After a joyless day, yesterday, I woke this morning wondering how many such days I could tolerate before concluding that this was not what our journey was about, jumping on a train to Oostend and completing the last few days in England. As it turned out, we cracked Belgium's enigma code – to a point – and had good day that ended in a pleasing swell of Chianti and Chimay.
After 5 days in Belgium, buying walking maps that didn't show footpaths, we acquired a map that showed the various cycle routes. The secret to the routes, it turned out, was that the numbers on the sign-posts that we saw littered across the county are not route numbers but destinations – like a bizarre topographical Chinese Takeaway, designed to save a couple of bytes, destinations are referred to as numbers, not words. Equipped with the code, it was easy to navigate. So today, we navigated along pleasant walkways – well cycle-ways really – having to consult neither compass nor detailed map.
A couple of weeks ago, our walk would have been dismissed as boring but after a day walking within inches of roaring trucks and buses, it seemed like paradise.
It was a day of 30 degree heat, in which it was hard to find shade, but when we did, walking amongst field after field of strawberry pickers, we managed to secure a box of freshly picked strawberries – a thing of real wonder when so freshly picked.
And then, this evening, we had a nice Italian meal in the town square, followed up by a couple of beers and glasses of wine in the brasserie under our hotel. In fact, the hotel is pretty down at heel and the brasserie is a busy boozer on a busy, noisy, street but after a couple of glasses of wine and a couple of glasses of Chimay Dubbel, it seemed like the most perfect place in Europe.
Unfortunately, tomorrow's journey will not be as straightforward, as there is no cycle route between here and our next destination, the lovely university town of Lueven, but at least we know that, after that, we can get back to the cycle ways.
Tomorrow is a big milestone. It will be the end of our fourth week; we will have walked over 600 Km and Blighty will be just over a week away.
So after a despondent start today, the sun came out and everything feels very, very good – the journey is everything but we are on our way home and that feels good.
It is tempting to raid the Beatles catalogue again for “Here comes the sun” or “Strawberry Fields” but after walking 23 Km in 30 degree heat without any shade, todays musical choice has to be “Feeling Hot Hot,” by, we think, Bina Mistry but not totally sure.
P.S. my bouyant mood is testified to by the fact that, yesterday, my iPOD (and of course Doris) kept me going. Today my iPOD seems to be broken and I don't very much care. Fortunately, Doris isn't broken and I do very much care.
P.P.S
Here are two lovely guys that we met today. Neither spoke English but it ended up with me speaking schoolboy French to the guy on the right who translated into Flemish to for the guy on the left. Really sweet, warm, interested guys - the only shame being that we were not able to comminicate better.
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