Kortrijk We had discovered/noticed that there's another Ribs 'n Beer in the Belgian town of Kortrijk (pronounced, as far as I can tell, Kort-ridge). I had a couple of Eurotunnel FlexiPlus tickets to use up so we thought we'd go and have a look.I also used the weekend as a photo experiment. Virtually all of the photos in this gallery were taken and edited with the Pro Camera application on my iPhone and are presented as they came out of the phone. (I'll point out any that were generated using other methods.)
Eurotunnel Friday - Despite the fact that not a drop of rain had fallen on the South of England for about six weeks, we drove through heavy rain for half of the journey to Folkestone!First go in the new Eurotunnel FlexiPlus lounge at Folkestone, which is essentially an exact copy of the one in Calais. Which is no bad thing as the one in Calais is really nice.This being the first day of the school summer holidays, there were a lot of noisy, excited children in there though! Doh!
First! Having stuffed our faces for half an hour in the FlexiPlus lounge, we were also first on the train. I'm really going to need to get some more of those for next year.
Ibis We had a pleasant drive (still in the rain!) to Kortijk, found the hotel easily enough and deposited my car in the massive underground car park next to the hotel.Time for a complimentary beer in the hotel's bar before heading out to explore.
Belfry Quite small for a Belgian Belfry.
Nata We popped in to a restaurant called Nata in the Grote Markt (the square in the middle of town), which Trip Advisor assured us would have good Flemmish Stew. They weren't wrong.This is a display inside the beautifully presented restaurant.
City Hall After dinner we went for a walk. It was still very overcast out, but at least it had stopped raining (just about).
Waterfront Lots of restaurants and bars along there.
Broeltorens Just along the waterfront is probably Kortijk's most famous landmark, the Broel Towers. The German Army blew up the bridge between the towers as they were retreating from the town at the end of WW1, severely damaging the towers. But they seem to have been repaired very nicely.
PIVAJ Also on the waterfront is the PIVAJ - Public Individual Voluntary Automatic Jail. You put a Euro in it and it locks you in for five minutes. Judith wouldn't demonstrate, even for a photo opportunity.Kortrijk is full of mad stuff like this.
Statue A statue on the bridge the German Army blew up. That's probably new then.
Bench The most uncomfortable bench in the world.
Bench Okay, the second most unconfortable. This is the most uncomfortable bench in the world.
Collegebrug This is a fabulous pedestrian and cycle bridge.
"When All The World Is A Hopeless Jumble" That's what this thing is called.
"When All The World Is A Hopeless Jumble" It's basically just a load of pedestrian barriers painted in a rainbow of colours.[This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Boat A massive boat pushing another massive boat. The pair of them must have been 200 feet long. I reckon that's harder to steer than it looks, and it looks hard.
Er? There are loads of these tall chairs all over the place, usually in groups of at least two, so that you can have a chat with a chum above the noisy crowds. If there were any noisy crowds, which there aren't.
Low Light This street was very poorly lit and presented an excellent challenge for the Low Light mode of my Pro Camera app. Considering the photo was taken handheld, I think it's done a pretty good job with that.
Doormat It's actually the doormat that's of interest here, not the door itself. It says "BEYOND THIS POINT INVISIBLE FORCES ARE AT PLAY". No idea what that means. Freemasons maybe?
Saint Martin Tower I don't think well illuminated buildings really present much of a challenge to a modern phone camera.
Saint Martin Tower
Belfry The Belfry in the dark.
Belfry Saturday - After an excellent breakfast in the hotel, we headed out to continue our sightseeing activities. The weather was very much improved.Here's the Belfry again in the sunshine.
Sint Maartenkerk
Sint Maartenkerk Inside Sint Maartenkerk.
Begijnhofpark The view of the Saint Martin Tower from the Begijnhofpark.
'T Plien Impressive foliage in 'T Plien, a 17th century army training ground, now a pretty and peaceful park.
Virgin of Flanders... ...and the Golden Spurs (although, confusingly, it's the Virgin that's golden, not the Golden Spurs, which aren't actually golden at all!). On the side of a massive battle in 1302.
St. Anthony's Church [This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
St. Anthony's Church
Hostel Whilst searching for an elisive cave (yes, a cave), we stumbled across this really nice looking youth hostel building. It looks like it's made out of rusty metal, but it's actually painted concrete.
Lourdes Cave A cave in the middle of town. However, I have a strong suspicion this is not a real cave.[This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Lourdes Cave [This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Shopping By this time it was about midday, we were in the heart of shopping district and not a single shop was open.Turned out it was Belgian Independence Day, which they apparently take quite seriously as every single shop was shut.
Beer Fortunately the bars and restaurants were open though, so we stopped for a rest in a bar in the Grote Markt.
City Hall. Again. City Hall in the sunshine. You could go in and have a look around the various rooms and chambers they have their meetings in.
Chair Judith in a giant armchair artwork. There was also a carousel that turns more slowly than normal to demonstrate the futility of time and space, or some garbage like that. I hate modern "art". At least you could sit on the massive chair.
Stables There was some more interactive stuff in these stables.Writing "Secret Garden" on the top of one of the tallest buildings in the area doesn't seem like a very good way to keep your garden secret.
Buda Beach Cafe This was probably our favourite spot in Kortrijk. The Buda Beach Cafe by the river next to the impressive Collegebrug bridge.
Bridge If this bridge has got a name, I can't find what it is. But it's the one I took the previous photo from.
Sculpture A sculpture of a woman half melted into the ground, oposite the Buda Beach Cafe. Weird.
Collegebrug I was really struggling to take a good photo of this brilliant bridge. This was about the best that I managed.
Carnival It was getting well hot out so we decided to retire to our nicely air conditioned hotel room for an hour to cool off. The carnival was really starting to get going in the square next to the hotel (under which my car was parked).[This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Broeltorens Out and about again we wandered past the Broeltorens.
Broeltorens Turns out you can go up the tower on the right.
Broeltorens It's not that high, but there's a nice view of the river from the top.
Ribs 'n Beer The main event and primary reason we were in Kortrijk in the first place - Ribs 'n Beer. Let the feasting commence!
Ribs 'n Beer Judith with her first rack. Awesome.
Queue de Charrue Nice.
Bikes After stuffing ourselves with ribs and beer, we went for a walk. Outside the railway station there were a very lot of bikes.
Sunset
Broeltorens
Riverside Still plenty of activity around here. There were even some people trying out the pay-as-you-go jail.
Carnival Shortly before midnight, the Carnival, which the hotel had assured us would be finished by "11pm, midnight at the latest", morphed into a full-on rave that went on until 2:30am! As the police didn't turn up I assume it was approved and expected. I was quite enjoying the music, but could have done with it to finish a little earlier.
Atlantic Wall Museum Sunday - Thanks to the rave, we got up quite late and had another nice breakfast in the hotel before heading for the Atlantic Wall Museum near Ostend.It's basically a small part of the German coastal defences that once stretched for 5,300km (over 3,000 miles) from the North Cape of Norway to the Pyrenees. Almost all of the Atlantic Wall has been destroyed over the years, but this bit has been extremely well preserved.
Atlantic Wall Museum
Atlantic Wall Museum Nice view of the beach. Handy when you're trying to kill the people running up it.
Atlantic Wall Museum Judith in the maze of tunnels that connect the bunkers.
Atlantic Wall Museum [This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Atlantic Wall Museum A selection of the obstacles scattered on the beaches to destroy approaching landing craft.
Atlantic Wall Museum This gun emplacement is particularly interesting as it was hurriedly built a few weeks after D-Day, so it's a) made of bricks rather than reinforced concrete, and b) facing inland. Everything else here faces the sea.[This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]
Eurotunnel Anyway, having thoroughly scorchio-ed ourselves at the Atlantic Wall Museum it was time for a leisurely cross-country drive back to Calais to catch the train back to the UK.New Ribs 'n Beer was excellent and Kortrijk turned out to be unexpectedly brilliant too. We'll definitely be going back there again.[This was taken with the Panorama setting of my phone's default Camera app.]