away for a couple of weeks from Blogland as I was lucky enough to have 10 days with my family holidaying in Europe.  We set off in the middle of the night, and drove down to the ferry port in Dover.  After a bit of a wait at the port, we boarded the ferry at 6am and waved goodbye to the UK...

Farewell white cliffs of Dover...

Feeling excited as we cast away from the docks...

 Leaving the harbour...

the grey skies did not dampen our excitement...

Cheeky seagull hitched a ride, perhaps he wanted to swap chips for frites!

Sailing into the harbour at Dunkirk...

Once arriving in France we promptly set the sat nav for Belgium and headed for the village of Vielsalm, deep in the Ardennes.  It rained heavily on and off for the whole journey, but this did not bother us one bit - we were far too excited!

We stayed in a lakeside chalet, lovely views out of the window in the evening...

Next morning we discovered some geese had made their home on the lake, they were quite vocal...

A lot of fun was had feeding these guys, they could be quite intimidating at times though!

On Sunday we set out for a country walk, deep in the forests of the Ardennes...

The landscape is a working area too, with the forest carefully managed for logging purposes...

But it still remains blissfully tranquil...

We covered over 8 miles in total.  But although we were really enjoying these dream-like forest views, we were looking to catch a glimpse of something else...the excitement when we eventually spied, deep in the forest, what we were looking for cannot be described...

What do you think it was?  And why do you think we were in Belgium?

Back soon hopefully to explain!

Helenxx

woodland walk

Good evening everyone hope you had a lovely weekend.  A very busy one here. Yesterday late on in the afternoon we had an invite to dinner with relatives in London.  We got there in time and finally got home at 2 am this morning.

This afternoon we decided on a leisurely stroll to our local outwoods.  It was lovely. Still in summer mode...but subtle glimpses of autumn were there if you looked closely. I could almost smell autumn in the air.  So tantalising close, but not too close yet.  The fields are all ready to be harvested.  I am in the garden writing this and I can hear farming equipment in the distance.

Well back to work tomorrow for a week before the second part of my holiday.

Night night, Helenxx