Au Revoir Brussels, Bonjour Strasbourg!

Just arrived in beautiful Strasbourg – almost in time for sunset

For the very last time, we returned to the empty house to go through the march-out process with the guy from The Firm whose job it is to make sure you haven’t inadvertently packed Government property or damaged the beautiful [sic] carpets and curtains.

Job done, it was time to pack the car with clothes, gin and cats and say what turned out to be a tearful farewell to Henri and Marina – our neighbours, landlords, and Belgian parents. They are what I will miss most about Belgium. And good chips. I’ll miss good chips. And beer. And chocolate. I’ll miss Henri, Marina, chips, beer and chocolate.

With the cats suspiciously quiet in their boxes, we pointed the car roughly south and started our five-day drive to our new home.

Our route will take us through Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and then across the land border into Turkey at Ipsala and down the west coast to Izmir. For the next five days the car is home and I can but hope that all four lives aboard make it safely to the other side without getting into a catfight, losing marbles, or filing for divorce.

It’s a weird feeling being in between homes. We don’t belong anywhere. Moving within the UK I don’t notice it so much; this transition from place to place and house to house. When the journey between homes is only a few hours, you are transient for a moment and there’s no time at all between leaving one place and belonging in another. This time, we don’t belong anywhere for almost a week and it’s curiously liberating. No bills, no commitments, no housework, no dinner to make, and nothing to do but drive kilometre after kilometre towards the next adventure.

Our stop tonight is Strasbourg. Aside from skiing, cycling the Champagne region, and a dodgy school day trip to Bologne when I was 12, I haven’t really seen much of France. France was the country we drove through from Germany on the way back to the UK, or viewed through the rain from the Euorstar on my weekly commute from London to Brussels.

As today was a late start after the house handover, the opportunity to stop for the night in Strasbourg seemed perfect, and I was very much surprised by this little gem of a place in the Alsace. I hadn’t thought I’d find myself in surroundings which reminded me so much of Germany. Strasbourg was like speaking German with a French accent. It’s so German… but it really isn’t.

I spent the first hour kicking myself that we hadn’t come here for a weekend from Brussels – 4 hours in the car is nothing and we would then have had more time to explore instead of having to make do with a walk around the town in the dark and a quick meal before heading back to the cats, whom we had abandoned in the hotel room as soon as we arrived (bad cat-parents) so we could go in search of beers.

It really is little wonder those MEP’s decant to Strasbourg for four days every month on expenses. It’s beautiful, and has ‘MEP’s on expenses’ prices to match.

After a supper of flammkuchen and weisse bier (see! Thoroughly German!), we headed back to the hotel to find both cats firmly ensconced under the beds and not talking to us. I was all for telling them that this was day 1 of 5 and they’d better get used to it, but Nige advised against it; placating them with treats and a promise to let them sleep on the bed.   Dangerous.

The sun goes down on Strasbourg. Day 1 done!

Day 1 Summary

Distance: 430km

Country Count: Belgium, France

Hours in the car: 4

Cat fights per hour: 2

Total fights per hour: 2