Originally published on September 12, 2025
We left Cologne at 8 a.m. and headed toward Belgium. We thought we might stop in Namur, but once we reached the crowded city we realized we didn’t have a good game plan. Between the dense traffic and the lack of obvious parking spots, we pulled the plug on that plan and continued toward Dinant. The silver lining was that this kept us off the highway and gave us a scenic drive along the Meuse River.
Dinant is a dramatic little town squeezed between sheer cliffs and the river. The town is overlooked by a fortress-like citadel built in the 11th century and rebuilt by the Dutch in the 1800s. It’s also famous as the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.
We rolled into town and quickly discovered that there are basically just two one-way streets running in opposite directions. Thankfully, our hotel was easy to find. Of course, it was too early to check in, so we parked and headed to the city centre on foot. We found a boat tour just about to leave, bought tickets, and settled in with two other couples on a boat that probably held 100 people. The commentary cycled through four languages, so we just had to wait for the English portions.
It was a beautiful sunny day—until the last three minutes of the tour, when it started raining while the sun still blazed. Naturally, my brain queued up John Fogerty: “Have you ever seen the rain… coming down on a sunny day?”
Afterward we walked across the “Saxophone Bridge,” each instrument painted with a different design, and popped into the tourist info center to pick up a map of the saxophone art around town. Then it was finally time to check into our hotel.
Now for the bad news: laundry day. The truth about being gone for four weeks with only a carry-on bag is that you will need to do laundry a couple of times. If you’re lucky, your hotel will handle it; if not, you’ve got to schlep to alaundromat and decipher the machines. Fortunately, today it was just a five-minute walk, the machines were easy to figure out, and it only ate an hour of our day. No biggie.
