We arrived in Belgium just in time for the first day of the
Tour de France

The route actually begins in Liege but we were unaware of the events until we rode right into the town of Serang  where we were diverted onto the course arriving in time to see the riders come up behind us across the bridge in Liege.

 

While this was a real highlight on our short 3 day trip across Belgium we could feel we were in a totally different country.  Squeezed between France and Holland, Belgium had a feel of it’s own. 

 

The weather turned cool, an early morning mist lay over the River Meuse
which seemed to stand still, a rather haunting feeling.

The houses seemed bigger, statelier, with huge mansions made of red brick.  Many however seemed to have fallen on hard times.

We rode on, coming into towns where some of churches had steeples that looked very Russian, the people speaking a sort of Flemish dialect.

It seemed very quite, subdued hardly a sole around.

Just before the town of Dinant  we crossed over the river as we saw a line of barges and a marina on the other side and…… it started to rain.

Over a great omelet and steaming cup of hot chocolate we talked with the harbormaster about the boats in the marina and checked out the ones for sale along the wall when the rain let up.

 

Dinant is huge old city  along the river with fortified castle on the hill. It is known for a famous sax player so the bridge is lined with dozens of enormous saxophones all individually painted in wild colors.   They were having a big jazz festival in July but we were a bit too early.

We noticed a lot of barges, many working barges here in the river, actually many more now that we are in Belgium.  They just barely fit through the locks

 

We camped just down the river from Dinant and woke to a beautiful sunny day, clear skies and ducks all over the trail in front of us and the river beyond just feet from our tent. I love the sound of all the birds and ducks in the AM while having my tea in the tent.

When the sun comes out  the whole day seems brighter and livelier. Stopping for a drink in the yard of one of the mansions put our heads in a whole new frame of mind.

 

Even the old working barges seemed to brighten our day.

  

We were  on the RAVeL or Belgium bike trails all day which were pretty straight, only a few short stints on the road and not much traffic.

 
The trail was great and well marked, except for a strange barricade over one of the bridges we could not get our bikes through.  That is until a lady came along pushed the gate open like a revolving door.
If we could just read the signs!!

We stopped at one place to talk to several boats. One I liked was a 16m Valk-Kruiser that was 24 years old built in 1988. I loved the big back deck .This is just so different than the barges yet we are starting to understand that an aft cabin boat might be just fine as we can still have that aft deck.
Is Belgium, with all it’s differences, introducing us to a whole new way of thinking?

 
Maybe I could even get a barge dog!!!

 
We met Wim and Lida on an old Linseen St. Joseph who are friends with the whole Linseen family  who we were informed build the BEST steel river cruisers at the Linseen Yacht factory in Holland.  It too had the back deck over the aft cabin. It is called a St. Joseph after the patron saint of carpenters.  Steve thinks, if we could just find an older one like these….perhaps?

 

Rode by lots of big homes and old farms mostly horse farms in Belgium.

 

 

 

In Namur we saw a  neat old house that turned out to be the Youth Hostel. Inside it was all modern and we got a chili for lunch there for 6E each. The cost of the hostel with a card is 28E a person.

 

But we prefer the camping on such beautiful days.   We arrived at the camp ground this day very tired after a 70km ride.  It was next to a nuclear power plant but it had nice green grass, a picnic table and strong hot showers for only 9E.  Funny how much we appreciate such simple pleasures.

We have no trouble sleeping at night after such a full day and
our dreams are very vivid.

We stop in the bigger towns and shop for food then have a picnic whenever our fuel gets low or there is something worth stopping for. 

 

Sometimes we pick up treats along the way then find a nice spot along the river for lunch and watch the river traffic go by.

But we have a mission to get to Holland and from here it is only 20km north
We  then take off on a rather straight bike trail, mountains now flattening out,
with the wind at our back….. away we go.  

In no time at all  there was the cutest little outdoor café with all bikers sitting in the sun and having drinks. We immediately sat among them and ordered two great salads. Bikers eat a lot of sea food….they eat anything they see!

It was here everyone was waiting for a little ferry to take us across the river to Holland where the River Meuse is now called the River Maas.

See you in Holland!  

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