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!!