Namur, Belgium to Brussels, Belgium
If the last 2 days felt like Missouri, then today I hit the Kansas part of Belgium. The terrain flattened out significantly making the ride enjoyable from start to finish. I ended the day in Brussels, where I will be taking a few days off to do some sightseeing.
I wasn’t in a huge rush this morning because I knew I was in for a much easier ride today. Check in at the hostel in Brussels did not start until 3:00 PM so as long as I was on the road around 9:00 AM I would be in great shape. I started the day with the free breakfast at the hostel. Most of the hostels have had the same spread of cereal, yogurt, fruit, bread, ham, cheese, juice and cappuccino. It’s nice when it’s a buffet because I usually get seconds and can take a piece of fruit or make a small sandwich to take with me on the road.
I was on my bike right around 9:00 AM as planned but lost a good amount of time trying to get out of Namur. The bike path was blocked by construction and I was thrown off the river path and into the center of the city. This was much harder to navigate and caused me to make a few wrong turns. I ended up crossing a bridge only to realize the bike path was now under me and I had no idea how to get to it. I eventually figured it out but was a little frustrated to start the day.
Once back on the path I had my longest climb of the day. The climb was 5 miles, but only went up 500 feet. It felt almost flat, which was a good sign for what was to come later in the day. I knew the elevation profile generally got easier as I got closer to Brussels.
After the 5 mile incline I found myself outside of the suburbs and back into farmland. There was more construction blocking a road which forced me into a detour that added 2 miles onto the ride. I was a little annoyed about this, but the riding was flat and fast, so it didn’t cost me all that much time.
The next 20 miles to the town of Wavre were mostly flat with some nice downhills. It was some of the most enjoyable riding I’ve had in the last few days. The only issue I ran into was cobblestone which would pop up out of nowhere. When the road changed to cobblestone it was at least a quarter mile worth. The bouncing from cobblestone on a loaded touring bike is about as annoying as a ride can be, but I was fine with it as long as there weren’t any surprise climbs popping up.
I stopped at mile 30 in Wavre and picked up lunch at the grocery store. After my stop it was only 23 miles to the hostel. I had 3 short climbs to start this section. They were steeper than the long climb that started the day, but were all less than a mile, so it wasn’t a problem.
When I got to the outskirts of Brussels, I ended up on some nice gravel paths through a forest. I didn’t expect this so close to the city and it provided a good break from traffic before I was riding through the city. Navigating through Brussels wasn’t all that difficult, but I could immediately sense that I was in a big city. I can’t recall having that feeling since I was in Milan.
I arrived at the hostel and found that they have 2 locations but only 1 check in desk. The location that I arrived at to check in was not where I would be staying. I got checked in, but the woman behind the desk informed me that the location I was staying at did not have a place to store my bicycle. I hadn’t even thought this would be an issue because everywhere I’ve stayed has had a dedicated bicycle storage area. She said I could leave it in the luggage storage room at night but would have to lock it up outside during the day. This didn’t sound ideal, but I told her I would ride the .75 miles to the location I was staying at and would decide there.
The hostel I’m staying at tonight is very nice, but also very busy. I guess a lot of people are booked from Friday through Sunday night. I ended up with a top bunk for the first time this trip. I usually like to sleep on the bottom and since I’ve generally been finishing my rides right around check in time, I have always been the first into a dorm room with a choice of beds. I got all my bags off my bike and inside, but I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my bike locked up outside on a main street. I decided I would search for a local bike shop and see if they could store my bike. I found a shop a short walk from the hostel and the guy at the shop was extremely helpful. The conversation started with him telling me they did not provide bike storage, but after 1,000 miles of riding my bike needed some work anyway. I told him I would pay for a tune up and he began looking at my bike. The shop is unfortunately closed until Tuesday and I was only planning to stay in Brussels until Monday morning. There is a holiday on Monday (Whit Monday) so all the shops seemed like they would be closed until Tuesday. This meant they weren’t going to be able to start a tune up until Tuesday and it wouldn’t be ready until Wednesday at the earliest. Because there wouldn’t be time for a full tune up, we agreed that he would write me for a brake adjustment at €15. If they have time to do the work they will, but otherwise I will just pick the bike up on Tuesday morning without any work done. At least my bike will be kept safe during my time in Brussels.
My plan to store the bike at the bike shop made me feel a lot better, but I was now stuck in Brussels one day longer than I was booked for in the hostel. After finally taking a shower and putting on some clean clothes I headed back to the hostel location that I checked in at and asked if they had availability for one additional night. Luckily Monday is a slow night for the hostel, so I added a night and will stay an extra day which is well worth it to know my bike is being kept safe. I will most likely use the extra day to take the quick train ride to Bruges and Ghent and check those cities out.
Musings:
- A hostel dorm room is not the place to use a snooze alarm. I was woken up early this morning to someone else’s alarm. This wouldn’t have made me upset, but I had to hear the same alarm go off every 10 minutes for the next hour. By the time the snoozing stopped I was only 15 minutes away from my own alarm going off. I ended up getting out of bed before the other guy in the room.
Ramblin' Dan: Bike Touring Adventures 
My butt hurts just from looking at that cobblestone street.
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