Cycle Tour The Channel Tour

Overcast and warm weather. Almost no wind, so pretty characterless weather really.

The big Brussels-day before our journey home - first a stroll in the EU quarter after checking out of the hotel through a park to the EU parliament, then past the Justus-Lipsius-building with the EU Council to the Berlaymont building, where the EU Commission is happy to reside - we mount our bikes to go into Brussels city centre - first a short visit at the statue of La Brabanconne (The Brabantian Woman), the Belgian Jeanne d'Arc, who gives name to the Belgian national anthem - we roll down to the Congress Square with a high column with king Leopold I on top of it in order to mark the creation of the Belgian state and congress in 1815 - from here to the top of a flight of stairs above the Cartoon museum, which Kolya wants to pay a visit, as he was/is fan of Tintin and this personage - I go for a short bike trip to the cathedral, where I'm inadvertently involved in a catholic service for at short time - afterwards I would like to visit another church in the Sablon-square, but I get lost due to the lacking GPS and do with the Royal Square, a truly magnificent square near the royal castle - I plan to have a beer at at pub, but everything is closed on a Sunday during church time - lead two Danish women, one in an electric wheel chair back to the Cartoon museum in order to pick up Kolya - together we wheel our bikes through the Kings' and Queen's Gallery towards Grand Place - a sandwich on the corner - on Grand Place an incredibly noisy zumba show is performed which takes every feeling of grandeur of the truly spledid famous city square - short stroll down a crowded street to the boy having a constant pee, Manneken Pis - have a Belgian waffle on the way - we visit a truly superb beer pub called the Poechenellekelder, where we have impropriate amounts of beer - we wheel our bikes back through the crowds across Grand Place and bike back to the hotel in order to fetch our luggage - from there by bike to the bike renting company in order to deliver the bikes - I notice that my wallet is gone, so I have my bank accounts barred - on foot with the luggage in suitcases to the city centre via Kunstberg - I search for my wallet at the places we visited e.g. waffle café and beer pub, but no such luck - on foot to Centraal station - by train to the airport - by plane to Billund, where we're met by rain and Susanne in our car - by car home to Odense and Naesby.

Unfortunately, no gps-file of the stage, as my GPS did not go along with us on the bike trip, since it was confined to barracks in the hotel luggage store room!