Cycle Tour Bike holiday along the Meuse

Breakfast had to be organised at a bakery, which was my job, as breakfast normally is. On my way I saw a large copper vat for beer brewing, placed in a large roundabout. They do love their beer in Chimay. From that town all the way back to the Meuse valley runs a wonderful, more than 40 km long tarmac covered wide bike trail on a disused railway line, disrupted only by the town of Mariembourg, where one has to make a detour to cross a dual carriage road and go through the town centre, but I think they're working on that. Shortly before this town we made a stop to watch a go-kart race on a race course just on the other side of the fence next to the bike trail. We really liked it! When we were back on track, which is called ravel in Belgium, my sons themselves went into racing mode. Luckily, they waited for me on the banks of the river Meuse. I must admit that the perfect bike trail slightly downhill with a tailwind invited to some racing. The next part along the river was in a lot poorer condition. On top of that i began to rain relentlessly. Between Waulsort and Anseremme there was no bike path at all, and we cycled along a medium traffic road. A setback here in Belgium. We crossed the river twice on lock installations, where there was some forth and back and up and down.

In Dinant we took a long break. First we cooked coffee under a bridge across the river and I mended one of my back panniers. Then we crossed the bridge, which is lined by two rows of giant saxophones, each one adopted by a country in the world. Dinant is the home town of the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax. A fact they make quite some noise of in this town. Its charmingly nestled on both banks of the river under steep rocks on both sides. On top of such a rocky eminence stands the fortress or citadel of Dinant. There was a fine view to to it from the other side of the river. Here we also visited the memorial of the massacre, German troops had committed on the civil population here in August 1914 out of fear for partisans, so-called franc tireurs. In general,  imperial Germany committed many war crimes particularly in Belgium during WWI. This war was still ever-present on this trip.

After Dinant the trail got even worse. At one place it was only a dirt track along the river. In addition, rain poured down relentlessly, so all we wanted now was to arrive at our hostel in Namur. At some other place the trail was closed due to works, but they had arranged a well-signposted detour on the other river bank. It's good they work on the conditions, which are unworthy to such a fine bicycle country like Belgium. So we grew quite hungry and tired before reaching our hostel, situated in a fine old palais on the riverbank. Unfortunately, their kitchen was corona closed. Our solution was to order pizzas (I did so in "fluent" French ;-) Afterwards we looked forward to sleep in real beds and to have a restday tomorrow.