Get up early then wait, like any major ferry crossing. Because the UK is no longer part of the EU, the English Channel is an international border with passport control.

Fortunately, our ferry crossing on the English Channel was uneventful. The weather, sunny and lacking much wind, lent us smooth sailing.

We spotted the Cliffs of Dover, which are spectacular.

We saw Dover Castle from a distance and drove near it only to discover the price of entry was high and they would be closing soon. So we found the Cross-Channel Geopark along the cliffs and went for a walk.

The limestone here was chalky and full of chert inclusions. Studying shapes of the chert nodules, Clare thought that many might be parts of ammonite fossils. Here, the nodules were not round, as they were on the French side of the channel.

Because it was high tide, we did not descend to the beach but stayed on top of the cliffs. Joëlle and Clare enjoyed picking and eating black berries along the way.

After that hike and a light lunch, we drove to an Atlas Obscura site, where the first plane to cross the channel landed in 1909. The road to the landing spot was being cleared of tree branches, so we needed to walk along a pretty forest trail instead.

Joëlle took a picture of the rest of us on the landing site, which showed an outline of the plane for scale.

Next we drove to our place in Canterbury, where we stayed four nights.

Canterbury has canals navigable by some flat-bottom boats called punts. We saw this one on our way to the grocery store for the next few day’s food.

This day, we said goodbye to Belgium to spend just one night in Calais before embarking on the ferry to England the next morning.

We drove to Dunkirk, France, to see the museum that explained the Battle of Dunkirk, 1940, a battle lost by the French and British forces to the German forces. In many ways, this (Operation Dynamo) was the beginning of World War II. The huge loss of human life and military power was a devastating blow to the Allies.

We didn’t take many pictures in the museum, in part because it covered a lot of information that we learned last May.

Although we have photos of many of the towers on the sign in the city hall, we did not know that The Belfries of Belgium and France are a group of 56 historical buildings designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. The belfries serve as an architectural manifestation of emerging civic independence from feudal and religious influences in the former County of Flanders (present-day French Flanders area of France and Flanders region of Belgium) and neighbouring areas which once were possessions of the House of Burgundy (in present-day Wallonia of Belgium).

After arriving in Calais, we walked to the city hall, where there was an area with flowers and art celebrating the history of fashion design.

Calais had informative signs at specific landmarks; click on the photos of the signs to read the explanations.

Calais is known for street art.

We wandered around this abandoned fort near the harbor. Not much is left.

Giant, large and medium sized dragons are kept in a building here when not out for festivals and other celebrations. We learned about these from both Geocache and Atlas Obscura.

We woke to rain, so we’re happy to have a plan to drive to the coast.

We first drove to DeHaan and then to Oostende, the largest city on the coast of Belgium.

And a walk around the harbor, because too windy to go to the beach.

After lunch, the four geeks mission was to find a large, controversial sculpture on the beach.

We continued walking past the eyesore, artwork, to enjoy the coast.

Saturday morning, we took a guided boat trip on the canals. This time, the guide needed to tell his tales in all three languages, French, Dutch and English. Still, we saw views and heard good stories. We ducked under a few bridges.

Next we visited the Church of Our Lady.

The Madonna and Child was sculpted by Michelangelo in the early 16th century. Stolen by the Nazis during WWII, it was recovered by the allied Monuments Men.

The most visited place in Bruges is a brewery! Of course we followed the crowd.

One of the unique features of the brewery are underground pipes that send freshly brewed beer from the brewery to the bottling plant, over 3 km away.

Among the wedding gifts to Duke Philip in 1430, was a waffle iron, or so the legend goes. The light Belgian-style treats were delectable!

Photos by Marc and Joëlle from high up in the bell tower