Friday, June 15, 2007

First full day and general thoughts





So European life is the shit. Especially for a cyclist. Our little town is awesome, our house lies about 150m from the bakery, butcher shop, and general store. That is really pretty much the town, oh and the church which is the center of town. As usual here in Belgium. I'm slowly meeting all the guys and just as quickly forgetting everyone's names. Oh well, more guys arriving in the next couple of days and more names to forget. C'est la vie. Got up today around 9am, decided to sleep in a bit to help my body out which was quite exhausted from the travel. Nice big brekkie and a cafe, then off for my ride. Decided about 2 hours where in order, so received directions to head to the church and follow the "white h" route which would be about 55km. I should probably explain that there are about 6 routes that leave from the center of most towns where you basically follow theses painted "H" with an arrow (h for Hertsberge) and they lead you on the awesome loops of different lengths. So I set off, armed with some Euros, ID, a pump and a rain vest as it was a little overcast. Never did rain. Roads here are incredible, very narrow (they claim 2 lanes but seriously, 1 car and a cyclist fills it to the max. Funny to watch cars come at each other. But roads are also not squares like home, nothing is straight, and no names for most, so without a map (which really wouldn't help much) you really need these little lettered arrows to not get lost. Basically they are painted on the road the whole loop, warn you of corners and and show you where to turn. Awesome ride anyways, little farm roads, bike paths, and almost no cars. Missed a few of the turns, but figured it out quickly when I wouldn't see any more "H"s for a while. Ended up that I ended up doing 3 hours and a bit (~75km) as apparently the white H route has 2 options, turn left on the cobbles for 55km, right for 75km. I went right. Woops. Oh well, nice ride anyways. Should have brought more waffles to eat I guess. Which happen to be awesome ride food by the way. Home, shower, eat, and now watching the Dauphine again, live in Flemish. Good stuff. Gonna have to jump in the next grocery run though to go pick up the stuff I forgot. Other than that, life is good here in Belgium, got some pics on my ride today, so I'll share those.

2 comments:

Echelon à Martinique said...

Beauty
Nice colours out for a ride.

Ken Clement said...

I'm really enjoying these blogs, keep them coming.
Ken (Florida Fitness Aylmer)