Unfortunately I didn’t make it to Liege on Sunday as family commitments prevented an early escape. I did go through there on Monday morning to see the aftermath of the race (think Sth Perth foreshore after Australia Day, but with glass bottles intact) and the Liege railway station is mightily impressive from an architectural viewpoint. I did however manage to hook up with a small and not very serious cycling tour group in Bruges and did a couple of hours riding on Tuesday. The complete absence of any hills meant that Vanessa joined in and thoroughly enjoyed herself as well.
We picked up our mountain bikes and the group of 6 headed out along the cobblestones and ended up on a bike way following a canal towards the North Sea. The pace was a heady 20 km/hr at one stage and the scenery very pretty with lots of farms, windmills and old buildings to look at along the way. After a hard 10 km we reached the village of Dammes, where it was time for the nourishment stop. No coffee or hot chocolate in this part of the world, no we re-fuelled on waffles coated in ice cream and chocolate sauce and a local beer – I know this sounds wrong but it was very good.
Back on the bikes again, we meandered our way back to Bruges through more countryside and historical ruins.  A lot of the trees were growing at angles, suggesting fairly strong winds in these parts but luckily for us the day was calm.  Arriving in Bruges again, we tackled the pave one last time and gave the bike’s suspension another good workout. The tour group then said its goodbyes and are now heading to Alphen (just outside Amsterdam) where another bike awaits me and I get the chance to show the SPR colours again – below sea level this time!