Skip to main content

Day 1 - Zonnebeke

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain

When cycling I tend to have an amount of fight and have required that in the past though I will need it less on this tour as I am touring in Autumn on the flat after a summer to get in shape. 

My tour planning had been completed early allowing me to forget my plans and any sense of where I was going. In the week before departure I was telling people that the first leg was through the Flemish Ardennes to convey a sense of hills and non-flatness. Belgium is flat after all isn't it? Using the phrase Flemish Ardennes has the debatable benefit of avoiding any confusion with the Ardennes people are familiar with; the Ardennes that spans Wallonia in Belgium, and parts of Luxembourg, France and Germany. Oh dear, three years of secondary school Geography really hasn't prepared me for this trip. So let's get going. Today isn't the Flemish Ardennes but I'll let you know when I get there, if I get there.

My trip out to the start of the tour was happily uneventful, Metropolitan line, Southeastern Railways, DFDS ferry from Dover to Dunkirk then a two hour bike ride up the coast to De Panne where I now start.

It's going to be hard not going on about the food and drink on this tour. After a light breakfast and a banana lunch yesterday I almost bit the hand off the waiter who finally took my order last night; Rabbit with prunes washed down with a strong dark brown beer.

Day one of the tour starts with a ride up the coast following the EuroVelo route 12 and the KUSTROUTE, which is one of the Flanders By Bike routes that help make up my circuit of Flanders.
With the ever-present signs and instructions coming through my bone conducting headphones it will be hard to get lost. 

Why isn't leap frog a thing anymore?
Then I continue on my route, the VLAANDERENROUTE,  which is made up of smaller segments and the second segment for me is the FRONTROUTE 14-18. 
I didn't pick the Flanders tour to visit WW1 sites but it's hard not to get drawn in and moved by the evidence of that conflict. I now want to get to Ypres though the last post is at 8pm and too late for me as I'm staying 5 miles out of Ypres. I stay with the FRONTROUTE 14-18 all day and wind round WW1 cemeteries, trenches and memorials.
The evidence is everywhere. 

The way is mainly quiet country lanes with some well surfaced off-road sections and plenty of wide, dark, foreboding skies which do yield an amount of soft rain over the day.
Not the best shot of trenches unless you spot the head.
By 2pm I am at Tyne Cot Cemetery which provides some tangible insight into the loss of life with its well ordered headstones. To get to Ypres by 4.30pm meant a 112km day over 8 hours which being flat was manageable on my first day.

Heading into Ypres I catch the school children on their way home, faces scrunched up against the wind and rain with the younger ones grinning as they go out of their way to hit the deeper puddles. 

Ypres was worth the distance though the Menin Gate is shrouded in scaffolding.

Popular posts from this blog

Index

A daily index is provided with some introductory notes. Introduction   Day 1 - Zonnebeke   Day 2 - Wervik Day 3 - Avelgem Day 4 - Geraardsbergen Day 5 - Sint-Genesius-Rode Day 6 - Jodoigne Day 7 - Borgloon Day 8 - Elsloo   Day 9 - Genk Day 10 - Lommel Day 11 - Kasterlee Day 12 - Antwerp   Day 13 - Ghent Day 14 - Bruges Day 15 - Dunkirk   Nodemapp.com
Read more

Introduction

Bergs and cobbles might be what spring to mind when you think about Flanders and that was certainly the inspiration for this tour despite the fact that I can't manage sharp hills and I dislike cobbles. Just so we all know where we are, Flanders is the Flemish/Dutch-speaking region of Northern Belgium in contrast to Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Southern Belgium; a third smaller region is Brussels and its surroundings. You may be wondering who speaks Flemish and its a fair question as the word Flemish can be used to refer to the Dutch spoken in Flanders or any number of non-standard geographical variants. Oh, then there is the small region in the South East where German is the primary language.  Bergs are the notorious short sharp hills that with the notorious cobbles define bike racing in Flanders. Names like Koppenberg, Patenberg and Muur van Geraardsbergen will be familiar to those who follow cycle racing. In France the climbs can be long with manageable gradients from ...
Read more

Day 11 - Kasterlee

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. - Mark Twain  A rightly timed pause for this tour would have been Leuven, that relaxed city I passed through earlier.  However, tomorrow I reach Antwerp and get the first of my three pauses, the other two being days off in Ghent and Bruges. Today is also a pause as there is only 40km involved and the terrain is easy and flat. The day starts with a ride along the Kanaal Dessel-Schoten . I linger over the view and just as I start to leave the bridge goes up.  Passing through Dessel the main attraction is the water pump, now a monument.  My destination today, Kasterlee, is reached easily after 40km. A true rest day which ends with a restored windmill. Index
Read more