TdE - Day 37 La Roche en Ardennes - Dinant

Route: La Roche en Ardennes - Marche en Famenne - Ciney - Leffe - Dinant
Distance: 78 km
Elevation: 830 m
Duration: 4:48 h
Weather: sun and clouds, 21 C 

On through the Ardennes! The day started with a downhill through the valley which was surprisingly wide, compared to the tight part at La Roche. 

But already at Hutton did I leave that valley and went for most of the day through an undulating plateau, with small villages and a lot of cows. 

Cows really accompany my ride since Luxembourg. While in Germany I hardly saw any cows outside on their pastures, in Luxembourg and Belgium (and obviously the Netherlands), that’s what cows do. What is surprising though is that some breeds are extremly muscular. Why? All I ever see them doing is to stand around on their grass and eat grass, or to lie in the grass and to ruminate. How can that produce so much muscles? Cows are worse than a couch potato! 

I even saw some bills that positively looked like pumped up bodybuilders, and what were they doing to get that body? Standing around and eating grass! 

On this undulating terrain a cycling race was going to happen but a bit too late for me. I just know, because I found a surprising number of people sitting in camping chairs at the side of the road all waiting for the race to arrive (in about 1hour).

My last major stop of the day was in Ciney in a “biker” bistro on the main square. What was surprising here, was that apparently it was totally okay to bring food from somewhere else. People around me at the tables had sushi or French Fries, all bought somewhere else. Strange habits! 

After all this high, undulating plain, I was surprised how much it went downward to get to Leffe, and then finally to Dinant. This last valley of the day was again very narrow, quite steep, and dark, but then emerges at Dinant, which isn’t by itself a wide valley, but the Maas (or Meuse as it is known in French) is already a mighty river. Even with some boats on it. More boats in 5 minutes in the Maas than in a week cycling along the Danube! 

My hotel was in a steep bank of the river in an ex-convent, now transformed into a museum (and hotel) of Leffe, the beer.