Brussels Stories

Some more pictures have been posted from the ride a week ago here, here and here.

No riding this weekend for me. It rained. What a waste of a 3 day weekend (Labour Day).

		This Saturday was the Bluebell ride in Bois de Halle. Known for its explosion of Bluebells this time of the year, though we were a week early. This ride for me was 71km: 30km on the Bois de Halle trails, 20km to get to the trails and another 20km back. We were a large group of 16 riders. This ride was hilly, 500m elevation change. Brussels is only 58m above sea level. The forest is mostly dry now as it has barely rained for 3 weeks. And it is finally warm, reaching 15C most days.
		We left the trail head in Dworp and entered the forest. Most of Brussels was here, there was even 3 marathons taking place in this forest alone. After a quiet forest all winter it is neat to see the forest so full of people, though a little annoying. Some of the other riders want there to be a rule that says you an only use the forest in the spring if you used it in the winter too. Typicall mountain bikers.
		We did get to a few large patches of Bluebells, but nothing like what was expected. But we did catch the Snow drops (the white flowers).
Up... and		...Down

What most of my pictures looked like from today's ride.









Waiting for people hesitating at the top of a long steep hill.








The meeting point and finishing point, Sept Fontaines at the Bois de Halle.






91 years ago today the history of chemical warfare began in Ypres, Belgium.

	Easter Monday morning I went to the Brussels train station and caught the next train out. It went to Namur. This is the capital of Wallonia (the other two regions of Belgium are Flanders to the North and Brussels Capital Region, a little bit to the north). I brought my bike with me. I then rode my bike to Dinant.
	Namur is on La Meuse River. The Meuse flows through Paris, Belgium (Dinant to Namur and Liege) and through the Netherlands into the North Sea. It has been a major transportation route for years and years. The Meuse River has, over many years formed the Meuse Valley in the area of Dinant, north to Namur and Liege. The valley has provided the area with industrial products through mining and safety from attacks due to its natural features.
	I took too many pictures, unlike my other rides where all my pictures are of forests only, this ride I was mostly surrounded by cliffs and the river. Both Namur and Dinant had citadels as their main tourist traps. Dinant is the home of the inventor of the Saxophone. If only there was someone here to get a picture of me with Adolphe. This place was obsessed with the saxophone.

For those that have traveled with me in the past, yes I brought too much stuff with me, but as usual, I did not get hungry. Of course the beer and fries along the river helped keep me satisfied.


The road to Dinant

How many climbers can you count on this wall?

One of three walls crawling with climbers en route.







RAVel trail. Linking Namur and Dinant.

















As mentioned above, the cliffs in the valley provided resources for the region. The deep navigable river could reach as far south as the French border.
















Vaughan is not the only one who can get sailboat photos. This river is also popular for people to travel on for leisure in the summer.








An example of one of the many boats seen traveling the river








Entering Dinant
It was a foggy morning, but it soon cleared up into a nice afternoon.



I had lunch sitting on the wall in the bottom left corner, overlooking the town of Dinant.








The Citadelle of Dinant and the Collegiate Church. The town was very tightly packed into valley.








The old wall I sat on to and ate lunch. I ate sandwiches, not moss.








Dinant, from another angle.








Citadelle and Church from across the river








Just to prove I really did go on this trip, here is my bike.




















The RAVEL. It followed the Meuse shoreline all the way between the two towns, allowing me to avoid all car traffic. It was covered with pedestrians.







Back in Namur

Once back in Namur I took time to check out its Citadelle. Again, my bike as proof.






From near the top of the Citadelle.








(Strangers who don't know they are now on the internet)




















On top of the Namur Citadelle. Tennis seems to be very popular in the region, many houses even had their own real clay courts.

The Easter carousel in Place de la Monnaie Muntplein (infront of the Opera).








American natives selling thier music cd and dancing infront of the Opera House.








Skate park. All ages were participating, a random mix of people watching from a set of stands. Set up as part of an art project infront of the large church Chapelle Kapellemarkt.







Old wall hidden in a back lane and built upon by the surrounding buildings.








Colourful buildings and a standard cartoon mural commonly seen around downtown brussels.






Pre-Stag night festivities. A common sight downtown Brussels, and they always pass through Grand Place. This ritual precludes going out for the night. Spiderman here was lucky, he got to wear a mask; usually the outfit includes either women's clothes or a diaper (I saw a guy later in the day in a diaper with a life-ring around his neck). The 'Stag' usually has a task: this guy had to find women to do the chicken dance with. Our friend Vince took part in one of these rituals when a woman, as part of her 'Hen' party she had to find a Vince who weighed under 100kg. Lucky for Vince he fulfiled both criteria.

Saturday, April 16. Went for a ride through the forest to Tervuren (and somehow to Overijce). Again, mostly just got more forest photos. And of course I stopped by the fountains to clean my bike, this time I brought a sponge with me. (Don't miss the African animal Jazz band, its rockin')












Pedestrian only section of the Forest by Tervuren.












Flowers, lake, tree, and a bike. How nice!









How cliche. The hippo is playing the tuba. Hippos ALWAYS play the tuba. Fountain leading up to the Africa Museum. More on Belgium's role in central Africa another time.








Tervuren military base. Look out for the guard dogs.

I have to start with these two bits of Belgian information today.
1. It is federal law for Belgian swimming pool patrons to wear swimming caps and tight swimming suits. ie: speedos for men. I found this out because the university pool at the VUB is the one pool that does not have to follow this regulation.
2. A Belgian organisation is encouraging schoolchildren to drink light ale instead of sweet fizzy drinks.

Brussels Mud-ology 101
It is really muddy in the forest.

Brussels Mud-ology 102
Left unchecked, bike parts no longer move.

Climbed on my bike Saturday morning and the freewheel was not spinning freely. Attempts to un-stick it were not successful. Progressive dismantling and spraying with WD40 finally dislodged the ratcheting mechanism in the rear hub allowing the bike to be able to coast without the pedals spinning. Though it is still sticky, I was able to make it out for a ride Sunday morning in the forest.

These are the Forest de Soignes' biking trail signs. The spring growth of plants really started to show in the forest this weekend with little flowers poking up everywhere, creating a green and white forest floor. There are so many trails in the forest you often come up on these forks that have up to 6 directions to choose from. This weekend we spotted a deer in the forest.

	On the way home, Allan lead me by a fountain close to my place where the water spouts out of the ground. Can you guess what we did here?
	We cleaned our bikes! The fountains were on timer so we had to run from spout to spout. In the future this will be a mandatory stop after each ride.