Cobblestones

A reader of this blog, Marianne, has wondered, what do these Belgium cobblestones look like?

I took some photos of coblestones today to answer that question. If you have been reading this blog, you may remember a few days ago when we were heading downhill and the asphalt pavement turned into cobblestones. It was all we could do to hold on tight and apply brakes to keep under control.

Below is on type of cobblestone used in the city streets. As you might guess, it would be easy to cause our skinny road bikes to bounce around, I could answer why we are riding road bikes with skinny tires in a separate blog.

 

The next style of coblestones is shown below. We encounter these more often in the rural paths and roads. As you might be able to see, the stones are more rounded on top and larger gaps between the stones. These are the style of stones that we had encountered during the downhill adventure that I had described. As the speeding bike careens down the hill, the bike is bouncing from cobblestone crown to cobblestone crown spending as much time in the air as in contact with the ground. When traveling in Belgium their expect the cobblestones. Belgium is famous for them and many other european countries have their share for them as well.

Please don't think that I'm complaining, it's part of the experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. If you are a skier, you might understand this better. Any good skiing days will include at least a couple good mogul bump runs. Good times are not found by staying on the groomed runs.

Happy Biking

Brian

Day 10

 It wouldn't be a Belgium blog if we didn't start off with some trail photos from the start of the ride. The first one is a gravel path that is surprisingly easy to ride on. 

The second photo is an asphalt path and it is showing how when you get a bunch of riders together, it's almost hypnotic watching the line of riders enter turns, lean into the turns then start the process again in the other direction.

It was a somber day as we cycled through where WWI battles had taken place more than 100 years ago (1914 through 1918). You may have read the famous poem; "In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

We had the opportunity to visit the Tyne Cot Cemetery which is a moving experience where almost 12,000 soldiers are buried.

Though the Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest WW1 cemetery, there are other cemeteries located in the area. The battle raged on for over 4 years and some soldiers had been repatriated to their home countries, but not all. This cemetery for the Canadians is located only a mile or so from Tyne Cot Cemetery.  It's so difficult to envision this beautiful land in a state of destruction and death over 105 years ago.

I can't publish this blog without talking about a moving experience that we had in Ypres after dinner. 

Each night, rain or shine, at 8 PM, a "Last Post" ceremony is held at the Menin Gate to honor the fallen.

Today's Photos

Brian

Day 9

 We have had such beautiful rides in Belgium. I haven't been keeping track, but a huge portion of our rides have been on secluded bike paths. The paths have varied from asphalt, to cobble stone, to packed gravel to dirt farm paths. All have been navigable with our stock road bikes and have been plotted with automated tools. It's amazing that the database that underpins these tools are so extensive.

Public art is plentiful and all you need to do is stop and enjoy it. Below is a bicycle piece commemorating a race from 1958.

We arrive in Ypres (A.K.A. Ieper) pretty early, about 1:30 PM and the photo below is Rick inspecting the town square.

Our hotel overlooks this beautiful building that houses the "In Flanders Fields Museum" that is dedicated to telling the story of the trench warfare of the Great War (WW I). The tour was about 90 minutes, but if we had additional time, I could have spent hours viewing all the exhibits.

Take a look at the following route recording. The elevation traveled is shown on the bottom of the chart. If you look closely, you will see a couple of flat sections. These are the part of the ride that followed the canal trails. 

Flat trails + tail winds = Happy Riders!!

Day 8

Today  there were two loop routes scheduled (meaning that we were staying in the same hotel for 2 nights), one longer, one shorter. However, we've been riding 7 days in a row and it was time to take a break, wash some clothes and relax a bit. After visiting a laundromat, I did some bike maintenance and a quick spin around town.

Let's see how these machines work..

Gorgeous buildings on the town square

Today's Photos

Happy Biking,

Brian

Day 7

Like to last couple of previous days, we started out under steel gray cloud with temperatures in the mid 50's or so. From the cycling standpoint, just about perfect weather.

We left La Louvière following the Canal du Centre. A wide canal with beautiful bike paths. 

As you may know, canals often have a series of locks that allow traffic to flow from one level for the canal to another. Years ago as I traveled along the Erie Canal in New York there would be a series of locks that would raise or lower as the canal would change.

Today we got a chance to see another way to raise and lower boats. In this case its the Strépy-Thieu Boat Lift. Instead of a series of smaller lock lifts, the boat lift make  a huge change in height in one big step.

From the photo below, it may be difficult to imagine, but this structure is capable of lifting or lowering 2 canal boats a total of 240 feet (up or down) in one motion. Quite an engineering feat!

The route of the rest of the day followed a variety of surfaces including; canal paths, roads, farm roads and cattle tracks.

Oh lets not forget about the wind.  As you can see by the route map below, the route was generally to the Northwest, often turning directly West. Unfortunately we had a very strong wind with gust up to 56 kph (35 mph). As we made our way, we would turn left into the wind and almost come to a standstill then turn right and get a crosswind followed by another turn to the left into the headwind. It became very tiring.

Also had the opportunity of experiencing the famous Belgium cobblestones as well. It wasn't the first time in this trip, but it was the most bone shaking and frankly the most terrifying part of the trip. 

Imagine, you are at the top of a hill. Late in the ride and just hoping to swoop down the final hill into the town for the night. But instead, as you roll down off the top of the hill, you are picking up speed and round a couple of turns, then suddenly the smooth asphalt is replaced with the famous Belgium cobblestones. All of a sudden, shouts ring out as a pleasurable downhill cruise turns into a balancing act as your skinny wheels are ricocheting off the tops of the crowns of the cobble stones and your hands begin to ache as you grab the break levers in order to slow this bucking carbon frame machine to a manageable speed. Luckily the cobblestone ends and the smooth asphalt returns. Soon the road flattens out and you make the last series of bike paths turns into the hotel for the night. As you dismount you're giggling with your biking buddies and think to yourself, what a great day to be alive.

Today's Photos

Happy Biking,

Brian

Day 6

 While on tour, we're always keeping our eyes out on the weather. Today the chance of rain was to be increasing in late morning and tapering off early in the afternoon. So we were all kinda anxious to be on the road early. The ride was to be 91 km so we wanted to be on our way by 8:30.

We were fortunate. The morning temperatures were cool, about 55 degrees or so and the sky was a blanket of high gray clouds, but the rain held off. We had to stop in the town of Genappe at this welcoming cafe called; Café de la Lanterne.  As you can see in the photo below, the cafe was in a very welcoming spot as we entered Genappe. It seemed as if we had wave after wave of riders stop here.

The high point of the day was a visit to Waterloo, the location of Napoleon's defeat. The following photo is the Lion's Mound which is visible from kilometers away. Its creation was ordered in 1020 and complete 1826 and for a fee you can climb to the top. We decided to pass on the opportunity, we still had more than 1/2 more of the ride to go and lunch was waiting for us.

Lunch was hosted at Eduard's home close to the half way point of the ride. Eduard, thank you for your wonderful hospitality.

Most of the ride to the evening's hotel was a long some beautiful rail to trail path. For folks that are not familiar with rails to trails, these are walking paths and bike paths that follow abandoned trail routes that have been converted to other uses.

As you can see in the photo below, the rail to trails are typically straight and fairly flat and tree lined. One of the benefits that we enjoyed today was how the trees blocked the wind as we were encountering strong headwind and side winds, but when we were on the trails, we were sheltered, which made our ride very enjoyable.

Today's Photos

Happy Biking

Brian

Day 5

After yesterday's cold rain everyone was a bit anxious about the ride today. The weather forecast was promising. As we departed the chateau, it was chill and overcast and some small places in the sky where hints of blue sky was starting to show. So with our yellow cycling jackets and hopes for good weather, we headed off.

After 18 km of quiet back roads we reached the Meuse River with broad and mostly smooth cycle paths. If you get the chance, click today's photos at the end of the blog to view some of the sights that we had along the way. 

To reach the lunch stop, it was necessary to make a series of long and moderate climbs up a series of switchbacks. The road angle was mostly 5 to 6 percent and at the very top closer to 8 percent. At the top we were surprised to find the Citadel of Namur. The Citadel has a long and rich history that you can read more about at this Wikipedea entry.

I was just in awe on the size and condition of the structure and that we having out lunch and snacks at the foot of this ancient facility. 

Following lunch, it was another 34 km to the ride finish in Colruyt, but not before we dropped down from a different route from the Citadel to the river Sambre for an additional 8 km. When we started this ride in Mechelen, the towns and roads had reminded me of riding in the Netherlands, but now the scenery has changed dramatically and it reminds me of the Danube as it flows through Vienna.  Quite a country of contrasts.

Today's photos

Happy Biking,

Brian

 

Day 4

The weather predictions for today was for 98% chance of rain starting at 9ish today, temperatures in the 50's and 60. The ride distance is 96 km.

Most of the riders decided to brave the elements and do the ride. There was a small group of us that looked out the windows and said, no way. Fortunately Belgium's rail network allowed us to cover almost the entire distance, save 9 km. Below is a photo of, from left to right, Michelle, Agnes and Sharon on the train with our bikes.

I would be less than honest, if I didn't say we were a bit smug when we saw the rain pouring while be warm and dry in the train cars.

The train got us to the town of Assesse at about 12:30 and we hopped on to our bikes and rode 10 km to our hotel in a light drizzle. The hotel, called Domaine de Ronchinne,  is spectacular as you can see in the following photos. If you ever wanted to spend a night in an authentic chateau, this is the place for you.

As the riders that actually braved the elements arrived, they had stories of the drenching rain, muddy roads and the cold weather. It was a really a long cold ride as evidenced by riding gear drying by the gas fireplace in the main room of our "cottage" on the estate.

The ride route below is pretty short since it only consisted of our short ride from Assesse to the chateau.

Today's Photo

Happy Biking

Brian

Day 3

 Woke up today with the threat of rain until about 3PM. No one likes to be out in the rain for possible hours and with a long and short loop rides scheduled, it was decided to create a shorter 35 km loop ride and delay the start to the afternoon and assess the conditions as the day progressed.

Eduard started to create the new short loop ride and I volunteered to convert his files (GPX) into a format (TCX) that contained the turn by turn directions that can be used by Garmin and RideWithGPS devices.

The later start also gave me a chance to obtain files necessary for the Garmin units to operate in Belgium.

We departed for our 35 km loop at 3 PM and left trying to dance between the rain drops of a light drizzle. The drizzle stopped pretty quickly and for the rest of the ride it was little to no rain. The temperature was moderate, between high 60's to low 70's, pretty good biking conditions.

Along the way, one of the riders got a flat, not unusual for rainy conditions. Look at the photo above.  You have 3 riders fixing the flat and a dozen of so riders just watching. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

The highlight of the trip was the "Cycling through water - Bokrijk". It's a ramp that bisects a lake with the top of the lake just a bit lower than the side edges of the ramp. It almost feels like Moses dividing the Red Sea. The ducks on the lake will come up to the edge of the Bokrijk and look you in the eyes. Don't forget to click on the photo link at the end of this blog to see additional photos.

  

We're very fortunate that even though we had an abbreviated ride today, Eduard was able to shows us this very interesting and unique local attraction.

Today's Photo Link:

Happy Biking

Brian

Day 2

 Day 1 was loop ride where we started in Mechelen and finished the ride back at the hotel that we started from. Today's ride is starting from Mechelen and traveling to Hasselt. One route of 92 km is being offered. The riding conditions were excellent. Overcast to keep the sun off our shoulders and the temperatures in the mid 50's to mid 60's. 

The ride routing was excellent as well. Many times throughout the day we found ourselves traveling on bike paths along the edges canals and rivers. The paths were reminiscent of paths that we have been on in the Netherlands 2018.

It's not uncommon to find surprises along the trails. Today we were surprised to find a huge steel set of stairs right on the bike trail reaching 11 meters (36 feet) overlooking fields. Its function is solely as a form of public art. This steel version was built to replace a wooden version that was difficult to maintain. 

As we got closer to our destination, Hasselt, we were often on the surface streets that had separated bike paths. Construction got us turned around once or twice, but with our GPS units, we were never off track for long.

Link to today's photos

Tomorrow is another day.

Happy Biking,

Brian

Day 1

The first ride of any tour is usually a chance to test out the equipment as the riders. As shown in the ride trace below, we started at our hotel in Mechelen and took a large clockwise loop. I'll be reporting distances in kilometers since in Europe distances are measured in SI units and not imperial units.

Belgium has been at the crossroads of various army marching across it's lands for centuries. I expect that we'll see evidence of these past struggles on our 2 week tour.

Today at the 30 km point we reached Fort Breendonk, a WWII concentration camp set inside a moat, preserved as an educational monument. A 90 minute tour was arranged. I don't have the words or background to write about the horrors that were inflicted on those prisoners that were confined and died here or in other similar camps that were used in WWII. 

The sights on the ride today were very reminiscent of the tour that Yan and Eduard arrange in 2018 in the Netherlands. Cycle paths everywhere, roads that have integrated bikes into the transportation infrastructure. I expect in future blog updates, I'll be taking about the infrastructure that that I can only envy.

At the 60 km point, we stopped in the town of Lier for an afternoon coffee and stopped at a cafe in the town square across from the above clockwise. Within minutes other riders from the tour entered the square and pretty soon we had a number of riders sipping coffee, beer and cokes before the push back to Mechelen.

Link to today's Photos

Happy Biking,

Brian

Day zero

 I'm calling entry as Day Zero since it's the day before the first day of riding. Some folks like myself arrived yesterday and other folks are arriving today. Folks that traveled from the US are trying to acclimate to the time zone difference. I spend a couple of hours napping in the early afternoon.

The rental bikes were being driven from Paris to Mechhelen, the town where we're spending three nights.  Once the bikes arrived, the riders converged on the hotel's meeting room to started to make any necessary bike adjustments. When renting bikes, we typically bring our own peddles that match our shoes, maybe seats and electronics such as lights and GPS units. 

Then its time to take the bikes out for a spin to make any further adjustments for comfortable riding. In my case, I needed to adjust the saddle tilt and height. I also adjusted the brakes and made sure the the shifting was correct.

Bikes awaiting final setup and adjustments

At 6 PM a ride briefing was held to discuss the upcoming 13 days for riding. Jan and Eduard gave us the lowdown. The following pages were distributed and mainly focused on the road conditions and safety items. Oh these Dutch guys are so well organized and prepared.

Page 1

  

Page 2

Tomorrow we'll have a choice of 2 loop rides (starting and ending in the same location). Both ride follow similar route. One ride is 41 mile and the other is slightly longer at 56 miles. Lunch will be supplied on route at about 19 miles. The plan is to be on the road by 9 AM. The first riding day is often a shake down ride with an easier route.

Before I wrap up today's blog, I have to talk about the hotel that we'll be spending 3 nights. The hotel is a former converted church (l'll have to find out more about it's previous life). The hotel is now a gorgeous full service facility. The sanctuary has be turned into a breathtaking dining area hosting both breakfast and dinner. Click on the photo link below. Pictures are more descriptive than words.

Today's Photos

Happy Biking,

Brian

I'm off

  Well the time has finally come. Finished packing this morning before heading to the airport. I always travel with a check list. But no matter how hard I try, I'm bound to forget something. Sitting here at that KLM gate, I think I have everything important. Checked my single large rolling duffel bag and passed thought security, so I haven't forgotten my passport or boarding pass. 

I have a backpack for my laptop and various charging devices. So far, so good. I have a rental bike waiting for me in Belgium but I still brought my own saddle, peddles, shoes, helmet, Garmin GPS and blinking lights. I just hope that my checked bag makes it to Europe with me. I've installed an electronic tracker (Tile) so that if it does get lost, at least I find out what country it's in.

That's all for now,

Brian

 

 Airport Arrival

The train from BRU to Mechelen is about 15 minutes and costs only about €15 or less depending on time of day. There are as many as 108 such trains per day running to Mechelen. The hotel is approx. 1.8 km (20 minute walk) from the train station. There is public transport but it still requires a short walk. Or you can take a taxi

Tour start and end dates

All riders need to gather in Mechelen on Saturday June 29. The ride starts in Mechelen June 30th and ends in Brussels / Diegem on July 12th. All routes will be within the country of Belgium. The last day we have a hotel in Diegem with shuttle service to the airport.