A week or so after returning to the trainer, marshaling all available resources and putting in three whole workouts (for a grant total of 3 hours, 45 minutes and a whopping 174.7 TSS points) I was struck by a revelation of sorts: this--whatever it is--would be more fun if I were in Belgium, Holland, and France.
Now, this might be too obvious to bear stating so bluntly, but there it was. I was faced with the incontrovertible fact that anything would be better than Philly's predicted string of sweaty 90+ degree days with a Fisher-Price AC window unit barely capable of cooling me while standing directly in front of it.
So, buying my plane ticket, tossing my apartment looking for my passport, and packing my bags within a frenetic 24 hour period (and pretty much in that order), I made it through security in PHL international departures (only a perfunctory pat-down in return for the ten pieces of metal in my arm) looking forward to a little relief from the mid-Atlantic heat and
stupidity humidity.
My flight was pleasant enough--I was sandwiched between a large but friendly Polish physics graduate student (self-declared "with the fat and so forth") and an American high-school student headed to France to study the language. A mere six-and-a-half hours later, we landed in Brussels, whisked through customs, and found Frank, Lucas, and Stijn, our new friends, guides, drivers, and
movie-quoters-par-excellence for the trip.
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| Our first meal of the trip. |
It started off promising, with a pleasant mix of walking, driving, cafe stops, and sightseeing: Brussels, then Bruge, savoring the main attractions of larger-than-life sculptures of frites and moules in the park, local cafe life, and the local brewing traditions of the low countries.
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| Monday in the Park in Brussels. |
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| A little pre-dinnertime refreshment. |
This was, as Kevin declared, not a cycling trip, but a trip with some cycling (more about which anon). Nevertheless, it is mandatory to respect the Lion of Flanders when in--or heck, even just
near Flanders.
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| Fast socks. |
We enjoyed the local fare until it was time to head off to Valkenburg to pick up some rental bikes...more about our cycling adventures soon.
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| A taste of things to come. |
