July 5 – The Adventures of Boucas and Tintin

Today we did a pivot from our plans we had for today. The museum we hoped to visit for Patrick is closed on Monday’s and was free today so made a quick switch.

For Patrick living in Germany as a young boy, The Adventures of Tintin were such an important part of his life. Tintin over here was very much like The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew in North America. When a new book came out you had to have it right away. While the stories and art work would largely be inappropriate today at the time they were the books to have and devour.

Today we had the opportunity to visit the Hergé Museum in Belgium dedicated to the author and illustrator of these books. Patrick was in his element remembering all the stories and enjoying the items associated with the Tintin books and remembering other series from Hergé (Jo and Zette & Jocko…a monkey stuffy he had as a young child but never realized it was a character from a Hergé series).

After leaving the museum we decided it was time to head towards Dunkirk but on the way we noticed these big shiny silver balls in Brussels so turned around to go investigate them. Turns out this is call Atomium. This is a landmark in Brussels that was originally constructed for Expo 58. Was very cool to see and if we had more time we would have definitely went in but we had to get back on the road to get up to the Dunkirk area.

Unfortunately, Esther did not read the tide table correctly and even though we were going anyway once we got to the beach at high tide instead of low tide so we could not see the sunken boats. But the beach was so very warm and the sand was like baby powder.

Back in the car we went to try to get to a war cemetery and monument. Got in to the parking lot only to realize it closes at 6:30. Looked down at the time…yup it just changed to 6:30. Got back to the gate and it was closed. After a second of worry they slowly started to open. Glad to not sleep there tonight!

Headed back to the beach for some french fries from a Friterie (fry truck type place) and then back to Lille for the night.

Since we did not get to Ypres and the Flanders Museum today, that will be tomorrow. Our last day in this region before heading to Germany.