They put an interesting old church in our path, just 1\2 block from the hotel, so we were stopped before we really began to ride. The church turned out to be unique because its interest lay not in gilded cherubs or stained glass, but in displays and information about the problems of slavery and of refugees. One of the claims was that the ladies who tend to the pay toilets here are virtual slaves to a toilet mafia. We only have experience with one such toilet - it was at the train station. Dodie says the lady seemed happy, taking some pride in her job. But she was, of course, an immigrant.
It took only a little bit of casting around, before we found ourselves on the canal, which was our ticket out of the area. The canal is the Brussels to Charleroi, which is a branch of the Canal du Centre. We don't know much about that one, but suspect it might go all the way to Paris. There are some kind of long distance bike routes in this area, with names like RAVel 1 and RAVel 3 plus various other bike routes and signage. We did find the organization behind these, online while at home, and did try to buy one of their publications from Cartovelo, but in the end went with a track that we developed on our own, with the help of Google Maps.
We quickly reached the first canal in Brussels. Dodie is trying out her new rain cape. we got this at home after seeing them widely used in Amsterdam. Fortunately the rain went away for most of the day. The jury is still out on the cape.
The basic plan was to follow the canal, which was Ravel 3's idea too. This did not mean that there was great signage, but there was a bit. One of the issues was which side of the canal to be on. This was not really too critical, and we were going along quite well, until we came to the "thing". The thing is viewed by the government here as a great point of interest. It is a boat "escalator", which transports the canal barges and other shipping over a high point of land. This is one of several along the Canal du Centre. You can even go for a 1 1/2 hour guided boat tour of the facilities. We know, because the lady in the tourist information we stopped at to inquire about where the bike path disappeared to had to close up to go be the guide of the next scheduled departure. She did give us a map which helped a bit. Basically, the tow path on one side headed off into the countryside, not to return to the canal for some time. The path on the other side ascended the height of land, while degenerating to a rough track before petering out. We chose the petering out way.
Dodie seemed to become a little peevish as the rough track climbed. And neither of us was happy when it deposited us onto a no shoulder high speed road.We followed the road for just a little bit, until its shoulder totally disappeared. Then, friends and relations will be pleased to know, we turned back and used the GPS to find another way. With a lot more GPSing and casting about, we made our way beyond the sloping lock and were able to proceed on the tow path. The path, unfortunately, was now basically unpaved, or roughly paved, so our progress was slowed. It meant that e good pace of the morning would never return.
Unlike the situation in a place like Brussels old city, there is little to see along a canal. There is even less than on roads in the countryside. That turns out to be helpful, since I am typing this lying down, in the tent, in the rain. It's not a good position for making lengthy descriptions of anything!
Our typical path for the day. You can see why there is not much to describe.
We were pleased that the GPS worked well for finding a camping spot. We had previously loaded a database of every spot in Europe, and one of these spots was basically on the path, just when we needed it. Actually, it could have been a bit closer, since it was sprinkling as we arrived. We used our experience with the tent and gear to get things set up and protected really quick.
Before leaving Brussels we had bought a sandwich and some croissants, plus little jars of apple-pear sauce and these saw us through both lunch and dinner. We were amazed again at how high the quality of food is here, even canned or packaged things.
We think heavy rain could be coming. We will check the situation at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow. If we can, we will pack up and go. Then we will be able to just pedal through any rain, and maybe find an indoor refuge at Namur. But of we wake to rain, it will be a lot harder. The tent we have allows you to take down the inner bit while leaving the fly up until the last moment. We might try that, but we know you always get drowned no matter what. Stay tuned to see what happens...
Outside Brussels are naturally many industrial scenes. And here is a shot in nearby workaday Anderlecht.
Our first "gefahr". We were amused by the number of safety warnings in Germany. This Belgian one seems like just general angst. "Gevaar" is Flemish. We briefly entgered a region where French all but disappeared.
The idea is that boats go into a sort of bathtub on a rope, and this gets dragged up the hill. Here you see the tub, on the right, just getting ready to rejoin with the main canal.
