Burges is one of the best preserved Medieval cities in Belgium.

The main plaza is surrounded by old and refurbished buildings with tall spires and towers.

We wandered with purpose this morning, looking for Geocaches. Marc’s hobby of Geocaching leads him and us to unique and unexpected places.

These blue banners with jellyfish interacting with humans in odd ways hung over the main street between our hotel and the great plaza. They kept us from getting lost.

From Atlas Obscura, we learned about a wind vane and its display that was important to mariners in older days. The round display on the wall indicates wind direction from the vane on the top of the building. It’s much easier to read than the wind vane itself.

The “g” in the city name is not pronounced like gentlemen, which is why in English, the city is spelled Ghent, sounding like the Holy Ghost, which is appropriate because there are a lot of churches in Gent.

The brothers are painters from The Netherlands, Hubert and John Van Eyck, who created a masterpiece known as the Gent Altarpiece (the adoration of the mystic lamb). We didn’t get to see that.

Scenes inside St. Nicholas Church

Nice view of the castle Gravensteen (castle of the counts), a moated medieval fortress

These lights would flash every time a child was born.

Marc and Joëlle brought us to a cave that Joëlle remembered visiting as a child, Grotte de Han. Part of a UNESCO Global Geopark, this cave was a short walk from our hotel and quite popular. Being back in Belgium, the tours were led in French or Dutch. We chose French, but the guide could answer questions in English.

The cave presented large caverns and wide passageways, easier to walk than in most caves we’ve visited. The cave formations were beautiful, not needing colored lights or silly stories to make them interesting.

Certainly one of the best caves we’ve visited.

Toward the end of the tour, we could see the boats that previous visitors used to tour, but that tradition was no longer possible. Insurance, you know. Joëlle missed that, as well as the train that used to bring visitors to the cave entrance.

Next we hopped onto a diesel tram to visit the zoo adjacent to the cave. The animals had a lot of space to live.

The views from this large animal preserve were pastoral. Many varieties of four legged herbivores dotted the grassy hills.

Hans Sur Lesse, where we slept one night and wandered this day, is a small but inviting town. The Lesse River is the one going through the cave.

Next we drove to Waterloo, to a museum about Napoleon’s last battle. Everyone, all the European Countries and the Russian Empire, were angry with Napoleon. His revolutionary ideas were OK for his home country of France, but his plan to unite the world was not popular.

The Waterloo Monument was built by Belgium, in honor of Prince William who was wounded in the battle. The Belgian people are proud of this. We all climbed to the top, but from there the lion statue was difficult to see. The lion was chosen as a symbol of courage.

The museum adjacent to the monument was well designed with abundant information. Many armies from many nations converged on this point to destroy Napoleon’s forces.

Napoleon was defeated by the British and other forces and, as a result, was forced to abdicate his command. He was exiled to St. Helena and died there in 1821.

That night, we stayed in Waterloo.

We left our cruise ship early to take a bus to Luxembourg, where our good friends picked us up to travel around for a few days and a few countries.

An astonishing capital city, because the topography is so steep. A large canyon forms a beautiful garden through the middle of the city. Many bridges cross this garden, and pedestrians can look down onto treetops.

So good to be with our friends. We have a lot in common, except country of origin! We wandered around the city and shared lunch.

Beautiful statues, gorgeous buildings, clean streets.

After we noticed people walking below the bridge, we decided to find it.

Marc’s brother François lives in Luxembourg, but we did not plan to see him on this trip (we met him in May at Marc’s daughter’s wedding). Also, Marc did not know where his brother’s new office was located.

An astonishing coincidence occurred. As we walked back to the car, Brian noticed a sign on a building that had our friend’s last name on it. Theirs is an uncommon name, so he asked Marc about the sign. It was Marc’s brother’s company! Then Marc’s sister-in-law walked up to us on the street! Marc’s brother also found us, and they invited us up to see their new office. Great fun!

After lunch, we drove to Vianden Castle, also in Luxembourg, a restored building now used for tours and events.

This castle was completely ruined, then recently restored. They found artifacts from many places to decorate, and tried to build it back to its former beauty.