Bruges -Maredsous Abbey - Dinant - Luxembourg

Today was always going to be a long drive..
So... there were two good things to start the day today : The sun was out and it was my turn at the front of the bus!

On Insight Tours they work a rotation of the seats, so that everyone moves 2 seats in a clockwise direction every day which is fair as it allows everyone to get closer to the front  or move towards the back.
On this tour, as a single person I was allocated my seat on the first day and I'm sitting next to a lovely Pharmacist from San Francisco, who originally comes from Thailand. So Anne and I got to sit in the front today and it was a good day to jag it with so much driving involved....

Bruges - Clervaux in Luxembourg

I've been a bit slack with my maps lately, but it's been really busy being on tour and last night the Internet was shocking... so hopefully it all improves from here.

The drive was a mixture of motorways, interspersed with the "Backroads of Belgium" which is what our tour is called,

My view from the bus today

Roadside coffee and comfort stop

Our first destination of the day was Maredsous Abbey which is a Benedictine Abbey. They are famous for their beer and cheese making. So we stopped there for some samples of both, which turned into an early lunch.
The beer and the cheese was lovely, but I was a little hesitant to indulge too much as I knew we still had  along journey on the bus ahead!!!

The actual Abbey was lovely and our tour guide was a former Principal of the boy's school which is a boarding school based on site...

Driveway

Monastery

He took us on a guided tour of the Chapel and the Monastery garden where he talked a lot about the peace to be found there.

Inside the Chapel

the Cloister

View of the Monastery from the garden

Many people were very impressed by all this, but to me, it looked a lot like Rosanna where I did my Novitiate.... in fact as soon as walked into the garden area, I immediately went back in mind to Rosanna and the similarities to the courtyard there. But I was saying nothing!!!!

But then came the important part with the beer tasting and the accompanying slice of cheese and a lovely cheese sandwich.

Mug of beer from Maredsous

So after all that we went for a drive through some windey roads to a lovely little town on the River Meuse called Dinant. It was a charming town and the sun was out and it just felt like a place where I would like to spend more time.
It's famous for a few things, but the most noticeable I think was it was the birthplace of Adolphe Sax who invented the Saxophone.

From wikipedia

Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s. He played the flute and clarinet. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. Wikipedia

Born: November 6, 1814, Dinant, Belgium  

 

Adolphe Sax and I

 The town was very conscious of this link and there were saxophones everywhere, especially on the main bridge across the river Meuse...

Saxophone on the bridge

The other thing for which it is famous is its stained glass windows in the Cathedral. Dinant was heavily bombed during both wars and the windows had to be rebuilt. The style very much reminded me of San Chapelle in Paris...

Explanation of the Window

The Great Window of the Virgin Mary

And I found a small altar to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, so I always light a candle when I find this, especially for my family as that was the name of our Parish in Wattle Park when we were growing up as kids.

Top left, blue candle is ours!!!

It was a very pretty town and with the sun out, it looked even better.

Dinant

Cathedral and Castle in the background.

One for my Irish friends!

So that was our big day of driving. Tonight we went out to a local restaurant where they boasted straight from the farmhouse to the table. And the food was just lovely... complete with unlimited wine!!!!

It's been a long day and tomorrow we start again by being on the bus at 8am....

It's a hard life if you don't weaken!!!!