Today is Saturday and the penultimate day of our short visit to Belgium. We have counted our remaining euros to see whether we can afford to make an expedition from Brussels into Wallonia.

First, though, we went back to Café Muffin for the €1.80 breakfast plus extra croissant. We shall no doubt come back tomorrow as well.

Next we went to a group of ticket machines and waited for one to become free. The machines have touch screens and can be set to French, Flemish or (of course!) English.

Our proposed destination is Dinant. Two day return tickets cost €28. We reckoned we could afford that. In any case, these machines take only card payment so we did not use up any of our precious remaining euros.

The departures board showed platform 17 for the Dinant train so thither we went.

The platform was crowded but there was another train due before ours. Perhaps the crowds would all board that train.

They did! Phew!

Our joy was short-lived, however, as, after some minutes of confusion, a platform change was announced and we had to dash down one flight of steps and up another to platform 15. The train was ready to depart and we hurried aboard.

There are 12 stops to Dinant which is the terminus.

All went well until the train stopped short of Ottignies. We spent 26 minutes or so without moving. Eventually, we started up again and the train then travelled normally though arriving late at Dinant.

After Namur, we met the Meuse river and followed it into Dinant which is a long, thin town situated between the Meuse and the steep side of a valley.

On arrival at Dinant, the passengers all piled out and made for the station exit. They all ignored the footbridge and crossed the tracks by a foot crossing despite notices prohibiting the public from doing so! Photo by Tigger.

Opposite the station we spotted the Café Ardennais. We entered, took a seat and ordered two ice tea. We were served the now familiar Fuzetea. We decided to have lunch here as well.

“La douloureuse” aka the bill.

Then we went out into the streets. By now the temperature was 29-30 deg C. Where possible we walked in the shade, taking frequent “rests” in shops.

This panorama shows the river and beyond it, the citadel perched on the cliff and below it the Collegiate Church with its black tapered dome.

The obligatory statue of Charles de Gaulle.

There are pictures and models and art objects of saxophones everywhere because the instrument was invented here by one Adolphe Sax, though I’m not sure that that’s anything to boast about.

The Collegiate Church of Our Lady.

Seeing an Oxfam shop, we went inside. In the UK we are used to asking “Do you have any books in French?” but here that was not necessary. They had shelves and shelves of books in French. The problem was the impossibility of sorting through them all kin the time available. I ended up with a Maigret – lazy choice, I know. Photo by Tigger.

We made a pause in this pizza cum ice cream cum milkshake parlour to cool down and drink something cold. Photo by Tigger.

17th century Gate if St Martin, once part of the town fortifications.

Dinant is certainly a picturesque town, its appeal enhanced by the broad, calm river, the cliff crowned with the citadel and a background of greenery.

Having said that, there is not really very much here to detain the curious. You could go on a boat ride and take a tour of the church, I suppose, but that seemed hardly worthwhile. If endless representations of saxophones please you then you would find that an added point of interest but they began seriously to irritate me. It is as though the town is admitting that its sole claim to fame rests on the fact that the inventor of a charmless musical instrument lived here two hundred years ago.

We returned to the railway station in time to catch the 15:16 train to Brussels. The train was pleasantly cool after the uncomfortable heat of the streets.