Finally, a sleep that wasn’t frigid! It rained and there was a continual drip near the tent, but it was warmer and we were largely sheltered from the rain by sleeping under a bridge.
We set off, after a few bites of baguette, bound for Brussels. The houses taunted us as we passed, like yesterday, with smoke coming up from the chimneys. Our first 50km was somewhat dreary, but the rain had stopped by the time we started cycling. We went through the town of Huy, which seemed nice, and then back into rural farmland, for much of the rest of the day. We had breakfast once we finally reached a supermarket (Lidl) at 50km of muesli with milk. For some reason they don’t seem to sell fresh milk in Belgium. Every supermarket so far has only sold UHT milk in room temperature cartons.
We continued cycling and passed from the province of Wallonia to Flanders. At this point the language switched from French to Dutch, and “bonjour” no longer seemed the appropriate greeting. We also cycled through the town of Hoegaarden, where the famous beer comes from, and I preemptively bought a Hoegaarden to take a picture with at the town welcome sign.
We were again slowed by roadwork today, with some sections muddy, in the process of being re-paved and some sections being “barred”, which we were normally able to pass anyways.
The final stretch into Brussels was fantastic. We passed through a long park and lake, then progressed to dedicated bike lanes along a highway, and were finally thrown into the city itself, always with dedicated bike lanes. It was cool to pass the European Commission, a colossal building with dozens of EU flags around. We finally arrived around 5pm at our hotel, right in the center of historic downtown.
We showered, hung our damp belongings to dry, then headed out for a walk around the historic downtown. We had dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant for moules frites (mussels steamed in a broth, with fries) – they were offering a “covid promotion” of €18 for 2 portions. This was then followed by Belgian waffles with Nutella from a waffle stand along with a Belgian beer (Westmalle triple) for me.
