Trip to Vosges by bike

[Jan-Bart]

When I read about people who traveled Europe by foot or bike , I always felt a bit jealous. I never had the time for it. Kids, work, ...
Now i became 50 years old I realized i needed to hurry...., before time runs out.
I just wish i'v put in some more training. But it 's too late now... tomorrow 12/7 is the big day.
I'm gonna start here near Malines, Belgium and end point is Camping La broche in Fresse, France, should be 636km further. I hope i'll be there by 21/7.
One of my twin-sons Tibo, wil join me aswell.
My wife, Mik, my daughter, Tinne, and my youngest son Ziggy will go ahead in our car.

 

[Jan-Bart]

And today we left for a great day....




For the first 8km that was... and then came a stupid fall, distracted by the GPS i lost concentration for a sec. and hit a small pole next the road.
aMy pride was badly hurt, aswell some cuts and bruses and my indexfinger really needed some stitches....

 

[Jan-Bart]

But we went on, lost nearly 2 hours in the hospital.....
First real break was at Werchter, famous from the best Rock concert in the world.

A real nice pub near the church were we were allowed to eat our sandwiches on their terrace



After 50km still looking good.


This was the racecircuit of Zolder, with very high fences so you can 't get free looks

 

[Jan-Bart]

This was the only entrance to the most isolated icecream saloon i ever saw ....
The owner main bussiness was actually being a blacksmith.


nevertheless the ice was really good, only one choice of flavour though ....

Meanwhile at the camping everybody else arrived with the car.

 

[Jan-Bart]

I endend day 1 dead tired. We did 103km in about 6 hours and climbed a total of 568m.
What a great day it was!

 

[Jan-Bart]

Day 2 has begun with a very nice ride next to the Maas


Trough the heart of the very nice city of Maastricht. For a few km we followed the track of the Amstel Gold Race.

 

[Jan-Bart]

In the little village Tibo and I held our our first break, but on someone should someday tell me the meaning of thje cutting of all the branches of this tree accept the top

But still hungry 10km further at Teuven we had a very nice lunch at/ "Het Rode Bos" As they sais: the highest tearoom in flanders;

And they had a very nice view indeed!

 

[Jan-Bart]

We crossed Baraque Michel


Most difficult part for me was near the Hydroelectric power station . Sometimes up to 7% climbing there...



This is the point of vue from the "Signal De Botrange" not to far anymore to our camping
.

Finally we did 91 km and climbed about 1200m. Toe next day was a rest day.