Wallonia

Today is a very busy day. Its our first day with a car and the GPS lady does a marvelous job getting us about Belgium.

We visit two engineering marvels on the Belgium canals. The first near Strepy is a huge boat elevator. The Strep-Thieu boat lift lies on a branch of the Canal du Centre. It is a monstrous construction that lifts large canal barges 240 feet elevator style. The caisson are 120 meters long.

 

The second, the Ronquières Inclined Plane on the Brussels-Charleroi canal, is an incline plane which  raises and lowers barges along an incline railway. It is 4700 feet long, lifts barges 222 feet and eliminated 14 locks.

The day is completed with visits to two beautiful towns located on river gorges both having commanding citadel. Dinant was as picturesque as promised.

We arrived in Bouillon at dusk and its fortress is the most spectacular we've ever seen. Coupled with a dinner of ris de veau and three new local beers it was a very good touring day.