Saturday 25/7

Apart from some dirty b^%t*rd who breezed close to our table reeking of Lynx and anal detritus - nice - we had an OK breakfast and left Ostend for Eijsden, on the banks of the Maas in Holland and Spa-Francorchamps, en-route to Esch-sur-Sure in Luxembourg. The ride to Holland was dull because time dictated that we mainly used motorway but Eijsden looked a pretty place. We impressed the locals by riding through the town centre when all routes were closed to traffic, had a couple of beautiful Dutch coffees and left for Francorchamps.

As soon as we got near the village we knew there was a big event on as there was so much traffic and cars parked everywhere. As it happened, it was the Total 24 hour car race this weekend so we couldn’t get into the circuit anyway. At least Simon knows where it is now. Naturally, as soon as we arrived at Francorchamps it began to pour down and then accompanied us all the way to Luxembourg.

The weather had cleared up, by the time we got near to Esch, and there were some lovely twisty roads but they were still wet so we didn’t push on too hard. We had the same room, at the Hotel de la Sure, that Jonny and Rod had last year and we had a very good dinner (mixed fish brochette with rice, vegetable soup, and stuffed duck breast followed by apple tart) and a good few local beers. Proper beds tonight, Hooray!
Three countries done today; Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg.