Spa to La Roche en Ardenne

Woke early, as planned. Rolled over and went back to sleep, not as planned. Finally forced myself and eventually set of around 9:30. There was a lovely down hill in to town, almost 60 kph. Rode straight out of town, and, straight up a hill. It was obviously going to be one of those days. The climb itself was quite pleasant, and at the top, much to my pleasure, a Col!!! My first one of the tour. It made the climb all worth while. Then down the other side to the town of La Reid and a patisserie for a rewarding eclair :) Then, guess what, up hill again. This one was not too steep, and, guess what, another Col! Two in no time at all. Cool. A modest down hill and then just before the town of Remouchamps I passed a school group going up the hill I was zooming down. They were nearly all walking :)


I needed lunch when I came to the town of Barvaux. It isn't much but there was a nice quite side street which had several restaurants. I saw a pair of German touring cyclists leaving a restaurant, I took a look, pizza, good enough for me. I had a lovely Quattro Stagiono (Four Seasons). Delicious :) Not long after I went in the Germans came back, they hadn't been in here, they had still be deciding, good choice though.

Next came Hotton and from there it was off an on along the side of the river Ourthe, quite pretty, lots of bicycles. There was also a bike route in a few places which I took, very nice. I saw some cyclists stopped at a Patisserie and I decided that was a good idea and at the next one I got a Glace and a Coke, perfect for such a hot day. After that a pleasant ride into La Roche.

I finally arrived at my destination, La Roche, the town is lovely so I decided to have another rest day, all these hills are really taking it out of me. I started to ride back towards the camp grounds when I noticed a hotel, that was just across the river had prices up. Hmmm, 39 Euro's with a shower. Cool. No planning, just decided to have two nighs in a hotel. Better not make this a habit :) Even worse, better not let Paul know, he might get the wrong impression.

The room was on the second floor :( Hard on the thighs. There was a storeroom in the basement at the back of the hotel where I could lock up the bike. I showered and then watched a bit of TV, yes it has TV too. There was all sorts of Tour stuff on so I decided to go into town before it started. A very nice town it is too. A lovely church, lots of charming shops, restaurants, a fort on the hill, and a museum of the Battle of the Bulge. Tomorrow. I bought a Black Forest cake slice and a fanta and then went back to my room. I got back just as Lance Armstrong was starting his time trial, so I watched the rest of the tour live, about 3.5 hours until 7:30. I actually dozed off at one point, fortunately I didn't miss any of the important riders :)



After watching that I went into town, walked from one end to the other, picked a restaurant where I got a menu. First off was a regional speciality, Jambon d'Ardenne. I actually saw some in a charcuterrie, looks awful, tastes nice though. Then there was an Ardenne Trout cooked in the La Roche style, basically in butter. Delicious :) As I walked home I got a two scoop gelato, Rum and Raison and Stracciatelli. Hmmm.

Valkenburg to Spa

Breakfast starts at 8.30 so no point being up earlier :) I did most of my packing and then headed down. Breakfast was quite nice, three pieces of bread, a bread roll, two pieces of cheese, a very nice slice of ham, jam, a boiled egg and tea! I ate it all, naturally :)

I finished packing and was on my way by 9.30 I guess. The big debate had been whether to ride up the Cauburg, after all it is not even on my route! However, I'm here, I may never be again, so I rode up. It wasn't too bad actually. 1st gear all the way of course, but still, not too bad. Actually I was getting a bit of a stitch by the time I got to the top :) After another look I shot of back down, my fastest and only real decent so far this tour. However all that was about to change.


I rode south and into Belgium. It was quite hilly and I have to admit I was rather enjoying the rewards of a climb by getting to decend down the other side, just as long as the next climb wasn't too close :) Once I'd finally made it into Belgium I had a total change of plan and decided to go south east and then back around to the south west, rather than heading south west all day, it just looked more interesting. To reward me for this change of plan I hadn't gone very far when there was a bike path, about 3 K's, through a nice wood. Very pleasant.

I stopped at a large dam, impressive view. It was at the top of a very long climb, I'd had to stop. Of course it shot off back down another hill and then up yet another. I was gettig very tired. I was getting slower and slower on the hills, I think I have reached my current limit, around 900 metres of climbing. I was using a quiet white road to get into the town of Spa and there was a short sun shower just before I go there, I stopped under some over hanging trees for a minute or two. Then I came to an intersection. I had no idea which way to go. Fortunately there was a bike route sign and it said to go down a gravel road. It was in the direction I thought spa was in, so I did. What a white knuckle decent, up to 22% at one point. I had to stop a couple of times to rest my hands. However it did take me directly into town.

In town I found a patisserie and got some food. I had a very nice dessert called a Glace, sort of a custard slice. Fortunately I'd stopped to eat right next to Tourist Info and they showed me where the camp site is. Just as long as it is not at the top of a hill :)

Of course it was. What a monster! I had to stop twice. I also took a wrong turn at one point and ended up doing an extra K or two. By the time I finally got to the site I was completely stuffed, and not from food. I rolled out the tent, to mark my spot, and decided to have dinner, it's only 5pm but it seems like as good a time as any. I ate half a baguette and some more cherries. Oh yes, I bought some cherries at a farm today. Could be a little riper, but nice.

Maastricht to Valkenburg

Mum, and later dad, rang and we talked for a while. I didn't finally set off until 11 am. It was a hot day and Nicoles house is only a few hundred metres from the start of the bike routes I want to follow. The route very nice, it almost immediately turns into a gravel road and it also immediately starts climbing! Within only a couple of kilometres I had done not only my longest climb but my steepest. I had been riding along in the middle chain ring but I eventually conceded defeat and dropped to the granny ring even though it was only 5%. I am just not used to it yet. However, this turned out to be fortunate because just around the bend it swung up to 11%!!! Albeit, not for long.

I followed the route I had planned and in no time had made it to Valkenburg. The Amstel Gold race finishes here which is why I had wanted to come this way. There is a famous climb at the end called the Cauburg and I had wanted to see it. The town of Valkenburg is really pretty. And this was why, after not very much deliberation at all, I decided to stay here. I also decided to splurge and get a room for the night so that I could be in town. Very nice, right on the main street.


I knew from Nicole that there was a cave system here (Grotto's) and from Tourist Info I knew where the Cauburg was too. There is a castle visible from my room so I went there first, and, as it turns out there is a grotto there too. I found out that the next tour was 10 minutes and that it was 12 C, so I rushed back to the room and got my Polar Tech, and then did the tour. It is quite interesting. Not to mention cold, you can see your breath. There is an elaborate cave system that was developed from about 1050, when the first castle was built, until about 1850, presumably when bricks became popular. The guide spoke almost entirely in Dutch but there was an English cue sheet, so by and large it was a good tour. There are a lot of charcoal drawings on the walls, these were developed in the 19th century, I think, to make the caves more interesting to tourists. There is also a church that was built during the French revolution by now priests who refused to swear an oath to the republic. The caves were also used during WW2 (and presumably WW1) to hide people and protect them from bombings. There are many charcoal signatures there from American troops at the end of WW2.

At one point the guide, Peter I think, turned off the lights so that we could see just how complete the dark is. It is truly pitch black. He then got us to all stand in a line against the left wall and try to walk together towards the light which was about 30 metres away, and covered. It was quite difficult. To highlight the disorientation he shined a light down a short tunnel at the end of the tour and said that is where we started, only 15 metres, we had no idea.


Then it was back into the light and the heat. We had come out of the tunnels through an old escape route from the castle and were now in the castle grounds. It's about 30 C by the by. The castle was destroyed by the Dutch in the 17th century when it looked like the French might be able to capture it, and the Dutch didn't want them to have it. The castle is, was, the only castle in Holland built on a hill! Over the last century various restorations and archeological digs have been performed which sees the castle in its current, still ruined, but reinforced state. It is quite interesting and I guess would have been fairly impressive in its time. There is also an exhibition of models of how the castle looked over time from the 11th century through to the 17th.


After lunch, of a hamburger special (it was special alright, there was no bun!) I went for a walk up the Cauburg. It looks very steep walking it, apparently only 12%. Several cyclists rode by as I walked up and as I walked down several locals were walking their bikes up!

It was a bit hot so I went for another walk get some food for tomorrow and then I went back to my room to relax. To my delight Eurosport was running the team presentations for the Tour, and they had just started. This went until 8.30, quite intersting to see who is present in which teams. The only annoying bit was tha the presentations were in French but of course it was on a Dutch channel, so these two really annoying presenters kept talking over the top.

Time for dinner. I'd picked out a pizza place earlier and I haven't had a pizza for a while. So I ended up having a schnitzel instead, no reason, just felt like it. It was quite nice although the sauce was a bit strange.

Roggel to Maastricht

Another hot day, so I planned to be on my way early. I was up at 7:31 and fully packed and rolling away at 8:01, so 30 minutes. Of coruse breakfast was next which I had at the closed cafe at the front of the camp. I finally set off at 8:30. I had a fairly simple plan today, follow the road signs to Horn and then head south using some of the ANWB bike routes. On the way to Horn I got caught behind a group of school girls on their way to school. It was too hard to pass them so I just meandered along at their pace, pretty easy.

After Horn I headed south and ended up in Belgium. It was a bit unexpected because the country borders are not marked on the ANWB map. I had just assumed that I was staying in the Netherlands. It was easy to tell I was no longer in the Netherlands, the bike paths stopped being off road, immediately. Instead there was a rather decent 2 metre path on the side of the road. I imagine as you move further from the border the paths slowly disappear :)

I headed south for a bit and then crossed back and stayed in the Netherlands for the rest of the day. I rode along some very lovely bike paths. There were actually some hills, today. They were not so tall, often just getting up onto the top of the dyke and then over a bridge to cross the canal, but they were tiring. Later in the day there were even a few real climbs, around 5-6%! Needless to say I was pretty stuffed at the top even though they were only 20 or 30 metres high.


Once in Maastricht I was starving and quickly checked out the eating options and picked a place with pasta. Now I was obviously a bit tired at this point because I thought, “Oh, Italianse Bol”, some sort of Italian bolognese, excellent, and ordered that. While I was sitting there I was browsing the rest of the menu and there was a pasta section. It was then that I remembered that Bol is bread roll in Dutch :) Oh well, what I got in the end was a delicious plate of beef with capscicum, onion, mushies, tomato on a large bun and sweet chilli sauce. Delicious!

I then rode to Nicole's place. After showering etc we sat until Nicole had to go and get their son who'd had an accident playing rugby, just a bruise on his head, nothing major. For dinner we ad a BBQ, a very pleasant meal of kebabs and sausages, baguette and salad. Also Tiramisu and jelly for dessert! We sat outside until quite late, maybe 10 pm and then sat inside until almost midnight.

Herpen to Roggel

Decided to get up straight away and get going as it will be a long hot day today, at least 75. Left camp at 8.40. It was very foggy again, like the last two days, however this time the fog was more of a mist and was noticeabley wet in a few places. I made good time today until around the town of Gemert, I needed to continue south but ended up on a bike route heading east. In the end I followed it just to get to somewhere with a decent map so that I could work out where I was. The route was very scenic. There was even a lovely quiet gravel section. Good thing Paul wasn't with me :) In the end I think I lost about 5 K's.

I stopped for lunch in the town of Deurne. I had baguette with home made tuna salad and a coke. The coke was lovely and cold and the baguette was a very good buy at 5.50, I was stuffed. Oh yes, I'd bought an apple bol at a bakery but now I was so stuffed I couldn't eat it :)

I find I am getting rather tired around the 60 K mark these days. I can still push the pace above 20 but I need to rest by coasting regularly and the heart rate goes up steadily when I push. After about 15 K's I was tired enough again and there was a picnic table so I stopped and had my apple bol. It was a little squished and shaken, but very nice. I was absolutely bloated now!


It wasn't far to go now, and at around 2.30, and after riding 2 K's back out of town, I got to the camping. And, shock horror, the price was 17 Euro's, But what can you do? I paid up of course. The camping ground is a 5 star and I guess it does deserve it. The shower block is huge, you get 6 minutes of (very) hot water, and there is toilet paper! Also there are wash cubicles where you can quietly and privately do your washing. I had a shave later and thought that with the time I spent there shaving and clothes washing I could have given the netbook a bit of a recharge!

After showering I walked back to the camp entrance, quite a way, bought a coke, and sat in the shade by the pool to drink it. I sat outside the tent for a long time on the thermarest and read my cycling magazine. Later I moved back into the tent and I may even have fallen asleep for half an hour or so. After eating I watched a MidSomer Murders on my netbook!

Driebergen to Herpen

After a quick breakfast and a chat with Hans and Trees I finally set off, time to work off the weight I have gained. Not the best of days out. The weather is thick, like fog, and almost overcast as well. Fortunately it is not cold.

I rode pretty quickly and efficiently to Tiel, via Wijk bij Duurstede. I wasn't that hungry but nothing much is open so I thought I should get some food while I could, so I had… an omelete. Very nice this one, ham and mushies. I asked for a Coke as well, it came in a Coke glass but as is common in Holland it was actually Pepsi. Sigh.

I had several ferry crossings today and after the last one got a teenie bit lost. I ended up at another canal and another ferry crossing, something I hadn't been expecting. I had gotten turned around a little and was heading north now, not south. So I didn't need to cross the canal at all, bugger. Once I'd realised what happened I just rode on, thankfully, it was not far to a bridge and then the camp site.

The camp ground is being renovated and is a bit run down, the reception is in the bar and the barman is a bit run down too. The lights in the shower block weren't working so I took the shower (of two) next to a window. However the hot water isn't working there. Sigh. So I had to have a shower in the dark cubicle with the door ajar to let some light in! Anyway, I felt much better and did my washing too before the water ran out.


In town there was, of all things, a small fair set up, complete with rides. I got a pear bol, similar concept to an apple bol but with a much more donut like dough and the pear is stewed pear, nice :) I spent much of the afternoon reading my cycle sport magazine, Tour de France guide! But I also checked out the maps, and, oh no, I've ridden too far east, I don't need one of the new maps I just forked out 8 Euro's for. Bugger.

I decided I better go and have something for dinner, so I went to the cafe. Not the best of choices:
Frites with Piccallily, Kroket, and a Frikandel Roll
And then an Ice cream cup with chocolate sauce to clean up the grease. Filling but uck.

Visiting relatives

Slept in until around 9 am. Mum and Dad rang and we talked for almost half an hour. Today we are visiting Ans and Wim. Ans is my grandmothers sisters daughter. It was about an hour to their house and the weather is kind of strange today. It is overcast with a sort of fog or haze. I asked if it was pollution but they said no, a fog. There is no wind so nothing to clear it away. The drive was interesting, wind turbines, wind mills, cows, paddocks etc., the usual :)


Ans started bloating us up immediately with tea and a very nice cake, like Black Forest but with almond paste in the middle as well. After a round of small cakes with our second round of tea, and after their son Eric arrived, we drove to Breda. I was fully bloated by now and hoping we weren't going to eat anything here. We had a lovely walk, the town centrum is very large, lots of shops. There is a large 16th century church in the centre. We visited it and also an old nunnery. The last nun died in 1990, after 700 years of there being a nunnery here. We then strolled back through the town to the cars. It was actually quite a long walk and I think we were all a bit tired when we got back. Oh, it was sunny most of the time we were in Breda.


We sat outside when we got back, lovely and warm, no wind and had some wine and then around 6:30 Chinese was delivered. Actually it was Indonesian :) Nice but! Fried rice (they call it Nasi), noodles, pork, omelet, chicken chop suey. We couldn't finish it all, however we did find room for strawberries afterwards. We stayed until about 8pm, I actually fell asleep, briefly, during the drive home :)