Cambrai, Monchaux-sur-Écaillon. The sign says - Church of St Gery, opening hours during the week and on Sundays.
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On the road again: cobblestones, very tough!
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St Armand-les-eaux, Valenciennes and beautiful Tournai in Belgium
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After riding in spitting rain we finally found a café, then the rain really came down - lucky! |
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Mike and beautiful Nina, our leader
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The old customs station on the border of Belgium, no longer used since the formation of the EU, but our customs officer still sits there waiting for customers
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We often came across construction sites on our bike path, with entry barred, but as we had nowhere else to go, we pressed on, with mixed results.
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These are very old clay ovens which made very handy spots for quiet moments. And a kiln for pottery firing.
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October 2 - Tournai, in Belgium. The Cathédrale Notre Dame, and a belfry which we climbed - a beautiful city.
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Bell operator's console
Pressing on - another detour, which involved us riding across a farmer's paddock to avoid security fencing. Had to negotiate this steep bank with a ditch. |
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No getting past this fence. The sign says Mons 17km, our destination. We had to backtrack a bit to find a path back to the roads where Nina finally got us on track again.
Next, on to La Roeulx and La Louvière, where the mighty ship lifter got us up 85 meters to a new canal, below. These first few photos are of an old-style lock, on the way to the big lifter, but it was very interesting to watch the operations, especially the barge full of school kids going through the process.
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Roaming through the Belgian countryside with the geese.
The shiplifter, which we first visited on our bikes, then went through in our barge. It's quite a tourist attraction, with a coffee shop and museum, and very helpful staff. |
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After the bike trip to the lock, we came through in the barge through these industrial places, then entered the massive lift mechanism for our hoist up 85m to a new bright canal.
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Then on to Charleroi, a derelict industrial town, but with good photo opps. After this old-fashioned mechanical lock.
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The ancient city of Namur, beautiful old stuff, and a citadel, with a golden tortoise. |
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Mike and I decided we didn't want to walk all the way up to the citadel, so we opted to catch the bus up, while everyone else walked up. The bus never showed up, so we walked as well, just getting to the top as the rest of our group took off in a little train to explore the citadel. Being quite tired, Mike and I decided on a cup of coffee and a good look round. Lots of old photos in the museum. Next photo from the other side of the river towards the citadel at the top.
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We did a night-time walk to see the sights.
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Still in Belgium - Huy! |
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On the border of The Netherlands - the little village of Eijsden, where we had ferry rides across the canal, and lunch: |
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I hoped to not show any food, but here you go - Croque Madame! Eijsden.
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Entering Maastricht, Netherlands. A lock, and a night-time walk.
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Danny at the Maastricht Rail, in my new Superdry jacket. I went to the Money Exchange at the station to get some cash, but the Money lady said I would be better off just getting it from the ATM outside. So I did, but it was €300 in 50s, so I went back inside and asked the lady if she could break it into smaller denominations, which she happily did, but charged me a fee. The only trouble was she changed it into American dollars, $US300, which I didn't find out till I went to pay for my bar tab. So back to the station and explained to the lady that I had no use for $US as I was Australian, and in Europe. She happily changed it back into Euros, and refunded me the fee. I had to walk an extra 5km for that.
That's the end of our cycle holiday, thanks for watching. To see the report and photos from my German expedition, click here.
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