Distance: 109 km
Elevation: 781 m
Duration: 6:47 h
Weather: Sunny, but a bit windy from the headwind side, 18 C
Today was more exhausting than I had anticipated. Partially because of the length, over 100 km, partially because of the slight headwind, partially because of not finding a good place to have a lunch break and the food I had with me (quiche Lorraine … not being too apt as a cycling food (baguettes are much better!)), but I guess mainly because of the elevation. It makes such a difference to cycle 100+ km in the flat vs 100 km PLUS nearly 800 m of elevation. Probably I shouldn’t be surprised. Also road conditions and frequent deviations specially in the first part between Dinant and Namur did add to the overall strain.
This is why when I was at Wavre, just about to take a major descent, I had second thoughts and planned a new, slightly shorter route. Just 5 km less, but psychologically it made a difference to know that I had done at that moment what I could to make the day shorter.
After such an exhausting day, I was however compensated with my first 露天風呂 (rotenburo - outside hot water bath) of this trip. Something I am so missing compared to my cycling in Japan!
Getting to that tub in Waterloo though was also quite hellish. I had to cross all of Waterloo and the cycle road conditions were just bad. Either at constant risk to be run over by a car or truck, or on sidewalks doubling up as bicycle paths, or in the gutter with debris, or on phantom cycling paths, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing into the same nowhere.
No wonder that there aren’t many utilitarian cyclists around. Out in the countryside you see sportive cyclists (not as many as I would have thought for a country where cycling is THE national sport), but in a city like Waterloo there are far, far, far less cyclists than in a comparable city in Germany, and just no comparison at all to the Netherlands. And yes, Belgian cities are more hilly than Dutch (but not necessarily compared to German cities), but I also read somewhere that last year more revenue was generated in Belgium from the sale of electric bicycles than from non assisted ones. Where are they??? In Germany and the Netherlands you continually see electric bicycles swirling around (mostly with elderly couples on them or upper middle aged women going for shopping or younger women ferrying around children…), but not (so far) in Belgium.
For a start I road down the Maas (or Meuse known in French) until Namur. The river there is already quite large, but the valley it has carved is generally quite narrow, but not very winding.
Along the river there were also the first (?) pave section, and one that was proud of itself:
In Namur I had my second breakfast stop, right outside of a church, were some special service was going on for the Day of Wallonia, but I didn’t wait to see it finish.
Right after Namur a wonderful Ravel, one of these cycle roads in old train tracks started. They are such a comfortable way to cycle. I am tempted to start a petition to close more train lines :-)
At this windmill I had my lunch, but as said above quiche Lorraine is NOT good cycling food.
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