We manage to sleep until 8am local time and actually wake up before the kids. After a cosy breakfast on the floor of the van we decide to make the most of our new location and enjoy a morning walk across the dunes. The kids love finding shells and spotting the ones with snails still living in them.

We find an old bunker and have a chat about how they were used in the war, Robert wasn't happy about the graffiti but kept heading for the sea.

If he could be in it he would but was satisfied by just putting his fingers in and getting back to the van so we can head off to Bruges in Belgium.

We meet a few dog walkers on the way back and the kids practise their best 'Bonjours'

I tell the kids we will visit a chocolate museum and as Robert's just been listening to Charlie and the chocolate factory on audio book this might not quite match his expectations since he's asking if there will be a chocolate fountain and magic sweets!

I watch the van out under the barrier again, not sure if it's more nerve racking in the daylight and as you can see it was tight.

45 mins later we're in Bruges and are impressed by the park and ride service. €6 for all day parking including a free bus ride. I did impress myself by asking for them all in French even though Al is quick to point out this part of Belgium don't speak French 🙄

We've done a few chocolate museums and this was very interactive and told the story of the history and production of chocolate really well with a separate audio guide for the kids.

At the end of the tour you get to taste four varieties of chocolate. Turns out it's unlimited so of course you can guess this is Robert's best thing of the day to write about.

Within 5 minutes the kids are complaining they feel sick and we go to watch the chocolate demonstration. They get given a free chocolate lolly 5 minutes later and suddenly the sickness has passed.

We had earlier on told the kids they had €60 each to spend throughout the holiday and so of course the first gift shop we come they want to buy all the junk 😝. I managed to convince them the chocolate teddy bear they both wanted was 4 days allowance so perhaps they could share and save more money for later since I know the moment we get home it will just join the ever growing pile of teddies that never get played with.

The next museum is dedicated to fries which were invented in Belgium. Wasn't quite sure what to expect but it was actually a really interesting mix of the history of the potato plus displays of old advertising. In the basement they cook their own fries so of course we had to try them. They were a big hit with the family (I'm not really a fries fan though).

Next we took a little mooch around the shops of course stopping for ice cream for Al and the kids along with finding a van sticker and bauble.

We had some time left and decided to go on a boat tour which was very pretty and gave us all a chance to rest our legs.

We tried to find something quintessentially Belgian for tea but we could tell the kids were just in need of feeding and they'd seen the golden arches of McDonalds so took the easy option. Al and I at least tried something from the menu you can't get in the UK.

Whilst on the hunt for food Al had managed to find a bottle shop and they had a seriously impressive selection of beers on offer. Al picked up a few including one called Westvleteren 12 which is considered to be one of the best beers in the world!

We jumped back on a bus, got the kids into their pj's and began the 2hr drive towards the Netherlands. Tonight is another freebie car park although we're first taken to the middle of a residential area as the sat nav says we've arrived. We arrive just as its starting the get dark, annoyingly it started raining