Gent, Belgium

We left Brussels pretty early yesterday with the intention of biking to Brugges. We ended up taking a very circuitous route and at one point were on a grass road (Wimbeldon?) that ran through a farmer's property. There must be some sort of holiday because almost everything is closed. We had lunch in a small town, where I started playing with the GPS. I finally discovered that I could tell it that we are on bicycles. I had also had it programmed to avoid all highways, which is why we have ended up on gravel and grass roads. Many of the highways here are not like our interstates and are great to bike on. After making these changes, the Garmin is now using more direct routes. It only took me 3 frigging weeks to figure it out!

Note on biking in Belgium... These people are really into biking. Most of the roads have dedicated bicycle lanes. It is usually about 3 to four feet wide and colored either red or very clear stripes that demarcate it from the road. There are none of the goofy raised curbs like the ones they tried on High Street through campus many years ago. Another really cool thing is the traffic lights. When bikes have the right of way, the traffic light shows a green bicyclist. I will take a picture and post it later. Also, the terrain is starting to flatten out, which we like very much after the Ardenne Forest.

Starting to run into more bikers. Met a nice young guy from New York City yesterday named Justin. He was an architect but now he designs furniture. The economy is doing a number on his business so he decided to take a month long tour in Europe to visit his brother in Germany and visit various furniture makers to drum up business. This is his second major trip, and he is a true minimalist. His bike looked about 15 years old. He had no biking gloves and sneakers with no clips of any kind. His maps were google print outs. Despite his lack of equipment, he has the spirit of adventure, which is the most important component to have on a trip like this.

After sharing a cold drink with him in Gent, he took off to the local youth hostel. Jordan and I were going to push on to Brugges, but it started raining really hard. There was also a huge local festival going on, the annual 10 day Gent Festival. These people know how to party! We quickly made a change of plans and stayed here. After showers, we walked around the festival. We stopped and had a beer at one of the taverns. We were immediately befriended by a 57 year old woman named Tina from Brazil. She kind of looked like Tina Turner, and she was NUTS! She introduced us to her husband, Oscar, who is from Spain. He had to be 20 years younger. She said they have been together for 18 years but just got married yesterday. She know about 10 languages and became our "best friend". We continued to keep a tight hold on our wallets, though. We took a few pictures and then headed back for the evening.