September 4 – Saturday: hazy in the morning – 13 degrees Celsius
We left Ghent and drove south. The plan was to drive south into France and then continue eastward through the French countryside to Luxembourg. Neither Jeff nor I had ever been to Luxembourg and we thought it would be fun to see what it looked like. We spoke to a young American last night in the restaurant, who looked like George on the Seinfeld TV show, and he said the French countryside north of Paris was beautiful.
The Belgian countryside is lovely with green and brown fields stretched out to the horizon. Cows and sheep dotted the meadows and small farm villages could be seen in the distance. We noticed that the signs were written in French as we approached the French border. We crossed uneventfully into France and would not have noticed that we were in a different country if it wasn’t for the small sign with the single word: “France” written on it surrounded by stars.
The French farmlands were similar to Belgium’s and we visually hunted for differences. Soon after we crossed the border, we saw a sign for our favorite French supermarche, Auchon. We loved the giant Auchon in La Seyne sur Mer last year which had every possible French gourmet food available. We stopped at this one to pick up some cheese and a baguette and cookies for a lunch pic-nic and continued east. It was too early to stop for the night in this town, so we drove on.
As the afternoon progressed, we decided that we didn’t want to continue through the farmlands because there were no towns large enough to have hotels, so we went back into Belgium. At about 4:30 we decided to drive to the town of Charlesroi to look for a hotel. It looked like a sizable town on the map. We entered the city and drove into the center and drove around the main area, but there were no hotels! We were very surprised because the city with the Auchon had several good-looking hotels.
We looked at the map and decided to continue north to the next city, Namur, Belgium. We could not believe it, but this city also lacked hotels! Actually, there were two hotels in the entire town, as verified by a local person who we asked for information. We went to the local Ibis and they were fully booked. We didn’t like the looks of the hotel across the street from the train station. It didn’t look very safe so we decided not to stay there.
There was an Internet cafe down the street and we went there to find hotels near Namur. There were none. The next large city was Liege, Belgium about an hour north, so we did a Google search on hotels in Liege. Fortunately, there were many hotels listed. Then we tried to book one for the night! Believe it or not we could not reserve any of the hotels in Liege. They all seemed to be fully booked. It seemed incomprehensible, so we jotted down the phone number of the Liege Holiday Inn which was advertised as having 217 rooms, and we called them. Yes, they were fully booked! We couldn’t understand what was happening in Liege to cause all the hotels to be full. Liege must be a happening place, we thought. I asked the receptionist at the Holiday Inn if she knew of another hotel which might have rooms and she recommended a “new hotel which just opened and was sure that they had rooms available.” She gave me their phone number and we called them.
It was now 7:30 in the evening and the sun was setting. We made a reservation at the HUSA De La Couronne in Liege and asked for directions to their hotel. The French-accented man at the other end of the phone said the hotel was across the street from the railroad station. He couldn’t give driving directions, but we should be able to find the station. We got the car and drove on the highway to Liege. The sun was setting as we continued on the road and the city was an hour away from Namur.
Of course, we got a bit lost in Liege because the road turned into a tunnel under the city, but we turned around and followed the signs for the TGV Train Station. Then we spotted the station! It was a brand new, ultra modern, well lighted very impressive building! We found a parking spot on the street. Jeff took photos of the station and then we went into the Couronne Hotel.
Despite the beautiful station, the street where the hotel was located can only be described as “seedy”. There were several bars with loud music coming out onto the street and several boarded-up shops. The entrance to the hotel was small and between two closed stores. If we weren’t desperate, if we hadn’t made a reservation, I think we would not have gone into the hotel.
Fortunately, past the street front, the small hotel lobby was clean and new and modern. The young man was very nice and helpful. Best of all, the hotel (and our room) was new, clean, modern and safe. It was 99 Euros for the night, not including breakfast! This was an outrageous amount for a small room across from a train station, but “beggars can’t be choosers” and it was better than the alternative of no room for the night! We slept safely and soundly but worried a bit about the rental car we left on the street.
We survived the “Traveler’s Nightmare” of no room for the night and perhaps learned a lesson. It’s difficult to strike the balance between careful travel planning and the freedom of not planning…..
