Back from another short holiday

Today I returned from another short bicycle holiday. Some time ago, my wife and me got an offer to spend a week in a cabin in Moerzeke, a small town in the provence of East-Flanders. Last week Saturday, I rode my XP to Moerzeke, which turned out to be around 65 miles from home (isn't it cool to ride your bike to your holidays' destination ???). Moerzeke is situated close to the river Scheldt which runs a part through the west of Belgium. They just finished completing a marked bikeroute all across the provence, which means that there are over 600 miles of bike routes, most of them car free ! Unbelievable ! I spent most of the times with my XP on the riverbanks, it was awesome to ride that close to the river and only meet other cyclists or pedestrians. Of course I did have to spend some time with my wife during last week , but still I managed to ride over 350 miles this week !

Miles and miles of car-free roads ....

Weather was more autumn-like, with lots of wind and showers, but I still could ride my bike a couple of hours every day. There are ferries to take you across the river, and they only take bicyclists and pedestrians. They cross the river every half hour at several places, making it very easy to pick a route. There's no fee to pay, since all the ferries are working for the Flamish Government, very cool ! At several times, the ferry came to pick me up as a sole passenger, now that's what I call pure luxuary, to have the whole ferry to yourself ;-)

Ferry on the other side of the river ...

This week proved again that the XP is the ultimate touring bike, IF transporting it is no issue. Despite the sometimes strong headwinds, I never felt uncomfortable on it and felt like I could ride it all day. Sure, there are faster bikes out there, but none of them are as comfortable as the XP, which still stays my favorite tourer ....