Monday: Leuven to Malle

Leuven to Malle
~52 miles
Evening accommodations: B&B Aux Charmes du Passe, Oostmalle
Route/Ride Analytics: https://www.strava.com/activities/585645192

Well, bodyslamming myself into cobblestone and impaling myself with a beer bottle was not the best way to start my first tour.  I woke up with a bloodied bandage that had to be cleaned and redressed, which slowed us down.  We finally got out of the hotel around 1130am, just to head to the bike shop.  Carissa didn't like getting sprayed in the face with water from my tire, and the rain wasn't showing any sign of letting up for a couple days. As this was Belgium, many of the local shops were closed until either the afternoon or Tuesday, but we found a Performance Bike style chain on the north side of Leuven that was open.  We headed the two miles up there, got the friendly associate to sell us a couple pairs of SKS fenders, and then found out their service department was booked up, so I set to installing them in a light rain in the parking lot.

Installing Fenders.  Pic from Carissa

Installed!

The shop we stopped at

An hour later, the fenders were installed, the friendly associate came out with some bolt cutters to trim the lengths on the metal rods that actually held the fenders in place (as they were long to make them adjustable for many bikes), and we were on our way.  Mind you, it was around 120PM at this point, and we had 50ish miles to go.  No problem, right?  After all, at home I ride a good 14MPH pace at home, I'd be there by 5PM easy.

Nope.  It didn't take us long to get back to the cycle path, but then we came to a problem.  That notebook full of info that I left in the airport?  It contained my cycle maps.  An introduction on the Flanders and Dutch cycle routes: every cycle route intersection is marked with a number.  At every intersection, there is a sign pointing to the number of the next intersection, telling you which way to go.  There are many online route planners, or you can just look at a map, and plot out a route of sequential numbers to follow, which works great, except in many cases I'll describe.

This is case in which it doesn't work #1.  We left the trail I plotted from the hotel to go to the bike store, and didn't return to the hotel to start our journey.  We hit intersection #1 after rejoining the trail, with no indication of a point I needed to head to.  As I didn't have a map, I had no way of knowing which intersection we should actually progress to.  So, knowing we had to follow the canal, we moved on to point #2, further along the canal.  Still nothing.  Continuing the canal, we hit a few more intersections before finally seeing a number pointing towards a point I had to go to.  Phew.  Winging it paid off for once in my life!  Soon we were on route again, and the brilliance of the system was on display to us.

Quaint little farm at one of our decision points

The signs are simple in Flanders: you are at intersection 30, if you want to go to intersection 72 go left, if you want to go to intersection 66, go straight

We obviously wanted to go to intersection 72, as that is where we made it.  One of the many locations you may find these signs

Once we got going, two things became evident: the brilliance of of the Flanders cycle route system, and the fallacy that I would ride a loaded down touring bike in unfamiliar lands anywhere near as fast as I manage on a road bike back home.  Learning curve #1 was that about 8-9MPH progression average (total time of travel in a day divided by total mileage, all stops inclusive) was a far more realistic goal than the 11-12MPH I had been planning.

We quickly left the Brussels metro area, and found ourselves riding through little villages and along a dedicated cycle path alongside a canal.  The leg actually felt incredibly comfortable, minus getting on and off a bike.  As one with little legs and a long torso, I prefer a French fit, which puts one on the largest frame they can handle with little regard to whether they can stand over the top bar or not.  Along with the gash came a groin injury, that meant my mounting and dismounting of such a tall bike was an excruciating ordeal.  Luckily, if you keep moving, that is not problematic!

Canals are popular places for bike paths

We kept on moving for two and a half hours or so.  The trails were good, we were making time, even if not as fast as I planned, and things were going.  We happened along a little shop right on the path, and stopped for lunch.  A beer and a Croque Monsieur for me, and something that pleased Carissa, and we were on our way!

Red path signs are for hikers, green signs for bikers

Our lunch break.  A large group of Dutch bikers heading the opposite direction left just as we were arriving, so we figured it was cyclist approved!

By this point, I still really hadn't accepted that we were not moving anywhere near as fast as I originally planned.  I thought we could make it to the town of Westmalle, known for their Trappist brewery, by 6-630 and have a beer before heading to the Vrinden op de Fiets B&B we had booked.  We set off, at a pace I still hadn't truly accepted.

We faced on and off showers

Forests and fields near Vorselaar

The riding was beautiful, even if incredibly reminiscent of Michigan.  We had a mix of everything from dedicated bike paths to farm roads to muddy dirt trails, and it was all wonderful.  It felt good to just be out in the middle of nowhere, in a country I didn't know, riding a bike I had brought from America!  As the time started to pile up, though, there was more and more of a realization that my estimates just were not realistic.  5PM came, and we were still 23ish miles out.  6PM came, and we still had a good 15 miles to go, and in the middle of a dirt forest path.  7PM came, when I had told the B&B we'd be there, and we were still a good 8 miles out, and still in a forest in the mud.  The only real memorable from that afternoon of riding was a few hundred meters of the famed Flanders cobblestones!

Yep, the trail ran right through an active ship dock

Two tracks were also posted routes

And the famed cobblestone!

Both a biking (green) and foot (red) path turn marker

Actually a road, but only encountered two or three vehicles in a couple hours

We finally rolled into Malle around 8PM.  Sadly, the reason for going to the town in the first place (beer bar across from the Westmalle Trappist brewery) was not even realized, as we were staying in Oostmalle four miles away.  We met our hosts, put the tired bikes to bed in their shed home for the evening, and had dinner at a bistro a few hundred metres away the B&B hosts recommended.  Thankfully, they had Westmalle beer at the bistro, so it wasn't a total waste!  We came back exhausted and passed out pretty much on the spot.

Our guesthouse for the evening

Our bikes slept inside for the nite!