August 5, 2018
Liège to Huy.
From beautiful Liege beside the Meuse to meandering through an Industrial wasteland to Huy.
August 5 Sunday 45kms
Liège to Huy.
From beautiful Liege beside the Meuse to meandering through an Industrial wasteland to Huy.
Leave Duc’s deluxe apartment later than intended and head for the river path out of Liège. The city looks attractive with its Sunday morning market and leisure activities- running, rowing on the river and cycling.
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The route out of town promises to be attractive for the first 2 kms but then degenerates into a journey of twists and turns through an industrial heartland that had long since ceased to function in any productive way. Litter, tall abandoned buildings, vandalised and boarded up, overgrown with dead grass and weeds- with the heat, a 21st century vision of The Wasteland!
The best one can say about this part of the route is that it is well signposted and mostly flat. Clearly the possibility of a river route took second place to industrial needs. The main industry along the river seems to be quarrying the limestone rock on the other side from the path. The facility to use barges to carry sand and other aggregates must be a very economic form of transportation.
Before too long we are back beside the river, which is dark green but reasonably clear and we do see some swimmers at one or two spots. The small villages have houses built of a dark brown brick which soaks up the heat of the sun and radiates it out.
Our stop for the night is in Ampsin with a cycling Warmshowers host, Laurent and his wife, Stephanie and two young boys. With our limited French and their slightly better English, we learn a good deal more about Belgium, about its politics, its football ( they beat England in the WCF recently!) than we knew and there is always a bout or two of football with the boys.
Belgians are very proud of their beer and we enjoy 2 different varieties with our meal. One of the main differences between their beer and others, is that the alcohol level is about twice what we are used to. We sleep well.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 2,882 km (1,790 miles)
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