I didn't sleep well that night because high winds from the Atlantic kept whipping the fabric of my bivy all night... But that's OK since I didn't have that much to cycle to get to Bruges in Belgium. So I got up early and packed up, which was a good thing since it started raining just when I was ready to go (At least I had a chance to pack the stuff up dry !). Anyway, I cycled back to Vlissingen and took the ferry (for some reason they didn't even charge me) across the Westerschelde to Breskens in Belgium.

When I got to Bruges, I was enchanted... It's a beautiful old city with a network of canals, many parks... So I decided to spend an extra day here and took a bunk at a Youth Hostel for 2 nights.

In the morning, I bought myself a bag full of an assortment of truffles (just love Belgian chocolates !) and wandered the city all day, eating a whole frangipane pie (Belgian pastries are good too !) for dessert after a quick sandwich dinner.

The following morning, the lady managing the hostel told me about a beautiful bike path along the canal going east to Brussels, so I decided to follow that. It was nice and quiet along the canal lined with grand old trees and a few old bunkers (remnants of WWII) here and there... The weather was fine, the road flat and the cycling went well.

The canal bike path brought me to Gent, and it was even prettier than Bruges. So I spent a few hours here wandering around before resuming my ride along the canal to Brussels.

Towards the end of the afternoon, it started raining and I decided to spend the night at Aalst.

I only had 30 kms or so to cycle to Brussels so my cycling was very relaxed and I got to the outskirts by noon. Brussels is a huge city, with districts of pronounced cultural distinction, and it took me most of the afternoon to get to the center. I found a Youth Hostel and settled down for a couple of nights.

The Museum of Modern Arts in Brussels has a huge collection of Magritte paintings and I spent quite a few hours there.

The rest of the time, I just wandered around the city taking in the sights.

Belgians have a highly developed sense of humour... There is a small statue of a naked cherub, the "Manneken Pis" continuously urinating near the city hall in Brussels... well, each morning, the Belgians dress him up making some kind of political or cultural statement... quite a sight ! This day, "Manniken Pis" was dressed as an Argentinean gaucho to mark a blunder made by an Argentinean official... I forget the details...

In the morning, I decided to head southeast towards Luxembourg and thought I should be able to break my record and cycle to Champlon in the day as the country was relatively flat... Well it took me forever to find the right bike path and get out of Brussels and by noon, had only cycled some 30 kms towards my goal...

By mid-afternoon, I got to Namur and decided to call it a day... What the heck ! there's no rush...

Namur is a pretty little town and there was a fair along the river Meuze... with rides for the kiddies and lots of stalls with people selling all kinds of junk...

Leaving Namur, I cycled a bike path that followed the N4 highway... At Assesse, the bike path just stopped... so I got on the highway with the cars, and even though it was a divided highway, nobody told me to get off... Finally, a good surface to ride on ! I did the 65 kms or so to Champlon, left my panniers at a Youth Hostel, and went to cycle around in the hills...

At a nearby village, there was a dairy farm making and selling goat cheese... the man wasn't there, but his mother, on visit, showed me around and we talked... I bought some cheese... At another village, I got some home cured smoked ham, then, heading back, I stopped at a grocery for bread, beer and milk... Et voilà ! instant dinner... Came back to the YH, had dinner talking with the manager who offered me a couple more beers, and then I crashed ! Tomorrow... Luxembourg.

What Newfoundlanders are to Canadians, Belgians are to the French (or the Europeans for that matter)... and according to the French, Belgians are all goofy idiots... Not so !!! I found them to be a warm and open people similar to the Dutch but with a much more developed sense of humour...

As well, like Holland, Belgium has canals and cycle paths.. but that's where the similarities end... Though Belgium is mostly flat (except for the Ardennes mountains in the south east), they have managed to keep quite a bit of old forests... so the scenery is much more interesting.

Though their villages lack the quaintness of their Holland counterparts, their towns and cities make up for it... Bruges is a beautiful little city and Brussels is a large multicultural center with grandiose architecture akin to Paris... and one could spend days wandering either... and I did for both...

And the food... mussels & fries, pastries (of which delightful frangipanes), chocolates (I almost got sick stuffing myself with truffles), good 'pâtés' and cheeses... I didn't go hungry in Belgium and worried about putting on weight since it's a small country with little to cycle from place to place, and my calorie intake was pretty high...