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.
Happy Biking,
Brian
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