May 27, 2017
Tongeren - Outgaarden: cobblestones and more beer
Not a cloud in the sky today and the weather forecast predicted 31°C! Too much of a good thing perhaps?
Again we declined the expensive hotel breakfast and went to the cafe next door for a coffee and whatever they had to offer. We were informed the kitchen wouldn't be open before 11 o'clock but the waitress said she could organize some croissants and cheese sandwiches if we wanted. That sounded fine. I then saw that the cafe was affiliated with the hotel and the waitress simply served us things from the breakfast buffet that otherwise would have cost 15 Euros. We weren't trying to cheat, it just happened that way.
We spent the most part of the morning looking for a replacement for Janos's broken cell phone. We cycled to the other end of town where we were told we would find an electronics retailer. It took us a while to find the location, then we spent some more time looking for the store. When we finally got there, we saw that they didn't have what we needed. We cycled back, and with a late start said goodbye to Tongeren.
We were amazed how beautiful the bicycle paths in Flanders were. We didn't encounter any other bicycle tourists, it wasn't like cycling the Danube Bicycle Path where it can get crowded in summer months, and wondered why it wasn't more popular. We had some hills, not long or steep, but for me preferable to totally flat terrain or following a canal path for hours. Our route also took us through a few small towns, which we didn't want to miss either. One of my gripes with some official bicycle paths is that they skirt all towns, giving you a one-sided view of your surroundings.
When planning our trip, I had marked some towns on the map that were said to be interesting and worth seeing. I made sure our route touched them. Today Borgloon, Sint-Truiden and Zoutleeuw were on the itinerary. It was around noon when we were in Borgloon. It was very pretty, it was hot and the restaurants were very expensive. We had a cool drink and rode on.
It was good we had shopped for a picnic. Now we just had to find a place in the shade to stop. We weren't finding a lot of benches along the way in Flanders, unlike Bavaria where, when there is a view, there is a bench. Then Bingo, a bench, shade and a view!
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The next sight on our list was Sint-Truiden. The town hall and church were lovely, and I wished that cars weren't allowed to park on the square. For me they definitely detract from the beauty and atmosphere of these places. It was a very busy place. There were crowds of people in the cafes enjoying the good weather and a coffee or ice cream. We had an ice cream, too, and then followed my planned route to the next spot on our itinerary.
By now I wished I hadn't made such ambitious plans. Riding a long day (long for us) in the heat isn't all that compatible with sightseeing and I was rapidly losing interest in seeing another church and another town hall, works of art or not. Zoutleeuw was a surprise. It was very quiet, not like Sint-Truiden at all. The architecture was lovely and we were happy that we made the effort.
We just had a short distance to cover before we reached our B&B, and expected to have pretty countryside - which we did. If it hadn't been for the cobblestones! Flanders is living up to its reputation after all. The cobbles were truly grueling. I have a suspension fork on my bike which eased the pain a bit. Janos not and he was quite miserable.
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But as all good things and bad things, too, come to an end, we finally returned to paved roads which took us to our room for the night. There was nowhere to eat in Outgaarden so by cycling to the next town for a meal we were able to add another 6 km to our mileage for the day.
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Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 403 km (250 miles)
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