Tour of the Belgian Ardennes
Hostellerie Des Tilleuls, Smuid
We arrived at the Hostellerie Des Tilleuls at 2:30 and encountered no problems on the way. All 10 cars managed to stay together although there were the usual moans that those at the back were having to do a 100 mph in order to catch up. Rubbish! I did a steady 70-75 all the way and Dennis and Pauline's little 1.6 Kallista had no problems keeping up!
The Hostellerie Des Tilleuls is a lovely old 14 room hotel that was originally a barn. It is run by a charming Dutch couple Naomi and Martijn Schut assisted by Naomi's mother (Agnes) and father ( Evert - "The Boss") and no doubt later by the Evie the 7 week old addition to the family.
Smuid is a tiny village in a heavily wooded part of the Ardennes and ideally placed to drive to all 4 corners of the region.
Traffic past the hotel was minimal and we had no worries about the security of the cars.
This is the attractive bar before 7pm. Liz, Sue, John and Malcolm have probably been there since we arrived back from our drive.
But at 7pm each evening this is what it looked like. We filled it and had one or three drinks before dinner. It didn't take the men long to decide which of the Belgian beers they preferred, whilst the women stuck to wine or gin and tonics. Liz was an exception, I think she tried them all!
Mealtimes in the very attractive restaurant tended to be very jolly times, with the humour of our Dutch hosts adding to the occasion. As you would expect from Dutch hosts there was absolutely no language problems. There was a two choice menu each evening, but if you didn't like what was on offer, they would cook you something else.
They're a well trained lot now. Without any prompting they now automatically sit next to someone different each night!
Beware of "The Boss" he has a way of persuading you to try vicious drinks. He starts you off gently with Poire Wilhelm and then says "that's all gone" and brings out the fire water. Prune and/or Strawberry he says, but it is absolutely clear and is more like anti-freeze!
Replete after your meal there was always the comfortable lounge to retire to.
Conveniently, several of the rooms had beams from the old barn structure passing through them. These were ideal for your wife to practise her pole dancing routines, as demonstrated by Mary.
Our three "tours" were of about 100 miles each and we liked nothing better than to sit outside with a few beers on our return. There was a "beer garden" at the back but we preferred to sit outside the front of the hotel.
Incidentally, Weckpot is Dutch for what we would call a Kilner jar.
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Our charming hosts Naomi and Martijn with Evie the new addition to their family.
The last night and Alec posed us all for the final group photo. "You lot at the front lean out and you lot at the back lean in" it worked.
If you are interested the hotel has a web site www.hostelleriedestilleuls.be. The Dutch family that own this hotel contributed so much to the success of the trip that we are only too happy to recommend their hotel and to give them a "plug"
And finally, look at these last two pictures and think hard, come to think of it look hard as well.................
.................would you go on a recce with this man............
...............I did and I still didn't cancel the trip!
Rendezvous Durbuy Bouillon Dinant
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