Our city time is done – the rest of our travels will be spent exploring the countryside of Belgium from two small little villages. We have a taxi booked to take us to the airport, so that we can pick up our rental car.  Unfortunately the driver doesn’t really understand we want to go to the Rental Car center, which is adjacent to, but not right in the airport.  He drops us off in departures (even though we asked to go to the rental center which we saw on the drive in) meaning we have to navigate the entire airport to get around to the rental center – a good 15 minute walk away.  Morning exercise for sure, and a good way to recon our return trip when we stay the night before we leave for home.  But oh my! The people -it is a crazy busy day here at the Brussels airport!

Successfully navigating the masses (through the ride share pickup area – massively packed and crazy!), we pick up our car (oohhh, a Mercedes!) and off we go into the farmlands and country of Belgium.  Since we have plenty of time before our apartment is available in Yvoir, we head to the Citadelle de Namur, an important defensive location since the 3^rd Century at the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers.  The current structure dates back to the early 1600s, with defensive walls and a castle at the point of the rocky bulge over the rivers. 

Finding our way up the winding road that leads to the bastions and eventually discovering the narrow entrance into the visitor center parking lot (literally driving through a small door-like gate in a wall), we spend a marvelous hour or two wandering around the grounds. 

The views across the river are spectacular from this height – and the walking along and over the walls gives us quite a perspective on the monumental effort it must have taken to build this fortress.  There is also a substantial underground tunnel and gallery system that can be toured, but we are happy above ground watching the sheep used for eco-grazing on the steep slopes between the walls and enjoying the views.

Deciding to walk down to the city of Namur, through the citadel grounds, we find more wonderful 400-year-old buildings and more views.

At the very tip of the cliffs over the river, we found this more modern adornment – the 2003 statue “Searching for Utopia.”  A gigantic golden turtle being ridden by a human.  Weird.  But great for photos.

Arriving at “river-level” in town, we meander a bit, finding our way to the town square and the Bourse, where we also find a lovely little café for some fabulous cappuccino with whipped crema topping.  Coffee and dessert all in one.  Perfect.

Forgoing the steep climb back up to our car, we elect to take the cable car we watched from the citadel to the top of the mountain. While being quite practical, the cable car also has a storied past – in operation since 1957, the original system could carry up to 62 two-seater cars depending upon demand.  That system was closed in 1997 due to fears of a rock slide and replaced with this current, more modern system.  Not quite as frightening as the Feldis cable car, we still go fairly high up over the river and the embankments, giving us more lovely views of the city below.  We even ride directly over our car down below in the parking lot!

Safely alighting from the cable car, we walk back down to said car and then navigate the little narrow cobblestone lanes down the hillsides lined with the huge stone fortification walls. 

Finally back down on the ground level, we make a pit stop at Lidl for supplies, then head further south on little lanes and roads that basically follow the Meuse river all the way down to Yvoir, then make our way out to L’Ecrin du Bocq, the sweet apartment in the middle of farmland where we will be staying the next 3 nights. 

What an adorable place!  Up a set of winding wooden stairs is a lovely suite of 3 nicely equipped rooms and bathroom overlooking the farmland (with horses!!) all around us. And our sweet host has left us a jar of local honey from the village as a welcome gift.  So nice.  We will be so happy here, in the peaceful quiet of the countryside after all our city explorations.

After organizing a bit and starting our laundry (another huge bonus of this apartment), we set out to explore our new surroundings – driving through Crupet, with the old castle in the middle of the pond, scoping out the restaurant we are going to tomorrow, then hitting the Spar in Yvoir proper for additions to our dinner supplies.

Then we spend a lovely evening just relaxing and organizing and cooking at the apartment.  Nice decompression from city street wanderings.