Today we left the wonderful country that is Holland and entered Belgium. No offense to anyone from the country but our best experiences have not been here.

To make it to Antwerp in a reasonable distance (or unreasonable if you're Nate) we had to follow a large shipping cannel (whose name we could not figure out). It was an extremely flat ride but filled with shipping yard after shipping yard. Not very scenic (Also, may have skewed our view of the country).

The most scenic part was leaving Maastricht when we biked through a tunnel of trees in a park.

The highlight of the trip came when we had to bike around an excavator which was loading a ship with gravel. We just waited for the guy to notice us and he waived us through after stopping the arm from moving.

We stopped at a mall to catch our breath (the wind was, once again, coming out of the west against us). Matt really had to pee and so ran into the WC to use the facilities. As he was leaving a women started talking to him in Dutch to which he said "Ik spreekt geen Nederlands" or "I don't speak Dutch" and quickly ran out of the WC. It was only after this point that he realized she was asking for him to pay for using the bathroom. Oh well...

Our campsite is on the other side of the river that cuts through Antwerp but they seem to be against bridges here so instead we took a tunnel. It was quite an experience. A large elevator takes as many bicyclists (fiesters) down 30 meters. The doors open and everyone races to the other side.

We met a nice Canadian couple at the campsite. The guy had the same bike as us which was an instant talking point. He was also carrying a guitar, full bike pump, plastic mallet for stakes, and chairs. This guy has obviously bike toured a lot.

He was really chatty and told us about how great Amsterdam was (and how pretty the girls were) as well as tips for our bikes and where to get gas for our stove.

After chatting with the Canadian, Matt had to use the bathroom again, but toilet paper was not provided in the stall. We thought it might be another paperless situation but they had signs that said we could ask for some at reception.

Matt did, was given a roll, carried out his business and then went to return the roll (assuming they would reuse it with someone else, there was no way every camper got there own roll). The lady working at the reception area was taken aback saying she didn't want our dirty toilet paper. Matt was thoroughly confused about the economic decisions in this campsite.

Tomorrow we head to Ghent, who is currently having a city festival. We are going to try a new methodology of navigation called the Knooppunt system. Basically we will be playing connect the dots through out Belgium (we start at 44 then head to 57 and so on). It seems like a great idea but we'll see when we get lost.

Today was a very relaxed day in Maastricht. We slept in late, toured the city for a little, and then came back to camp to hang out, cook dinner, and go to bed early.

To start with, I find the bike paths in the Netherlands amazing. Besides freeways, I have yet to find a road that wasn't bike friendly. Either with a totally separate bike path, and dedicated bike lane (usually panted red so everyone knows it's a bike lane), or a road so little traffic that it doesn't really matter. It's incredible.

After our typical breakfast of bread, salami, and cheese, we headed off into town to walk around. We just had two long days on the bikes and decided that we'd just take the bus into town. That was a mistake. The bus came every hour and ten minutes, and we had just missed the bus. Okay, we'll do the Dutch thing and bike into town. The bike was, as typical in the Netherlands, very flat, well signed, and on a bike path the entire way. It was also only 5km to the city, so it wasn't a long day at all.

After getting I into Maastricht we found bike parking (see the picture above) and added our bikes to the mass of other bikes parked in the lot. We then walked around the city, not looking for anything in particular.

We came across the tourist office, and Matt looked inside for a bike map. Unfortunately, they stopped giving out bike maps a year or so ago because people were just using google maps instead. This is a little annoying when you have slow data, and have to wait for the phone to load every time, but we can deal with it.

We continued to walk around town, and looked for a place for lunch. We found some nice outdoor seating overlooking the central square, and ordered lunch. We had sandwiches and something that was potatoes, beef, and something else deep fried in bread crumbs. (Like a chicken nugget, but with gravy on the inside. The Dutch word for this was something that started with a k I believe.)

After lunch, we went to a grocery store to pick up food, and then just biked around the city for an hour before returning to camp.

I'm sorry we don't have more pictures, as it's quite a beautiful city. We saw the university district, bridges and churches, and lots and lots of locals on bikes. I now understand the bikes really aren't just a thing in Amsterdam (although they take bikes to another level there) but a thing across the whole country.

After touring Maastricht we came back to the campground to relax and cook dinner. There are a lot of other bike tours here, and we talked with a few other couples touring. One did 150km today, and are significantly older than us, so that made our 160km day feel much less impressive. The wife however was not very happy with the distance.

Tomorrow we leave the Netherlands again, and head back into Belgium. We're headed to Antwerp, were we will stay in the middle of the city, and then to Ghent, where we will see the end of their week long festival. We're looking forward to that. Should be a fun final week of the trip.

Today we biked along the vehnbahn (the rail trail we have been following) through the Ardennes to Aachen, Germany. From there we biked to Maastricht, Netherlands to make for another long 120 km day.

The rail trail made the route through the Ardennes very scenic and much easier than it should be in the terrain. We passed many rolling hills but stayed on a 2% grade the entire time.

That being said, we were surprised how much a 2% grade affects the speed of the bikes. We were able to go 10 km/hr faster on the down hills than the up hills. It maybe due to some sort of psychological difference but to any Newtonian physics buffs reading, feel free to weigh in.

We passed many pine forests and rolling hills, the trip it quite a nice one for anyone looking to bike through Europe. It was also really well travelled which was a surprise to us. Mark and Matt were able to get some pictures as well.

After arriving in Aachen we set out for Maastricht and some food vendor (a restaurant would not do based on how bad we smelled).

After just coming into the Netherlands we found a small market and stopped to buy some food. The food was really cheap! Four cartons of strawberries for 2 euros! The vendors were are yelling out in Dutch to try and sell their products but obviously we had no ideas. Besides strawberries we also grabbed some Stroopwaffles (a Dutch favorite of the twins) as a small pick me up.

After the market we continued on the Maastricht. As a warning to others who bike through the Netherlands, it is definitely not flat near Maastricht!

Our campsite is a couple kilometers south of the city but has free showers so we're all happy campers. Upon arrival Mark went off in search of gas and Matt and Nate went to get groceries.

Of note: Nate was actually carded at the grocery store, in a country where the drinking age for beer is (we believe, but have not double checked) 18. The cashier actually apologized to Nate after he handed her his passport. I guess that beard isn't doing the work he thought it was.

Dinner was brats, bread, noodles, and vegetables along with some of the left over strawberries. After finishing our dinner and getting clean in the shower it's bed time after a long day of hiking.

Tomorrow is our last rest day and will be spent exploring Maastricht.

Today was the first day we deviated from our normal plan and used the train. Turns out the Ardennes have more ups and downs then we expected, and the train was only 2 euros. It doesn't get much cheaper then that.

We left the campsite in Luxembourg a little before 9 in a drizzling rain and dropped into the valley that divides the city, and headed north. With a little help from our phones we found the bike route we wanted and were cruising down the river valley. Pretty shortly, however, we started to run into hills. While nothing was a bad as Switzerland, the rolling hills still were annoying as we biked up one, and down into the next valley.

A little ways into our ride we ran across a couple that was stuck on the side of the bike path. They had a flat tire, and were out of glue. We let them use some of ours and chatted as they fixed their bike. Turns out they were a couple from The Netherlands biking to Luxembourg City. They had just come from the route we would be biking in the coming hours, and gave us some clutch information (especially to just take the train.) We told them we had been biking through Switzerland, and they seemed thoroughly unimpressed, until they realized that was actually biked multiple passes. Then they questioned the fact that three recent college graduates would, by choice, bike over passes in Switzerland.

After the tube was patched, we were back on our way north. It was still drizzling on and off, but the rain was nice as we powered up into the Ardennes. We had two monster climbs, and ended up at s no name train station around 12:00pm. At this point, there was supposedly a bike route from this station to St. Vith, but the tickets only cost to Euros, and from the end of the train we could take a rail trail to St. Vith. We opted for that, and sat to wait for the train.

After the train ride, on which we were probably the only people, we were in high spirits and Matt pronounced the end of climbing on the trip. "It says here a max of a 2% grade." Well, that wasn't true. As we rounded the next corner, there was a sign for a 10% grade ahead. Luckily it was short and sweet, and there were only three of them total along the route.

At some point along the way we hit the 2000km mark on our trip. We think by the time were down we will hit 1500 miles.

We didn't roll into the campsite until 4:30 or so. The campsite is way out of town (by 10 km or so) but it's a bumping place. There's a kids camp going on right now, and we got a full dance routine during dinner. Matt as a video of a bunch of Belgian and Dutch kids doing a line dance to a German version of Cotton Eyed Joe. It was quite amusing.

By now the rain has subsided, but not the kids. Hopefully they'll go away with the sun. Tomorrow is another 100km+ day to Maastricht!

Today Mark and Matt went to church and then met Nate in the city to explore the town. There were a lot of suggestions but we picked the American WWII memorial.

The memorial was just outside the city but between a bus ride and short walk it was pretty easy to get too.

Walking through the memorial was a quite an experience and put our trip in a new light. A lot of the men buried must have been our age. A special thanks to them for allowing us to tour these parts of Europe today.

The memorial was beautiful. The grass was perfectly manicured and the crosses were in perfect alignment. I could write on about it but we took a lot of pictures that I'll let speak for themselves.

Of note, General Patton was buried here.

After the memorial Nate went back to the campsite and Mark and Matt went to explore the old fortress.

Our first stop was at the oldest cathedral in Luxembourg built in 957.

(of which I could've sworn I had a picture, but j guess not)

Next we walked an old castle wall which overlooked the castle and old defensive walls. Turns out Luxembourg has a pretty war torn history starting all the way back to the Romans. (Not to mention also a place of conflict in WWI and WWII).

If we had another day here I would do one of the tours here. They are 12€ but all the signs are in French or German (2 of the 3 official languages here, the last being Luxembourgish) and the web and brochures can only tell you some much.

On a nerdy note, Luxembourg City has amazing city wide wifi. It's the best large wifi network I have seen in any city.

Back at camp we ran into our typical Sunday problem. We forgot that everything closes on Sunday! Also, we were out of gas. We were able to buy noodles and sauce at the camp store (side note: all the campsites here have camp stores) but heat was an issue.

We were about to give up when Nate remembered someone has used the BBQ to grill early. The hadn't used charcoal but the ashes from a fire. Using some magical blowing technique Nate was able to reheat the coals and with constant work was able to get the water boiling without 15 mins. Problem solved.

While eating with talked with some younger guys who are riding the train around Europe. They were from Austria and spoke great English. After this trip the have mandatory conscription in the Austrian army for 6 months. One of them is joining the red cross for 9 months instead. They were a great group of guys who had some great stories from their trips.

Tomorrow is another day on the bike. We are headed up to St. Vith (an town which we learned today was hammered during the Battle of the Bulge).