At the end of my first day in Namur, I was tired, fed up and looking forward to a good, long night’s sleep. Only a few days left now until I’d be back on English soil. Hooruh!
“Would you like a glass of wine?” the 29 year old blonde asked. “I have a bottle in my car. I’ll have a cigarette, too, but I don’t suppose you smoke, do you?”
Oh, sweetie, you’re talking to the wrong person right now. I would love to join you in both activities.
We sat on the hostel balcony, overlooking the River Meuse and gradually made our way through Caroline’s bottle of wine. When that was done, we moved downstairs to the bar for more wine and a game of Scrabble. We hadn’t been playing for long when we realized it was French Scrabble. Not to be defeated, we continued with our attempts to lay down English words, but by eleven we were both tired and quite drunk so called it a night.
The plan for the next day was to be active. Caroline and I would go to the adventure park in Dinant, 30 km south of Namur. We’d climb rocks, swing on a pulley, and cross rope bridges.
“We only do something when we have a group of 15 or more people,” the girl at the center said. “If there’d been something set up, we could have added you, but we don’t have anything.”
Our plans were thwarted. Just as well because shortly afterwards the skies opened. We drove into Dinant center and found a cafe overlooking the river. It was around 1100 hours when we got there and two coffees, lunch, wine, and three hours later by the time we left. A break in the clouds gave us just enough time to visit the Citadel in Dinant.
DON’T BOTHER!
We paid 6,50 Euros and caught the cable car up to the top of the hill. There are also 480 steps, if you feel like some exercise. It’s a complete wrip-off. There’s nothing really to see and the tour guide who takes you around does not give an English translation. With all the money they’re raking in from tourists, the least they could do would be to upgrade their exhibits and give the dummies decent wigs. Even Caroline, who did get a Dutch translation thought it was a big load of pants.
