After 3 days in Leuven, Day 15 - We cycle to Hasselt
Go east old man go east!
How does Erika's brother Peter fit into this? Well we certainly want to see him and his family while we are here in Europe and his birthday is on next Saturday, July 14th, so that gives us about the right amount of time to cycle there (near Frankfurt). So with that in mind, every time I looked at my GPS today, it told me I was going East.
Well you can see it was mostly east. The first few km the GPS was acting up and the actual route didn't get recorded
We passed this park on the way out of Leuven. It seemed to be a summer camp for children and they were using shipping pallets to do some creative building. The children looked like they were having a great time.
The path Marvin mapped out took us through several small towns. While there were not always separate cycle paths, the road were always marked as shared and we found the traffic was quite respectful of the space we needed to be safe.
We had quite a discussion during the ride about what color brick we liked the best. I think this was the winner. Also, througout both the Netherlands and Belgium we have seen quite a few homes with solar panels.
Many of the houses in the area have the side covered with square tiles that are nailed in a fish scale like pattern. The colors can vary but most look very nice. I am guessing they are less expensive that having brick all around the home.
In Canada cemeteries are usually grassy areas with grave markers that are flat to the ground so that lawn mowers can drive over the area easily. We quite enjoy looking at the headstones and beautifully kept cemeteries we seen surrounding churches in Europe.
Even the smallest of towns seems to have an impressive brick church with a town square. In most of the towns the spire stands out high above the rest of the town.
When the bike trail ends we cycle on small country roads. There was little traffic tonight. Probably because people were getting ready to watch the Belgium/Brazil FIFA match.
Last week the corn fields we passed were just getting started and were about 2 feet high. This week the fields we are passing are much higher in growth. Does anyone know if there is a way to tell the difference between sweet corn and feed corn?
The tiles on the side of this house were pale grey. They are kept in place with nails and at the lower point you can see how the nail keeps the tile supported.
Many of the side roads are paved with cement slabs. If you get one that is new, they can be quite smooth but most of the older ones provide a good bump to go over about every 15-30 feet.
The owner on the right and another customer on the left. The cherries were perfect sweet black ones that were left with an honor box. We bought 2 baskets
Our bikes are locked away in a cage behind the building and after getting things set up, I went down to the lounge and watched Belgium beat Brazil.
Tomorrow we will head to Aachen, Germany through Maastricht, Netherlands.
For those of you following us day by day, yesterday I completed Day 5, Day 6 and Day 7 with pictures and captions. If you haven't read them yet be sure and go back.
Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles) Total: 571 km (355 miles)
