Lille (France) to Brussels (capital of Belgium) – 2 Days.

There is nothing not to like about cycling in Belgium – certainly not on my route so far – the good weather helped too – but if you enjoy cycling, wether its pootling about on an electric bike or hammering up the cobbles on a racer, there is someting for everyone.

Tiny little pretty villages with largely red bricked and red tiled houses linked together with nice quiet roads. Belgium is definitely more lumpy than the area of France I’ve just been in, and the roads more twisty and turny too but this makes it more interesting and there was only the top of one steep uphill that I didn’t successfully cycle to the top of.

I did one section of super straight, super flat, super smooth new tarmac – it was fantastic but would be incredibly boring if it was all like that.

In France and Belgium I’ve enjoyed seeing the murals –

In Belgium I’ve seen a couple of interesting woven structures at picnic areas –

Lille in France has to be the nicest city I have ever cycled in or out of – good network of cycle paths or lanes took me almost to my destination and the route took me through the lovely Parc de Citadel.

I can’t remember if I was in France or Belgium but I was grumped at by one old lycra clad cyclist – it was still early in the day; I’d stopped at the edge of the tow path to check my route; plenty of room on the path on my left hand side for anyone to get past me; grumpy cyclist, going in same direction as me takes it upon himself to cycle past me on my right hand side on the thin strip of grass between me and the canal and grumbles something at me on the way past – I’ve no idea how he didn’t land in the canal and kind of wish he had.

Road signs and a duck road block –

I’ve not met a lot of other tourers so far – Luke the retired Italian teacher from Belgium who was returning home after a fortnights touring in England on his electric bike – we parted company when he had to find a more direct route to Lille to find a cafe so he could get his bike charged up – he was impressed that I didn’t have an electric bike and based on struggling to gets things charged up at times I’m glad I didn’t have an electric bike – having to charge up a bike as well sounds like just an extra thing I don’t want to do – he did have lots of interesting stories about treking some of the Via Francigena with a donkey and also having to track down a donkey who escaped during the night because he didn’t like hills and headed back the way he had come.

I stopped and blethered to another lady cycled tourist who was just doing a “short” tour from her home in the Netherlands. We met again at the same campsite that evening and I’m glad she told me which of the 2 showers gave hot water and which one didn’t!

The campsite was a lovely basic one on a farm and cost me only £11.60 for the night, including a wee bottle of wine from the farm shop.

A wee bit chiller the next morning and I’ve got my jacket on – still wearing my sandals though and got ridiculous suntan marks to prove it.

Came to a slightly bigger town in Belgium, Geraardsbergen, with a good pull up to the town square but we make it – the next up from the square and out of the town is where I fail to get to the top – being over taken by serious racers and old buddies on electric bikes while I’m pushing Phil up the last wee bit – I def need to work on my hill fitness.

Later on I manage to cycle a longish uphill cobbled section – fairly flat cobbles I would have to admit but cobbles all the same – I do it in 3 stages – before doing the last section I wait for 3 proper cyclists to go past – 2 keep going and sail past – the shorter stalkier one is finding it harder work and stops just in front of me – I wait for him to head off again – I’m crap at hill starts and even worse with a loaded bike and an audience – I finally set off puffing and panting like nothing on earth but determined to get to the top without stopping again and miraculously manage to overtake the other cyclist – to say I was a happy bunny was an understatement – we all chatted for a bit and it turned out that they were over from England ticking off as much of the Tour of Flanders as they could.

There was another dog leg on the EV5 route into Brussels which I chose to ignore and followed the more direct green cycle signs that knocked off about 10 miles.

Spent the last day and a half sightseeing in Brussels – walked everywhere and that’s been harder work than the cycling and I’ve now got achy right calf. I could have used the trams to get to The Atomium but then I wouldn’t have seen the big Sunday Market and the ducks and the fabby lighthouse mural various other things on my way.