I can live for two months on a good compliment. - Mark Twain
This last day of the tour sees me finishing my 955km VLAANDERENROUTE circuit where I started in De Panne before dropping down to Dunkirk where I then have two days cycling in France before the return ferry home to Dover. This tour has worked out well and will keep me going for a few months.
Yesterday in Bruges was welcomed and allowed more windmill photos and some recovery.
As I have mentioned before the canals are very much working canals.
In Bruges I manage a good walking tour and found an excellent bike shop that had stylish shelves of shiny bike related merchandise to be resisted and a café not to he resisted. "In Bruges" is of course a film.
You can tour Bruges on foot, by horse carriage or by boat along its many small canals.
I head out along Kanaal Gent-Oostende to Ostend though the route avoids central Ostend.
The Smurfs go back to 1958 when they appeared as Les Schtroumpfs in comic form. Yes, I am back on the coast and will soon be on the route down to Dunkirk.
Jerom in Belgium culture is another comic strip character.
I hadn't inspected the route so I didn't spot the ferry coming up and in any event I wouldn't have guessed at the sensible but irratic schedule so I need to double back and go the long way round adding 5km.
If I'd worried that flat Belgium might be a bit boring for a cycle tour then I shouldn't have. The Vlaanderenroute offers up most types of scenery and terrain with the gentle landscape allowing me to extend daily distances slightly without fatigue. It has allowed me to get used to spending longer on the bike without stopping and without neck or shoulder discomfort. If I return then either Wallonia or spending more time in the Flemish Ardennes would be on the list, maybe the Ardennes also. I have enjoyed the added ease that dropping my pack weight down from 16kg to 8kg has offered and though going lighter would have been feasible the extra comfort was worth the weight; a change of shoes is a blessing after a day pressing on the pedals.
So the Vlaanderenroute offers coast, canals, countryside, cities and climbs. In total I covered 700 miles in the 15 days of cycling which is an average of 46.67 miles per day.
Highlights include being rescued with a spare skewer after I broke mine, seeing professional cyclists out training, seeing professional cyclists out racing, the variety of scenery, and the ultimate ease of cycling in Belgium as the cycle ways run seamlessly wherever you go.
After the tour I was in Dunkirk and did a 74km day ride out and back. The destination turned out to be a climb up cobbles to a small town perched on a hill. It reminded me of the Flanders' bergs but then I wasn't so far from the Flemish Ardennes.