Mon 5th Oct: In Bruges

Sorry there have been no text with pics. I haven't had any real time to get typing on this trip. As soon as I arrived in a place you go out for a look around. It's different to America where there wasn't a whole lot to see in the towns. Some of the internet cafes dont allow usb connection so I'm falling behind. I typing this in Mons (Tues 13th Oct). Bruges was good, but a very prim and proper tourist town. A lot of people think its boring but I liked it. I hung around with three Spaniards and a Chilean during my time there and had a great time talking "Spanglish" with the spaniards laughing at my attempts to speak spanish, getting me to repeat certain phrases that they found particularly funny. They're from Cadiz and said I should visit them when I get to Spain (Just to hear me order food in restaurants and tavernas I think!!).

I moved on to Ghent and promptly crashed, for the first time, in the city centre when my front wheel got caught in tram lines. To judge by the expressions of onlookers it was quite dramatic. two people came up to see if I was ok. Mais oui madames, but of course! I did go over the handle bars but rolled on the ground rather than landing hard. My left knee was a bit sore but otherwise fine. Very embarased of course with a big tailback of traffic behind me. No damage to the bike thankfully. Ghent was nice too. Very medieval like Bruges but if the former has an old town that is all prim and perfectly intact then Ghent is a grungier version. Loads of medieval, even a dramatic looking castle in the centre of town but sprinkled with modern buildings. More a working town than a glitzy tourism hotspot. The town plaza was all dug up with works which didn't really help the effect. At night Ghent is very atmospheric with the old buildings lit up lining the cities canals. While I was there it was a little misty creating an almost haunting glow around the streets at night.

I pushed on to Antwerp last Thursday but only stayed one night. It was an easy spin up from Ghent but once I got into the edge of town I found I was on the far bank of a very wide River Scheldt which links the town to the sea. There were no bridges to be seen crossing the river and no ferries to be seen either. I knew of a car tunnel but I couldn't use that so I was stumped for a couple of minutes until I saw a girl cycling towards a large building not far from the river bank. I followed her, saw another cyclist there waiting outside what looked to be a very large elevator door. It turned out there was a pedestrian tunnel here that runs under the river with elevators at either end to bring you back up to street level. It was a novelty cycling through that tunnel, racing the two girls to the far side and then getting into a sulk when I lost!! However the city centre was nice. I found a cheap hostel just around the corner from the town square which was both full of character and a dive at the same time. It was run by an alcoholic who's drunk most of the time, and when he's not drunk he looks and acts like a crank in a big hangover. He's being helped by a guy from Palestine who says he was a "soldier" there so its up to everyone to interpret that as we please............. Sorry gotta go