TdE - Day 41 Kortrijk - Gent

Route: Kortrijk - Oude Kwaremont - Paterberg - Koppenberg - Oudenaarde - Gent
Distance: 79 km 
Elevation: 296 m
Duration: 4:19 h
Weather: sunny and some clouds, more in the afternoon, 20 C

Well, so I have to admit that sometimes I am in delay with my “homework” and this is one of these posts. So instead of writing it actually on the evening after climbing the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg and the Koppenberg, I am writing this while sitting on the pavement close to the Saint Antoinusberg in Leuven, waiting for the men’s World Championship to pass for the second time. 

But back to this ride, which took me over some pretty iconic climbs in Flandern, all three of them cobbled climbs. 

The first, Oude Kwaremont was actually reusable for me (and my luggage), this one being at an average of 4% and a maximum of 11,6 % (on cobbles!). The other two where much steeper with an rebate of 11% or 12 % and a maximum gradient of over 20% both of them. Who invented such hills? And then paves them with cobbles???

But then I was also able to ride over the pictures of Fabio Cancellara, Tom Boonen and Johan Museeuw on the top of the Paterberg. 

I wasn’t always a cycling aficionado, when living in Spain I was definitely following football and not cycling, but since rediscovering my love for cycling (myself, not necessarily watching others doing it), I got more into cycling and since last year watched my fair share of cycling races (on TV). So it was special to ride up (or push up) MY bike on a climb I had seen several times in television already, seeing the curve at the top of Paterberg … or the other day, seeing the chapel on top of the Muur. Something like being able to play football in a proper stadium. Maybe not like playing football in the Camp Nou, that would probably bring riding up the Stelvio , but still…

The day however started in the flat along a canal out from Kortrijk to the Schelde river. 

And if I hadn’t actively chosen to see/ride those three iconic bergs, the ride from Kortrijk to Gent would have been pretty flat, just along canals and rivers. 

I also came through Oudenaarde, an other city with cycling races named after it. 

And the night I spent together with Roubaix in a apartment hotel in the center of Gent …

… and tried an other version of Kwaremont.

TdE - D38 Dinant - Waterloo

Route: Dinant - Namur - Wavre - Waterloo
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. 

TdE - Day 34 Kitzing - Luxembourg

Route: Kitzing - Schengen - Luxembourg 
Distance: 51 km
Elevation: 497 m
Duration: 3:23 h
Weather: Sun and clouds and for the Forest time a bit chilly, 19 C 

Today I crossed so many boarders! France to Germany only to leave Germany again after less than a kilometer and cross over a bridge into Luxemburg, nothing less than to Schengen. And later in the day crossing again into France, without really noticing it, until I came by the typical French “mairie” and “liberté, égalité, fraternité” signs so ubiquitous in France. But my path quickly turned back into Luxemburg. 

Around Schengen a lot of streets were kind of closed for some Rally by Skoda. Or so I thought. I just saw “Skoda” and “road closure due to race”, so I assumed it would be a car rally. But I was wrong, but pure change I had a break right along the route when the race came by. 

 

First a lot of cars with spare bikes, then more police, then the peloton of the Tour de Luxembourg… and finally a LOT more cars.

I had no idea that the Tour de Luxembourg was underway, and even less so that they would use parts of MY route! 

So I got to see my first bike race of the year swooping by me. And although I had a lunch stop underway I was at my hotel before they made it to their destination, so I could watch the last 16 km of the race live on GCN!

I continued on over the false flat landscape of Luxembourg. It’s true that once I had managed to push up the bike the steep incline close to Schengen, the rest of Luxembourg is relatively flat, but RELATIVELY flat only. From a Dutch perspective still quite a lot of up and downs. The landscape of the rest of Europe really puts the Dutch landscape into perspective. That kind of flatness is NOT normal. 

Close to Luxembourg city Komoot planned for me the cycle path on the left, but luckily on the other side of that small river was a well asphalted one, reserved for cyclists and pedestrians. 

And that’s how I came into the city and my basic Ibis hotel by the station, where Roubaix can sleep with me:

After a shower and washing my clothes I went by foot to explore the city. Somehow I had imagined Luxembourg as this fabulously rich country, where everything would be extremely posh and emanate wealth, but that isn’t really the case. It seems a pretty normal city, and I still wonder why it is a UNESCO world heritage site. Probably every country has a right to at least one UNESCO site and Luxembourg tried with it capital. 

What was nice though is the view from a bridge down into the deep valley that divides the city and has been planted to be a garden. 

Luxembourg, both the city, but also smaller villages all seems to be under construction. Everywhere construction workers, machinery, closed streets…the local tourist office of Luxembourg city was no exception. 

TdE - Day 30 Saint Hippolyte - Breuschwickersheim

Route: Saint Hippolyte - vineyards & old villages - Breuschwickersheim 
Distance: 69 km
Elevation: 464 m
Duration: 4:42 h
Weather: again very sunny and warm, although the air wasn’t THAT warm, 19 - 27 C 

Today I had quite a late start after a home made breakfast in my accommodation in Saint Hippolyte, which was in a house where probably nothing has been changed in the last 50 years and which was full of decorations and fauteuils, even in my bathroom there were 2! 

Then I went a little bit downhill until joining the EV5 cycle path which runs through the vineyards at the feet of the Vosges. 

Today again was a continuity of small (and not so small) villages with very colorful half timbered houses. Similar to these type of houses in Germany, but much more colorful. 

The villages also lie very pictorially in the landscape and as the bicycle path uses mainly viticultural paths, one often gets a nice view on the village before entering it. It feels a little bit like in the medieval ages when wine merchants were visiting the villages for their trade. I am just imagining that the speed of travel of a horse drawn cart and a bicycle (at least when I am riding) is probably quite similar…

Again all these small villages did flow one into another, similar houses, similar gates, some quite overrun by visitors (e.g. Obernai), some very quiet. 

The highlight today was probably the lunch place. The food was okay, but it was the location in Itterswiller that was outstanding, with the view over the entire Elsass. 

And a bit above the restaurant there is a Belvedere with a 360 degree view of the Elsass, the Vosges and the vineyards. And probably also the Alps, weather permitting.

The last few kilometers today were not in the vineyards but instead on a canal that was built specifically for transporting heavy stones to Strasbourg for constructing a fortress:

Tomorrow I have planned a specially short day. Late breakfast at 9:00 and then only 44 km to Lutzelbourg. 

The day concluded in a good restaurant in Breuschwickersheim with a “café au liégeois” celebrating the achievement to book a hotel close to Leuven (I.e. Liege) for the weekend of the UCI world championships. 

TdE - Day 29 Umkirch - Saint Hippolyte

Route: Umkirch - Breisach (New &Old) - Colmar - Route du vin - Saint Hippolyte 
Distance: 85 km
Elevation: 469 m
Duration: 5:26 h
Weather: generally sunny with some clouds, plus one major downpour in Colmar

Today I entered the last new country of this trip: France!

And this was probably the last time I see the Rhine before joining it again at home in Leiden. 

From here onwards I plan to follow EuroVelo 5 all the way to Brussels and then see from there how to get back to Leiden.

My first stop was Neuf Breisach, a fortified village constructed as the ideal garrison, and on the plan it is interesting and still totally maintains this form:

But in reality at least inside it looks like a very depressing, small town. Not very well maintained. What was impressive though were the fortifications:

My next stop was Colmar, a city that I already visited in the past. I had hoped for a bit less tourists due to Covid travel restrictions on non-Europeans, but no, the city was pretty packed with tourists. So I wonder how it looks like normally when also all the international tourists are there! But it looks nice:

One can already see in this picture that it was starting to rain. At that moment it was more like a drizzle, but as it became stronger I searched for a hiding spot and luckily found one under a roof in front of a Fnac. Not totally ideal, but it protected me from the ensuing downpour, that within minutes transformed the street in front of me into two, small, rivers. So I had a forced stop at Colmar for about 45 minutes, and not in the absolutely nicest place of town, but at least reasonably dry. 

After Collar I first encountered the cycle path that should bring me closer to home. Here it generally does NOT go through all the small villages but instead stays somewhere below them, so I had tweaked it to go through the villages. Tomorrow instead I plan to follow it a bit more strictly, also because tomorrow it actually does go through the main villages! 

All these villages now in my head kind of combine into one, with a city gate (often looking quite similar)…

… old, half timbered houses…

.. and often a main square:

But quite arbitrarily some of these villages (e.g. Riquewihr) we’re totally flooded with tourists, others such as Turckheim or Bergheim had hardly any (in comparison), but looked pretty similar ‘, except the absence of all the tourist shops.

TdE - Day 26 Heiligkreuztal - Hausen im Tal

Route: Heiligkreuztal - Sigmaringen - Donau - Hausen im Tal

Distance: 47 km
Elevation: 409 m
Duration: 2:49 h
Weather: very sunny and again a bit hotter, 13 - 30 C 

Looking at the stats it seems that it must have been an easy day, but with the heat in afternoon, the gravel which was sometimes very loose and the elevation, which was mainly continuous up and down, it wasn’t so easy as it looks on paper. 

But I hadn’t planned too much riding today anyway, so I was able to complete everything just as planned. Including an nearly 4 hour visit to Sigmaringen, a city I had never heard about but that seems to be very important for German history, as one of the Hohenzollern family parts had their main castle there:

The origins of the castle are medieval, but most of what one can see now, was build in the 19th century after a devastating fire. 

And although there were not THE Hohenzollern (I.e. the emperors of Germany), they sure wanted to impress everyone. 

I did an audio guide tour through the castle, because the official guided tour had left shortly before my arrival. I did run into them several times, but it sounded like the guide was essentially saying the same as the audio guide. 

After the visit, I had lunch on the main square of the town, then bought some birthday cards for my mother and Matteo , wore them, posted them and then around 14:30 departed again along the Danube, which is becoming an ever smaller river. 

Again the landscape is very nice. I am getting so spoiled. Not sure I will be able to cycle with the same joy through the Dutch polders when I am back…

TdE - Day 25 Ulm - Heiligkreuztal

Route: Ulm - Donau - Obermarchtal - Heiligkreuztal 

Distance: 84 km
Elevation: 465 m
Duration: 4:42 h
Weather: Sunny but a few high clouds, warm but not too hot, 8 - 28 C 

Today I departed again on my general way back to the Netherlands. Still following the Danube upstream. I started in the busy city of Ulm where I stayed the last two nights in a hotel close to the station (but thanks to a strike of the conductors it was very quiet) and ended my day in a Cistercian monastery in the country side. A VERY relaxing place. 

My room (top left) is in the old monastery one of the cells of the nuns. The room behind the opened door. They have simplified a bit the furnishing compared to how it looked like back in the days where here Cistercian nuns where living, but not much. 

Even to get to the communal dinner I had to walk along the closer to get to the refectory: 

An extremely relaxing place in the middle of some nice rolling landscape. 

And it wasn’t the only abbey today. My extended lunch break was at Obermarchtal and its abbey:

I first had lunch in a restaurant right outside of the abbey, and then went for a visit. I even had the chance to hear a part of a guided tour that came through while I was visiting the church. It was a guided tour for religion teachers that were there to have some training. 

Also the monastery where I am now is still very much used for religious purposes, although there are no more nuns. Now they hold seminars and they seem to be quite religious, judging from the conversations I overheard from some neighboring tables. But they also accept tourists (mainly cyclists and hikers). 

During the day there were some other nice churches on the way as well:

As well as some reasonably nice villages…

Again today I started quite early (shortly after 8:00) to enjoy the cold (and yes it is actually cold in the morning). This seems to be a tactic that works fine with this current heatwave.