Ever heard the story about the meteorologists who got the forecast wrong? Nah, never happened has it 😝🤣

Today it rained and rained and rained. Not 30% chance of 0.25 mm this hour, or that.

It rained.

We sat eating our breakfast at our wonderful overnight in Teuven, by the window. Maybe in the next 30 minutes or so it works stop.

Keep eating Sharron.

Joao our host is a super interesting guy with a history that is from Portugal, Mozambique, Malawi and Belgium.

He cooked two extra bread rolls for us for our lunch and have us a bag. So very kind.

Cyclists, this is a great stopover point. The Kings Head Inn, Teuven.

We left, it was raining.

The first part of our ride headed south easterly, then north easterly, despite our ultimate destination being South.

This route to Aachen was lovely, despite the weather.

Much of it followed an old rail line.

Dreilander, this is the official border of three countries. Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

We rode on and up as our climbing started. This part is on the road.

This was not. It was a messy section.

We were in Germany, for two reasons.

Firstly I had hoped to see Aachen Cathedral, built around 800 AD by Charlemagne. It has an amazing octagonal dome, structural wonderpiece with extraordinary history.

Charlemagne’s throne where Holy Emperors were crowned, his burial site plus Barbarossa’s chandelier from the 12th century.

Even without the current weather and route, you need a good many hours, and that we did not have.

We need to come back to Aachen.

Some of the sites we did see.

The cathedral is huge, and hard to photograph.

My lower body outside the cathedral. No one would let me in.

We liked Aachen. It flowed well, no crazy car traffic. Plenty of wet cobbles slowing us.

It actually stopped raining for about the 20 or so minutes we were in Aachen, one of only a few rain breaks for the day.

Curious statues and advertising.

Cyclists red carpet.

We were heading to the Vennbahn, a Belgian initiative. One of Europes longest rail trail cycle paths, 125 km in length. It veres into Germany and ends in Luxembourg.

We were doing 92 km of it today, ending in St Vith (on top of the 24 km already ridden, making today 116 km).

As a rail trail it inclines at around 2%

That climbing starts at 24 km, and did not stop until just past 60 km.

2% is easy. But 38 km in the rain and wind, with the loaded bike, does add up. It was slow going today. Slow and steady.

Lots of rail curios.

Plenty of signage.

Places to stop.

Signage of what else is around.

Other entertainment

Bridges you go under.

Bridges you cross. This was about our second rain break and I harboured hopes it might be lifting. I was wrong, but this was a super pretty area looking down over.

The path ahead.

There were a few of these, all closed.

This is like a weather vane. Spins around, makes a noise.

Someone bored with a welder.

Getting closer.

The arch walls of this bridge are used for rock climbing.

We made it to Sankt Vith. A town that was annihilated by Allied bombing Christmas Day 1944, killing over 120 residents remaining and 1,000 troops (presume German).

It’s a modern town now. We needed to clean our bikes, ourselves, our luggage and a well located fountain by our accommodation aided.

It was a very long and slow day. Our butts had had enough.

I have a cadence sensor on my bike. It calculates how many pedal revolutions I make per minute. I did the numbers, and I did 30,080 pedal revolutions!

That’s a lot!!

We had a great meal at an English named restaurant, with the menu in French, drinks menu in German. It cost more than our accommodation but it was nice and just what we needed.

In nice weather, this would be a fantastic route. It was a great route in wet weather, but even better in sunny. We could see beauty across the fields and valleys, but the rain made photographing it limiting.

I think it rained about 100 out of 116 km today. The temperature was between 10-12c. With wet legs, and wind you’d think they’d get cold. As long as you keep your upper body warm and dry, then those those 30,080 revolutions keep the leg muscles warm.

I had multi layers on. Core body shirt, jersey, gilet, jacket then rain jacket. Rain cap under my helmet to reduce drops.

My glasses fogged up with rain and body heat. Leave on, leave off…helps protect your eyes from objects flying through the air, bugs, stuff flicked up by cars or other cyclists though.

Enough nutrition for energy still not right. Need to keep at it.

Thanks for reading.

A new day.

Down to breakfast at 7 am, the place was deserted. Most food was out, but just no one to be sighted. I called out ‘Bonjour’ lots and in the end, we just started eating.

About 15 minutes later the wine supervisor from the previous evening arrived and all he said was ‘coffee’?

That was his only communication with us. No offer of omelette or pancakes (per the info on our table), no students, no one.

It was weird and for 25 euro each, could have expected more.

We decided to take four slices of their nice whole grain bread, add the Liege white honey and make sandwiches for our day.

Mr wine man would not know as he had his back to us.

Later in the day retelling the story to our next host, he said, “ah, the Wallonia French, some we call French Loonies. They think they are better than us.”

It was a cold start at about 9C and we rolled down the wet roads into the city. It had rained overnight but the day looked fairly clear for us.

A few photos of Namur as we crossed the river Meuse.

The first section following the river was lovely. The Meuse is a major European river, starting in France and ultimately flowing into the North Sea, via the Rhine.

Fairly typical pathway today. It did vary, and we also weaved through a few villages and towns and the big city of Liege.

There were barriers, mud, climbs up and over bridges, but overall a pretty good path.

We weaved around a lot as the river weaves, so sometimes we had tail winds, other head or cross, but wind was not an issue today.

It was cool though and we added more clothes as required.

This was interesting. The path took us into the town of Huy, with a citadel sitting high above the river.

We decided to deviate to a cycle cafe, maybe 50 metres off route that we noted on our bike computer. We were 40 km in, and would seek a warm drink.

A few photos as we rode into town.

I ordered two hot chocolates, no cream (slag). This is what we got.

Sitting at the cafe, looking up at the Fort behind the church.

The current fort was built in the 1800’s, but there has been one there since the 9th century.

The German’s housed prisoners there during WW2 before transporting to concentration camps.😓

There is a cable car option for getting to the Fort.

The path eventually ended up back along the river. It became heavily industrialised for a significant portion.

There was a massive nuclear power plant we went around, with the most incredible security. The various levels of fencing deterrents, signage every 25 m or so advising no photographs, the cameras just everywhere.

There were interesting villages and cliffs in parts.

Our constant companions.

A mixture of both.

Liege was to be our largest city of the day. I knew nothing much about out the city except for the famous one day monument bike race, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

What I know now, is not a lot more, but on the outskirts it has a heavily ethnic community. I went into a small shop to buy a bottle of drink and felt I’d walked into the wrong store. Five men sat around the small fridge and I felt quite intimidated and walked out.

We rode on and found a Lidl supermarket. I was the odd person out in a long queue, but had found drinks and some food items.

The trams run along this side of town which was super quiet. Eerily so. Grass grows between the tram tracks, and they mow it.

In the city, traffic was gridlocked. Just no one moved, backed up for long distances. We were not deviating to head to the more historic parts.

Photos as we made our way through.

Safely out of town, we noted this old Fort Navagne sign. The site of an old citadel.

Green grass fields now.

The latter part of the ride we crossed back into The Netherlands.We did 19 more Dutch km, and two registered climbs.

I was flagging energy wise by now, still not having my nutritional intake where it should be. I can still only eat smaller amounts without feeling nauseous. It’s improved heaps, but not enough for today’s 108 km energy requirements.

Me on one of the climbs.

Note the road markings. There are three lanes. One for cars, two for walkers/cyclists. The Dutch do it well.

Bit further one, the lanes are different colours. How do cars cope? They are patient and wait to cross and move on.

We pass through a few small Dutch villages.

Such a pretty area.

A Dutch flag flying high above a tall, spindly tree.

With 2 km remaining, we cross back into Belgium. One more small climb and we are in a small village, Teuven.

It has a decent sized church, a few cafes, pubs and our hotel.

The owner was outside doing some paving, and ushered us into the garage, where there were already guests bikes.

Apparently I booked the spa package? So we had the use of the spa room, so I did enjoy a nice spa, after a lovely meal next door.

Another 108 km done, 2500 km in total.

A confidence booster after the last few days. I just need to nail the food better.

We have a big few days coming up. Weather forecasts are somewhat contradictory but, what will be, will be.

Our route map, overall a NE trajectory but it’s going south quickly, as we enter the last 9 days and have to end up back in Switzerland, not even showing on this multi country map yet.

Today we left the Netherlands after nearly 1,000 km ridden in this wonderful country.

The weather, still trying to not let us go, headwinds and likely rain.

Tempting to stay!

Nevertheless we had our breakfast, put on our wet weather booties (go over our cycling shoes to keep our feet dryer and warmer).

Middelburg was a busy place today, after being quiet as a mouse last night. Soon we were following the canal to Vlissingen.

It was maybe 7 km or so and we were at the ferry terminal. It was about a 45 minute wait and we were on the ferry for about 20 minutes.

The bikes are well looked after. The bikes are tied to the rails.

The ferry is a catamaran and crossed the slightly rougher waters in the wind fairly smoothly.

We chatted with a group of Dutch friends, some living in Geneva. They had hired e-bikes to look around Breskens.

Soon we were on the road again, passing through villages including Groede.

We deviated around Sluis, riding along the old rampants, on a gravel path. It had been raining and I wondered what as going through Tony’s head. Gravel, rain, bikes = messier bikes. 😳😝

Soon we were back in town. Sluis was largely destroyed by Allied bombs near the end of WWII. The city ramparts, belfry and windmill make the town seem historic though.

Close to the North Sea coast, just a few km to the south is Belgium.

The skies opened again in the centre and we went into a small restaurant with covered outdoor seating close to our bikes.

We ordered a fruit smoothie and a ham and cheese pancake. It was huge!

We chillaxed here for a while, as today was short, relative to our usual days.

Sluis sights.

On the outskirts of town we headed out following the canal, there are a series of old fortifications. I walked through them. You need to use your imagination as to how they would have looked in their day.

Look, the sun has started to shine! Still a headwind but, the sun is shining and it’s not raining.

We ride across that bridge.

Within a short distance we are in Belgium. No signs and we are not certain exactly when we crossed, but the residents cars along the canal all have a B instead of NL.

So no teary farewells.

This was interesting. It is a little punt you can operate to cross the river. If it was not so windy with rain forecast, we’d have given it a go.

Scarecrows.

It started raining heavily as we approached Damme, a former major European port. Must have been a lot of land reclaimed since.

We take shelter and keep moving when the rain eases.

Some sites around the town. Lots of cobbles here. Not my favourite surface particularly when they are wet.

The bat cave.

We cut our ride short today by 10 km heading to our hotel on the outskirts of Bruge. I had routed 10 km wandering around the city.

Dark clouds were threatening and it was going to rain again. The wind had dried us quickly and we were keener to arrive dry. we took shelter under a building foyer as another downpour bucketed down.

Then the sun come out and we moved on.

We are at a bike hotel tonight. We were able to check in 90 minutes early too.

Wonderful bike storage and everything is themed bikes.

After an hour or so, the forecast showed no further rain.

We walked nearly 7 km into the centre and back.

Bruges is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000.

Of course, everyone knows that Matilda of Flanders was born here. Who? The wife of William the Conqueror (King William I).

The famous belfry.

The belfry of Bruges is from the 13th century. It houses a carillon of 47 bells.

We will likely come back into Bruges on Saturday on our way to Ghent.

Today was a short 51 km, but after yesterday’s headwinds, a reprieve of sorts.

It was a SW headwind again today but only into the lower 30’s kmh, and without the exposure of the bridges and causeways.

Tomorrow we have a longer day ride planned, can be tweaked if weather dictates.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner in the restaurant here. It’s nice to get a lift and find dinner vs going on the prowl, when I sing one of Willow’s songs ‘ we’re going on a bear hunt’ changing it to ‘food hunt’.

Today’s route. Thanks for reading ❣️🚴😁

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