Is this a 'broek' or simply a cut off arm of the Ijzer river? In any case this white heron was enjoying it until it saw me with my camera..No rain! The wind has picked up and is blowing the clouds away.The momument to the brothers Van Raemdonck, volunteers in the Belgian army in WW1.Did… Continue reading Summary
Alarm is still at six thirty, but we both wake up at six with an urgent urge to use the facilities. It's dry when we hop the 20 m to the common building, though the ground feels like it's been raining during the night. When we get back to our hut, we figure we might… Continue reading difficult knees
I must have woken up ten times during the night, every time I wanted to turn I got my legs tangled up in the linen sleeve inside the sleeping bag.. nevertheless I feel rested when the alarm goes at six thirty. We undertake a first express expedition to the facilities, it's not raining! Breakfast is… Continue reading Easily satisfied
Up at six, my Mom is the most polite wake-up alarm ever. We check the weather radar during the eggs and left-over sausage for breakfast and decide to put on Gore-Tex from neck to toes. All the luggage back down (over the narrow stairs, the lift is broken) and we load up in the entry… Continue reading A Gore-Tex day
all the luggage together Today is both a working day and a holiday: up at six, first work meeting at seven thirty - there's a few early birds at work and these early hours are the best for complicated meetings. It's quite busy, lots to do and somehow I manage to finish most of my… Continue reading pre-trip: hop to Mom’s
Next week Thursday my Mom and I are leaving on a week long bike trip. Corona is still limiting the travel options and I wanted a budget friendly holiday, so we're keeping it simple: we leave from home on the bikes, with just some clothes, a bar of soap and camping stuff, take three days… Continue reading How to pack for a bike camping trip
Admittedly, this summary is a bit later than planned, in my defense we came home Sunday evening, I did some laundry, we had food and went to bed. Next day up at six to go to work, by bike. So now we're Thursday and this is the first free moment I've had to look back… Continue reading Summary
Breakfast is served at the table in a large, empty dining room, I think we must be the only guests in this hotel. Some restaurant and hotel people say it's a bit quiet, but not too bad, mainly the foreign tourists are missing. Other hotel owners say it's been too quiet and are worried about… Continue reading A short way back home
The usual breakfast routine, the restaurant chef brings us a selection of fruits, cheeses and meats and makes us eggs on demand. Out before nine, we decide to do a little detour to see the Venner Moor nature reserve that gives the hotel its name. We can't see much of it from the road and… Continue reading Up
Up at seven, breakfast half an hour later, gone before nine. Today will probably the hottest day of the week and I prepped some packing yesterday, just so we could leave early enough. Arne wakes up a bit woozy, he's always been a bit bothered like that by antihistamines. Hopefully the grumpiness disappears during the… Continue reading Views from hills
Not a good night, I would say. Too hot! And too itchy! We opened the windows at some point, desperate to the point that we're willing to risk the extra bug bite and that seems to help a bit. Not many bugs either, I suppose the swallows and bats take care of those. A wet… Continue reading Itchy! And hot!
Up at seven after a good night's sleep, under just the sheet and with our head at the foot end to catch more air circulation. I'm not sure if any of it made a difference, but can't have hurt. The bug bites were pretty itchy though.. We put on our masks to go down for… Continue reading A bit of an effort
Quite warm in the room, there's a fan but even so I take the blanket out of the sheet and use the sheet to sleep under. Alarm at seven, we put on our decent clothes and a mouth mask to go to breakfast downstairs. It's strange.. you can take the mouth mask off only when… Continue reading Deer!
Alarm at seven, we slept okay, not too hot in the room fortunately. We go down to the breakfast room, they have just switched back to the classic buffet system, but ask that you follow a one way tour throughout the area to avoid close contact with others, though there is no requirement to wear… Continue reading Sunny hills
Today is Sunday and tonight we are sleeping in Beckum. Up at seven, the usual weekend breakfast and afterwards we can start packing. We had a family BBQ in our patio yesterday, fortunately everybody helped clean up and the state of the house is not so bad, but we will have to tidy a bit,… Continue reading the first schnitzel
Our first holiday of the year is only a few days away! After our winter holiday in Gerardmer in December 2019 we had plans to take a long week with family in the spring, but these of course got cancelled due to corona. We planned to take a week off and picked the end of… Continue reading Preparation!
We followed the northern and western loop of the 100 Schlösser Route by bike (non-electric), taking our own luggage from hotel to hotel. Usually we had a picnic for lunch and a hot meal in the evening, in the hotel restaurant or nearby. The final statistics : Total distance: 625 kmDuration: 7.5 cycling days and… Continue reading summary
Only one more thing to do: cycle back to Münster, where we left our car more than eight days ago. First though I got to fix my front wheel, I noticed yesterday evening that it seemed wobbly and it looks like it's not properly fastened onto the wheel fork anymore. No problem as usual, just… Continue reading last day
A light breakfast and off we go around nine as usual. The sky is clear and it's pretty cold in the shadow, my odometer says it's 11° Celcius. Not quite cold enough for gloves, but I'm happy with the extra merino wool layer - I'm up to four layers and a scarf now. We're still… Continue reading more hilly than expected
We're ready to leave even earlier than before, but right as we want to sweep out of the castle courtyard Arne's luggage frame drops right off his bike. It seems it was being held on the bike with four screws, which have all come loose. No problem, we get the bags off, MacGyver it back… Continue reading deer
So warm in the room, we left the windows wide open during the night and the shutters a bit open, so they let through a bit of cool air, but still not much improvement. We really must start remembering looking for hotels with airconditioning when travelling in the summer. Breakfast around seven in the big… Continue reading westwards
