Hasselt, Belgium

Day Twenty-One 110 miles 797ft

This is the fifth country we have been to in 7 days, but is it really a proper country?

Cycling through a Dutch town, I noticed that the car number plates on people’s drives changed from Dutch to Belgian – there was no fanfare- Welcome to Belgium. 

The Belgians were all very polite, but said sorry every time I asked them to move. In general everything is a little bit scruffy and requires a bit of TLC. 

Today dawned cool with clear blue sky and it was to stay that way making it the warmest day since leaving the Arctic! 

 Leaving the campsite just before 9 and cycling along the top of a dyke towards Doesburg I managed these great shots.  

 The route then took me through the famous Second World War towns of Arnhem and Nijmegen, known from the film “A Bridge Too Far” 

 This is the identical replacement at Armhem and below is a shot from the similar bridge at Nijmegen 

 As ever the cycling was flat, apart from the bridges, but progress to coffee was slow, as I had to go through both of these big towns, stopping and starting at all the lights and being prepared to race off with students and increasing numbers of Lycra clad middle aged chaps like me when the lights went green.  In addition getting caught at two level crossings which are also very common. 

 Continuing the WW2 theme this small roadside memorial told the story of a Lancaster shot down in February 1945 and how only the Australian tail gunner survived. He successfully campaigned to have this erected in memory of his lost comrades.  

 Passing through several more attractive Dutch towns and admiring some of their nice buildings. Nigel joined me for the last couple of miles, before a very late lunch and we struggled to keep up with a granny on her bike. It was only when I sped up and chatted with her that she said she had an electric bike-she was well chuffed anyway.   

As I said earlier, leaving this Dutch town, moving into Belgium happened unnoticed except for car number plates and unfinished pavements, otherwise much was the same.   

At this stage I fortunately found this cycle track after the Garmin broke again. This then kept me off the unreasonably busy roads for the final 20 miles, but crossing one was only achieved after more than 5 minutes when a kind driver stopped to let me across. 

The campsite tonight has a good selection of beers. We stay in Belgium, cycling all day again tomorrow, as the next rest day is not until Monday.