πCycle.net

Slight change of format so that we do not spend hours in internet cafes typing and you do not get too bored. Input speed is not helped by a really strange keyboard layout which means the letters are in the wrong place !

Had a really grim ride along the A20 to get to Dover docks. Cycle provision laughable. The red line we were meant to follow often disappeared. Got on boat with no baggage or passport checks at all. As soon as we got towards Belgium it started raining, and it rained intermittantly very hard for the next week putting us both a bit down.

Ypres was a very nice town which was totally flattened during WW1 and rebuilt as it was. Every day at 8pm they sound the last post at the Menin Gate in rememberance. We visited the Tyne Cot cemetary for 12k Allied soldiers and went past many more. Everyone in Belgium can speak English, unlike in France. There were lovely cycle paths which we got addicted to. Belgium is very short on campsites so we had a long ride to Brussels where we spent a well deserved rest day. The city is a fair size, so with that, frequent showers and a frustrating transport system we had a long day there. It got to the stage that as we were waiting for a tram they started digging up the tracks to thwart our travels. We visited the Atomium, a 165 billion times model of an iron atom, but it was closed for renovation.

For some reason we thought we could cover the route from Brussels to Luxembourg without buying a new map. Using a road atlas did not work ! We have a compass with us but a number of wrong turns occured – and not due to navigator error this time. We will never know where we stayed on Sun evening, but it had a campsite which is all that matters. We then started heading south and hit Hans-sur-Lesse, a town of tourist tat for over 100 years. We did the tourist thing and took the train to the underground caves full of stalagmites. It was compulsory to get your photo taken with a parrot on your shoulder on the train which was very odd. We decided to take the French tour; not the Dutch as they had a shorter queue. At the end of the ‘Hans experience’ an inexplicably large number of people were trying to spot their photos. 2 cyclists wearing fluorescent yellow waterproofs were very easy to see.

We then headed towards Luxembourg. The terrain has got a lot hillier and cycle paths have totally disappeared. In 30 miles of cycling we could not find one shop selling food so resorted to an evening meal made from ingredients bought from a petrol station. Where do Luxembourgians buy their food ? Luxembourg city is a very nice size you can easily walk around with some amazing cliffs and fortifications in the centre. It has not rained for 2 days now so our spirits are rising again. Tomorrow we head back to France again, and boulangeries.

We will attempt to download more photos soon but its all very time consuming – I’m thinking postcards are easier !