Oetingen - Oudenaarde: the Flemish Ardennes - A Flanders Fling

June 5, 2017

Oetingen - Oudenaarde: the Flemish Ardennes

Another sunny day!

Late last night two Dutch cyclists arrived after a day of 98 km on not so flat terrain. This morning at breakfast we enjoyed the entertaining tales of their adventures: getting lost, steep climbs, rain and hefty headwinds. By contrast our trip certainly has been a tame one and we have been favored by tailwinds and dry weather the whole time!

Ria couldn't be home this morning but had prepared a perfect breakfast for us - hot coffee in the thermos, bread, cake, cold cuts, soft-boiled eggs etc etc. Nothing was missing. We were told to help ourselves and to be sure to make some sandwiches to take with us. What a generous and trusting hostess she was!

Our home for the night and the gardenNotice the large windows to the east, letting in maximum light. It isn't always sunny in these parts.

We had fresh eggs for breakfast. I wandered to the back of the garden to have a look at Ria's chickens.

From our room I snapped a picture of our new friends, the Dutch cyclists.

The entrance gate and fence from the street

The countryside was hillier today. We were in the Flemish Ardennes which often presented short but steep little climbs. And I thought all of Flanders was going to be flat. The area was also more densely populated. There were more farms, smaller fields. We were lucky to have packed a few sandwiches for the day. We hadn't realized it, but today was a public holiday, Pentecost Monday or Whitmonday, and everything was closed.

The paths are lined with fluffy catkins of the cottonwood trees - or are they poplars?

One of the few windmills we saw on our trip.

We often saw Belgian Blue cattle, which looked much different to any cattle I had ever seen before. I had to do some research in the Internet."The Belgian Blue's extremely lean, hyper-sculpted, ultra-muscular physique is termed "double-muscling". The double-muscling phenotype is a heritable condition resulting in an increased number of muscle fibers (hyperplasia), instead of the (normal) enlargement of individual muscle fibers (hypertrophy)." (Wikipedia)

Today the planned route on our Garmin wasn't quite perfect. It wanted to take us on a path over the fields that definitely wasn't a surface I could cope with. We took a detour on busier roads and fortunately always had a bicycle lane. Soon we were back on the planned route shown on our Garmins. The road into town was a steep swoop down to the banks of the Schelde River and the town of Oudenaarde. Our hotel was on the Market Place Square where there was a lot of construction going on. However, we could still appreciate the elegant facades and in particular the renaissance town hall. From the 15th to the 18th century, Oudenaarde was a world-known centre of tapestry production and its earlier wealth was evident.

Our hotel was also located next to Oudenaarde's Algemeen Siekenhuis or General Hospital. At our hotel I inquired where I could have my skin allergy looked at and was told to go to the hospital's emergency out-patient care. I was reluctant to call the rash an emergency but my skin wasn't looking good and although I had finished the antibiotic treatment, it was getting worse by the day.

We had a bite to eat first and then at around 7 o'clock we rang the bell for admission to the out-patient care. It took a while for anyone to answer, but there was a sign asking you to be patient and I was. Finally we were admitted, and then we had another wait. At last I got to tell my story of the infection and antibiotic treatment to the nurse and after another long wait the doctor came and prescribed antihistamines to give relief. I was hooked up to an IV, given an injection and a prescription for antihistamine pills for the next week.

It was a long day. We got home around midnight, very tired but also relieved that my skin allergy was being treated.

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 548 km (340 miles)

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