Huy to Charleroi

We must stop having these hotel breakfasts ! It's a lottery to see if it's going to be worth it and they make for a late start.


Saying goodbye to Jean Paul. And no , he's not related to Barry



First destination is Namur. The path is concrete and asphalt all the way.
This entire route is very industrial with dozens of huge barges loading or unloading everything from metal to garbage











Shingle coming off one end and the captains car off the other.


Namur... the Meuse forks left here and over to the right of the fort enters the Sambre. We follow this now ,down into France.








The river is smaller and so are the barges and locks. That scrap yard must have stretched for a kilometre along the bank. ( tracks a bit rougher here too)
It would have been a dream ride except the wind was in front of us all the way and 10kms out it started to drizzle.





Yes we look ridiculous but they worked well.
We're using a new app called Strava and it's great for tracking your progress. This is today's wriggly course


Huy's on the right, Charleroi the left

LIEGE 🤗

The buses don't run to Liege .(it's in Belgium )but the train leaves at 11 am.





I hate these automatic ticket machines . We were lucky to meet another cyclist going our way who was a great help


And here we are finally, Liege
" thanks Gerome "


Beautiful day! Gentle breeze! A great day to be on your bike





This market stretched for about 3 kilometres along the river and took a while to get through. When we finally cleared it and were making progress ,Christine stopped me and pointed to a sign
"Are we supposed to be heading for Maestricht"?
Shiiiiit !!! 😠. Ok, wrong direction


That's where we want to go today.
Huy, about 40 kms away.
Believe me, even when we got on the right path it took some finding .





Worth it though. This is a very pretty town

Bus to Aachen

Bernd and I booked a bus to Aachen on the nett. It was quicker than the train and a fraction of the price . We would have to find our own way to Liege as there didn't seem to be any direct route there.
It didn't leave until 4.30 pm so to fill in a bit of time we went walking up to the castle. Gabby and Bernd belong to the local theatre club and every year about this time they hold a production up there


Holzheim. The part where Bernd and Gabby live anyway






Bernd and Gabby . Dropping us off at the station. Wonderful hosts



It was a cruisy 3hr ride in a double decker to Aachen. We could only take one made up bike on it ,so took Christine's in its bag.
Put it together when we arrived
( about 10 minutes)



It was about 9pm before we found an Ibis hotel. Far too late really !

Limburg

About 5kms away is the lovely old town of Limburg. It has my favourite shopping centre ever!





The old railway workshops have been converted into a shopping centre. The cranes and gantrys have been left in place, and under that glass cage are the old pits and railway lines. Even one of the workers houses have been included under the roof. What a great way to preserve history.
A short walk away is the old town





The one on the left was built in the 1200's and has been in use continuously since. Hard for us kiwis to grasp. People lived here before New Zealand was even settled
Friends and neighbours came around for dinner last night. A wonderful evening of ouzo and music











Breakfast next day. Bernd was being troubled by flys !
How's this for recycling


Plastic bottles have this label on and have are worth 25cents.
And this I really like..


A mobile crusher. As the damaged road is removed, it is crushed and fed onto the truck. Only 10 per cent new material is needed to remake the new road.

NOT AGAIN !!!!

Unbelievable ! 2 years running we've turned up in Europe and discovered the bikes weren't with us. Last year they said that there wasn't room, this time they were left in Shanghai . We were told that they would carry on even though we changed from Air NZ to Lufthansa but apparently I should have collected them and re-booked them onto Lufthansa.
Travel agent 😡😡
Not a problem though, the staff were wonderful and said they'd find them and send them to us tomorrow





Bernd was there to meet us and bought us the 70kms back to Holzheim.
Christine was feeling very poorly so Bernd and Gabby dosed her up and let her sleep it off. Check out the lovely blue sky and the castle next door


Actually a big storm rolled in in the afternoon but it gives a good excuse to rest.
Ladies here's a good way to keep the toilet clean. The sign asks men to please sit down to pee

Shanghai

Well, aircouch was nice but I think the models used in the brochures must have been midgets. In the end we found it easier to take shifts. One to watch movies and the other to sleep. 2 hour shifts
Shanghai seemed like any other Asian city but very clean.





This American doctor works here and was a great help and source of information. I've never been in such a tightly packed carriage and marvelled at how no one as much as burped 😏for the 40 minute journey . Very pleased Ash wasn't with us😲





It all seemed so orderly and neat,,, until some dastardly female anarchist started busking without a licence. When sufficient police has arrived,15 in all, they jumped her and carried her away in cuffs.
But then ,she was using backing tapes so I can sort of understand





This tuk tuk driver gave us a ride to people's square. Probably the most exciting thing you can do in Shanghai

Beautiful parks and even a digger for the big kids to play on








We're going to catch up on some sleep now. Tomorrow Frankfurt