29/07/2019 – Omelette baguette

Having met some more interesting people (for varied reasons) at the campsite I headed off in the morning in the promise of a shower.

One of my brothers friends lived in Utrecht and so I got straight to it and headed there as I hadn’t showered properly in a couple of days…

After a quick breakfast I headed off in pursuit of Eindhoven. It wasn’t as hot as it had been the previous couple of days so I made good time and got there at a reasonable time.

I needed to do some washing and thought I’d treat myself to a proper nights sleep at a hostel. After all my gadgets were plugged in to charge up, I headed to the sink to wash some of the clothes with soap.

After a good nights sleep most of the clothes were dry which felt like a success and as check out was at midday, it’d be rude not to see that out.

The weather has certainly turned and it has dropped down into the teens with a fair chunk of wind and drizzle.

It was a day of many firsts. The first time I had to put on a jacket. The first time I had to patch a puncture (it may have been my fault for riding down a path that looked like a builders skip) and the first time the patch didn’t work properly so changed the whole inner tube.

I’d started the day in the Netherlands, cycled into Belgium, gone back into the Netherlands and ended up in Belgium again. Thank goodness there are no border checks.

Even still, I made good time and made it to the wild campsite in early evening and was certainly surprised. Not only was there a wooden platform to pitch the tent on, there was also a toilet in a shed (living the high life). This was all on the edge of a forest just off a bike path.

An early start the next morning as I knew I had a big day ahead of me. The distance was marginally shorter than normal but we were moving out of the flat-as-a-pancake Netherlands and Belgium I had grown used to.

Climbing 1400m over the course of the day reaching 646m elevation at one point, this was a sign for the days/weeks to come. The sun was shining the whole day which made it slightly better. It also helped that there were stints of downhill which allowed me to spin the legs out at 62kmph.

Before reaching the campsite I stopped in a stunning little town of Houffalize, this really is a picturesque town. One of the cafes served an omelette baguette which was something I had to try and was definitely worth it.

It is so nice here I think I’ll delay going to the campsite for a few hours and think about having a second omelette baguette.