Europe 2014: Leaving Brussels...

Today's distance: 74km (47 miles)

Off we went early in the morning from Marianne's castle into the unknown after we got our Bike Friday steeds packed and ready. Again, it was hard leaving such a great place with such great hospitality, but we couldn't come back to the US saying we decided not to do our planned bicycle trip...

Anyway, I powered up the trusty Garmin bike GPS to lead us on our way towards Ghent. We wanted to avoid going back through downtown Brussels during rush hour, so I had picked a route that went straight west through the more rural part. It seemed our Garmin had a more adventurous spirit than we had bargained for.... It immediately put us on a single track dirt trail through one of the farmer's fields. Yikes! After that we were treated to some of Belgium's best old cobble stone roads that would have done the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race proud, and then added some serious hills on top of it all! The good part is that we got to see some very interesting parts of Belgium via these remote "thoroughfares" that we otherwise would never would have! All part of our bicycling adventure. The GPS finally routed us on some decent paved roads and we were able to make some progress towards our planned destination.

We went through a little town in Liedekerke and stopped in a cafe for some lunch. We are now in the middle of Flanderen (Dutch speaking part of Belgium) so I am finally able to use my rusty mother tongue. Ordered Linda which I thought was a cheese sandwich, but ended up as a mixture of sour and cream cheese over bread, decorated with radishes. A pretty sight but probably not what she had in mind. I at least had butter ordered with it instead of "smout" which is Belgian lard. Still a feast that can quickly clog the arteries. Luckily we are doing some more biking before the day is done.

We do have to say that our GPS, now called "Eddie" (after Merckx fame) did a commendable job of keeping us on bicycle friendly roads, even if the bike of choice for that trail should have been one with fatter knobby tires and full suspension fame. Not a little foldable bike with lots of luggage strapped to it! However Eddie didn't quite anticipate all the construction and subsequent detours that we had to take. Once we followed the detour signs for the bicycles only to ride up a path that ended up on a train platform! The construction workers didn't say a thing watching us go up that trail, but we know must have busted their guts laughing afterwards. They saw us come back down and then were more cooperative in giving us the right directions to Ghent.

We finally rolled into Ghent around 4pm and had an adventure finding our hotel in the middle of downtown. Not as crazy as downtown Brussels, but close. Found a secure place for the bikes in their underground garage, got cleaned up, and explored downtown Ghent a little further before dark. We both liked it a lot and think it has a lot more to offer than either Brussels or Bruges as far as sightseeing. Definitely need to come back and spend more time here on a next trip!

Heading for Holland tomorrow!