From Brussels to Sofie and Mick in Ghent

 I was happy with my new bags to leave the city of Brussels.  However the streets are all full of glass and I am now always concerned for a flat tire.

A street cleaner made conversation with me.

During a snack break I met Jan. He was on the way to an outside velodrome . Both of us knew some rain was coming soon.

Later as I was bicycling in the rain a woman was standing waving me down and it was Els ( Elizabeth) and she was offering me a time out of the rain and some refreshments  I took her up on the offer and met them farther up the road . 

What a friendly warm couple. Elizabeth is a parttime teacher and Dominek works at Universi ty of Antwerp in Applied Science and travels a lot. They have three grown children. I felt at home immediately . Thank you so much for the visit and the lunch. May God bless you both. 

At 4:30 I arrived in Ghent and made my way to  Sofie and Mick  who live beside a canal.

Sofie and Mick completed a ling cycle journey to the Baltic States last year. She works in an organic farm that distributes vegetables to a thousand people. They have a house from the 1830's and Mick has and stilk is renovating it all.

I am their first Warmshower guest and I must say that they are the best of hosts. After my warm shower and cup if tea Mick took me to do some groceries while Sofue made supper. 

In the evening they took me for a historical tour of the centrum of Ghent. I will do a separate blog for it. 

From Joanna and Jaime in Brussels

 Joanna and Jaome and I had a pleasant evening together. They both work in economics. Joanna who is from Poland works for a private company and Jaime who is from Mexico works for the government of Belgium. During Covid they did their long bicycle trip because it was easy to cross borders only on a bike. Their apartment is also in downtown Brussels but they are looking to buy an older nice home.  They like to travel and Joanna likes to cook. She made a delicious vegetarian supper and we talked about our families, jobs and travels and we learned different things from each other. It was interesting  to hear of their cultures and also their bicycle trip from South of France to Poland.

I was able to tell Joanna and Jaime the long story of my broken rear pannier. It involved  a broken and then repaired old pannier,  a trip to the store and not finding my credit card and a flat rear tire. When I still thought I would go to the store in the morning Joanna suggested I could have a set of hers. I tried with success to see if everything would fit and it did so I insisted tgat I pay for them and now have "new" bags. After a Mexican breakfast they helped me load Silver and I was off feeling very thankful. Thank you so much to both of you. May God bless you . May you also find a suitable house to buy.

A day in Brussels

 I woke at the same time as Joris and said goodbye as he went off. He is a doctorate student in a specialized field of biology. Sarah is a general practioner. Both of them are very close to being finished and graduated. We had spent a lovely evening together  last night talking about each other 's travels, family and work. They were letting me use the apartment for the day. Thank you for your hospitality.  May God bless you both. 

I had a shower and did some blog work. I checked the weather and it was supposed to be dry now . I decided to go to AS Adventures and buy panniers. When I stepped outside it was raining. Lesson learned was to always bring rain gear. The storeroom a while to get to. They did have Orlieb big panniers but not in the plastic type of material. I put them on and decided to buy them. When I went to pay I couldn't find my credit card. What a dummy! I had to leave them and go back to the apartment.  Then I thought again what God wanted me to do. I decided my old ones would suffice.  I ate some of my food and went for a walk to the centrum using Strava. I saw lots of interesting buildings and lots of people.

I had a hamburger and fries for lunch.

I resisted the temptation for chocolate. I saw a CAROLINE store.

On the way home I thought again about having enough time to go to the store again but when I checked Sikver to go she had a rear flat. Well that answered that. I found a very small piece of glass that had gone through the tire. It took a half hour to change . Then I called Joanna the next host. On the way there I walked all the cobblestone  and couldn't  believe the amount of glass. It was busy hour and all of a sudden mostly uphill. I walked a great portion of it but when I did that the chain came off twice. I was a dirty sweaty mess but Joanna was there to greet me. I had to take all the bags off again for the apartment. 

From Mieke and Bob in Boechout to Sarah and Jorik in Brussels

 Last night was the best sleep I have had since the beginning of the trip. Mieke and Bob came home late from the circus. 

During breakfast we had an interesting discussion about our beliefs. Mieke was raised Catholic and now does not know what to think. Bob talked about a friend who likens life to a river and people are droplets of water that come out, do their movement in the air for a while and then drop back in. I was able to tell the gospel of Jesus  that I believe. 

This is what Bob does so people will not steal his new E bike. 

Thank you to Mieke and Bob for their hospitality.  May God bless you both!

A short while later as I was cycling along in the misty rain I saw a woman walking a dig which was a Vizla like my daughter Emily has  I asked if I could take a photo of the dog and then met Sandra who asked me in for a cup of tea as she lived one house away.

Sandra is from Columbia and lives in a very modern house here. She was a grapic designer and has 2 teen daughters and a husband who is a banking lawyer. The whole family is well travelled. Her hobby is cooking and she has taken chef training.  We had a very pleasant visit together and I was glad that I was not in a hurry today and could accept the invitation. I believe God has a plan and puts people into one's life for a purpose. 

We said goodbye and I continued on past canals , nuclear towers and I stopped along a canal to have lunch.

Finally I came to Brussels. I noticed my back pannier had fallen off on one side and upon further inspection I saw that the hook was gone and the attachment piece was bent out of shape. I spent the rest of the day stopping  and trying to tie it somehow to stay on. 

In Brussels I saw a big group of policemen and cars and motorcycles so I thought I would ask about a bicycle store  . They helped me find the addresses of the closest two and although they would not let me take their picture they let me get on the motorcycle and took mine. They joked that I should trade vehicles.

Ciske in the bicycle store, Velodrome, only had small Orlieb bags to buy so he proceeded to repair mine. He was not able to get the rope through the tube so he attached some other piece he had. It took about an hour and was near 6 o'clock closing time but it got fixed.  I told him he was an answer to prayer because I prayed all  afternoon  that nothing more would break and I could find a shop that was open. I had tried one in a small town earlier that was closed.

God bless you Ciske for your patience  Then I proceeded on and stopped at a little Cafe to keep Silver and I dry while we waited for 7 o'clock . I ordered a drink and muffin but was served a small slice of cake instead.

I walked the short distance from the cafe to my warmshower address. Jorik was home and I unloaded Silver and he helped me carry her in. I spent the evening meeting Sarah and Jorik.