We started the day early, getting up at Wytze’s house near Zeist, Netherlands at 6:30. He had a load of firewood to take to his country house in Belgium and we loaded our bikes too. The drive took almost three hours, then we finally got to see this place he bought 14 years ago and has renovated. It’s an old farm house that used to have live stock in the bottom, now made into a spacious, modern home. It is on a ridge with a nice view over hilly farmland. We lucked out on the weather too, warm but not hot, sunny and clear.
We started a fire in the outdoors hot tub for after our ride, unloaded the trailer, had brunch, then headed out on our bikes. Andrew hadn’t assembled his yet so was on a borrowed MTB. My bike felt great, perfect really. After just a few km we came to a downhill and suddenly I was going over 70 kph which felt wonderful. The roads are smooth, traffic is light, the terrain is hilly and the area has lots of cycling history. We rode around, ups and downs, and after an hour made it to La Gleize, another famous town from the Battle of the Bulge. We visited the December 1944 museum there. For a relatively small place they have a pretty big collection of German and American war items. After that it was 3 pm and time for lunch! There is a great restaurant in town called La Vert de Pommier where we each had “Salade Val Dieu” with pear and warm cheese, wow! It went really well with some local beers. Life seems great here.
We had another 25 km to ride, up a couple of hills, through more WWII-famous towns, and made it back around 6 pm. The fire had burned all the wood so I restarted it but the hot tub was already about 40°C, perfect. After showers we enjoyed it, then sat in the evening sun sipping beers, reflecting on our lucky circumstances. It was a great first day of modest cycling.
Strava: 52.04 km, 1,153m, 2:51, 123 shifts
Wytze was a hero and bought food for dinner. We had frittes, other potatoes, a giant omelette, salad, Belgian beer and Austrian wine. It was delicious eating outside watching night fall in the warm air, sans bugs. I know I’ll sleep well tonight.
Nathan's Blog 
Sounds and looks like a great day!!
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