Mack
Well-Known Member
Tour de Crap
My wife and daughter wanted to go on a city trip with her sister and mother, which meant I would spend a weekend alone and all by myself. And so the plan arose to take the Mustang for a roadtrip.
Last weekend, it happened.
I decided to visit a few places in France and Belgium that were not friendly for kids and where my wife would ask herself why I would have to make so many photos. On my own I could take all the photos I wanted, stroll around and take my time. Just me and the Mustang.
So on Saturday early morning I drove south towards France. After three hours I had driven through Belgium and into France. Another hour and a half later, I arrived at my first -and furthest- destination: the circuit of Reims-Gueux.
This old Formula 1 circuit from 1926 was closed in 1972 because of safety issues, but because it was a street circuit currently a public road runs where the home stretch once was. The pits and the old stands are still there and have been renovated a few years back.
Next, my trip took me on an old Route Nationale back to Belgium. These roads were France's main roads before highways existed (compare to Route 66). I was running way behind schedule already, but the fields of rapeseeds were looking so lovely I had to stop for photos.
Because I'm old-fashioned and traveling with a printed road book and without navigation or smarthpone, I of course got hopelessly lost. Once across the border in Belgium I got stuck in road work traffic jams.
I like old junk. Abandoned, crappy buildings without windows: what remains of past lives where people lived or worked in them, but now left behind. I
In the Netherlands we don't have much of these: in such a densily populated country old junk is torn down immediately to be replaced by something new. But in Belgium, especially in the Wallon area, there was plenty. This is the old industrial area, famous for its coal mines. But like Pennylvania: the area of coal mines have long passed and what remains is poverty, unemployed people and old abandoned industrial building. And that last thing: that is what I came for.
I visited multiple old coal mines and coal washing plants. People asked themselves why I was there, with a shiny blue Mustang. I just kept taking photos. One coal washing plant I had to visit: this looked so cool in the photos and if the Google Maps car could get there, then surely I could too?
But Belgium is the country of the crappy detours. I had to devert from my route and got lost instantly. At one time I apparently crossed border again and I was back in France. I was already running late, and after driving around for an hour I wanted to give up and go to my hotel. And then I passed it.
In the last light of the day I made the best photos.
At 9.30 PM I arrived at my hotel. First I needed to wash an inch of bugs from my bumper, only then I could get something to eat. It had been a long but satisfying day.
The next day started early, because I had even more places I wanted to visit than the day before. So on Sunday morning at 8:45 AM I was already eating breakfast next to a nice castle.
This day would be all about the different ship elevators that are in this area. In Thieu I saw the first one: Ascenseur de bateaux No. 4, built in 1917. These elevators, four in total, were built early 1900s to replace a large number of locks. Meanwhile they are world heritage sites.
There was no space to take photos of the elevator and the Mustang together, so I parked the Mustang and walked around for photos. When I got back, the workers from the elevator were standing next to the car and taking photos. They didn't speak English or Dutch, my French is very limited but we had a conversation about the Mustang anyway.
They told me there would be a boat in 45 minutes. I told them I would take some photos elsewhere first and I would return. When I got back, I walked towards the elevator as the boat approached as one of the workers saw me and directed me to follow him. He pointed me to a spot right next to the elevator so I had a first class view of the enormous machine. This area is offlimits to visitors normally. Afterwards, the guys took me to the machine room and gave me a tour of the building.
These are the benifits of driving a Mustang in Europe!
I continued to the enormous new ship elevator of Thieu-Strépy, which replaced the old elevators in 2002. Next I visited the old elevators No. 2 and No. 3., a mining complex and another castle.
Next I visited another highlight: the Sloping Lock of Ronquières. Here ships are transported on a mile-long stretch in giant 300ft waterfilled boxes on wheels to climb a height of 225 feet. It was built in 1968.
The next stop was the center of this industrial area: the city of Charleroi. This industrial city is home to what is called "the most depressing street in the world": the Route de Mons. In this street grey houses are next to rusty factories. The grafitti though was quite impressive.
After a unique visit to a cooling tower of an abandoned energy plant and an old cement factory the day was almost over and I had to drive back home. Sunday evening I arrived home after driving about 800 miles in two days.
My trusty Mustang, which hadn't been driven much in the past years, drove like a dream. It was a blast driving it through small French and Belgian towns and the response along the way was awesome. At one point, an old man literally stopped me in the street just to tell me he once had a Mustang too. He explained in French of course, so I got only half the story.
It was an awesome, awesome adventure. This is the reason I drive a Mustang.