Day 7

White Rabbits!

(Don't know why, but we always say it on the first day of the month).

Tonight's blog is being written by Paul............

Firstly, the answers to the quiz:

Rita Hayworth, Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn (again)

Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, James Dean

So, Day 7, Tuesday 1st September. The weather forecast said rain on and off from 11am onwards and with a 6 hour day ahead of us (5 cycling and 1 not) we decided to get away earlyish. The plan was 8:30 but it was nearer to 9 due to a couple of delays, one of which was our first minor repair. Ann's pannier rack (installed by me) had worked a bit loose. With team work, the fix was done using a small adjustable wrench and a screwdriver, both of which were in our toolkit!

We cycled through the middle of Ghent, and were on the outskirts, when suddenly we had to make an unscheduled stop. We has seen duck egg blue Aga ovens in the brochure but not in the flesh. Here was our chance:

Soon we were out of the city and onto the cycle routes. For most of the next two hours, we were on a smooth tarmac path following the contours of the river. As we had skipped breakfast, we detoured 200 yards into a small village where coffee and pancakes were enjoyed for only a few Euros. 

Later, as we continued down the riverside cycle path, we noticed this pilot was slightly off course and much too low:

Most of today's ride was quite flat but the last 10 miles was a slight climb. We arrived at our b'n'b at 2:30 

and unbelievably, just after we had got our bags in and locked up the bikes, the heavens opened and for an hour we had a big downpour and thunderstorm. 

As tomorrow is a planned rest day, we are booked in for two nights, and took the chance to wash some clothes in the bathroom.

Total miles to date is 235 which puts us at just over 30% of the way to Wengen. Here is a map showing our current position of Halle, Belgium marked as a blue spot:

And finally,

           I have had a few requests for a spreadsheet, so here is our planned route. You will see the date, the route and the mileage. In the next column is a very simple code denoting the climbs. So, for example, today was a 46 mile journey, which was made up of about 35 miles pretty flat, followed by 11 miles with an overall climb of 200 feet. The climb is expressed as a number for each 100' and the numbers in brackets are the miles. The toughest day is Weds 16th, when there is a 600' climb over 20 miles followed by a 1000' climb in 5 miles. 

Rest day tomorrow. And no spreadsheets!