September 21, 2024
Day 43: Huy to Profondeville
We want to thank all the people who have sent us words of condolence and encouragement about Joni, both here in the blog and by email, Whatsapp, and Facebook. It is helping us a lot, to process this event that has left such a hole in our lives, despite the length of time we had to prepare for it.
One possible reason for being unprepared is that Joni had cheated death several times before. But as it happened, she grew weaker with each challenge.
Many have commented on the contribution Joni made to the world, after her diagnosis (not to mention before it). It was truly remarkable. But one other thing we were thinking today was about the grace with which Joni absorbed the blows that were sent her way. She never complained about her fate, and in fact she was so cool about dealing with the horrendous evolution of the cancer, that she sort of fooled us all into thinking she would always be there, soldiering on. It helps to explain why this hit us (her parents, family, and friends) that hard, despite how terribly weak she had become, and why the support of everyone has been so appreciated.
Please do not feel bad if we do not answer all the comments and messages individually, but you can be sure that we have read and appreciated each and every one!
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Starting with the approaches to Liege, we have found the French speaking part of Belgium (Wallonia) to be quite grotty. This applies to the buildings, to litter on the ground, and to the distressing inattention to bicycle infrastructure. This impression, formed yesterday, continued today except that there were some notable exceptions.
The first would be the house we stayed in last night. The street beyond its front gate was to be sure very plain. But the house and the gardens inside the gate were both old and elegant.
It was also true that in the morning sun, and with the water calm in the windless air, the buildings on the river looked attractive.
We passed through the town of Huy itself, and got a mixed bag. There was no central square or organizing theme to the streets, but some perspectives were handsome enough.
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We left Huy and continued up the river. We were treated to some lovely river views, but also lots of industrial views. It's not right to grouse about the industry, because after all ours is not an organized tourist excursion, and we are passing through all parts of the country and not just those curated for their attractiveness. Industry, traffic, and all that are after all necessary for the people's survival.
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I am missing a photo to really show it, but for a great distance the river was canalized with tall concrete walls on either side. Any slip up along this edge would mean about a ten foot fall to the water's surface, and quite a struggle to find one of the ladders build in to the wall. This had us clinging to the non water side of the path, and stopping to let any cyclists pass. It made us nervous to be even cycling over on the side, leading us to think about irrational fears, and what kind of conditioning would be needed to fix them. Strangely, when a yellow line appeared in the road but closer to the dangerous edge, we could happily cycle along that. We are conditioned to riding along a line in the road, even when "certain death" lies a couple of feet beyond it in the form of heavy traffic.
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Whereas in Netherlands the river was running with broad bands of farmland and pasture on either side, here it is effectively in a gorge, with steep cliffs often hemming it in, and building often limited to streets just one deep along the river.
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As we cycled along, an oncoming cyclist flitted by Dodie but picked up on the Camino Santiago sticker on my handlebar bag. She stopped, because she too had been to Santiago de Compostella. We had a hurried confab, because Dodie was sailing on oblivious into the distance. As you see in the photo, the lady had several Camino stickers on her bike. It also figures for this region as we are on Eurovelo 5, known as the Francigena pilgrim route Canterbury to Rome. It still has lots of Camino signage, so maybe there is a split somewhere with people heading to Spain vs Italy.
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We reached Namur, which is at the confluence of the Meuse and the Sambre. The photo below shows the famous citadel, but somehow we never saw it again, as we entered and toured the city.
I was interested in having a look at Namur, since I think we have passed it twice before, but never looked into it. Dodie developed an instant dislike of the place, I think mainly because she saw absolutely no cycle paths there on her GPS. Our favourite app, GPSMyCity, did have some coverage of the place, but it was a stripped down version that we did not quite understand how to use. Consequently we cycled in circles for a bit and gave up early.
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We did finally figure out our app, and could have found some more of the Namur sights, but we were by then hot and rather fed up. So we just charged on up the river.
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(For those who don't know what I am talking about re Dave, click here.)
We got to Profondeville really early, despite our spin around Namur. Check in at the chambre d'hotes was only at 4 at the earliest, something made clear in an email they sent us. So we hung out by the river, and I had a nap in the grass. Like our place last night, our room or rooms are in the attic and with interesting woodwork and rickety wooden floors. We also notice, with some trepidation, the Ardennes hills, so close behind the house.
Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,078 km (1,290 miles)
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