We take a day off today. We do nothing except relax in the comfortable atmosphere of our hosts’ lovely home. Mid-afternoon I leave John reading and working on the computer, and walk into town for the newspaper and some wine for dinner tonight. Yves and Marc have asked us to join them for dinner tonight and of course we have accepted. No restaurant food for us tonight!

The old city has few mid-week late season tourists in it and it is a lovely, sunlit stroll through the Vrijdagmarkt and Sint-Baafsplein. I have the Ipod on, listening to Cecilia Bartoli and blissfully wandering around the town for a few hours, retracing some of our earlier steps from June and discovering new areas of this lovely town.

It is full autumn here; the leaves of many of the trees are on the ground. We are averaging about 9° and layered for the cool dampness.

We have a conversation filled dinner followed by coffee and of course, Belgian chocolates before we climb the stairs and head for bed.