Strangely, my journal is missing a day 🙂 There is no Day 21!!
Day 19 – Barvaux sur Oerthe to Han sur Lesse (via Rochefort)
- out of the campsite at 8am, a new record for an early start
- good easy ride mainly on cycle paths except for the approach to Rochefort which was on a fairly busy open road – I think I did wander off the path a little here though
- I saw a very large dog, sitting very still, looking like he was practising mindfulness
- main attraction in Han sur Lesse is the cave walk – a beautiful cave system stretching for about xxxx kms – some impressions of the cave: alien forms hanging from the roof, sometimes reminiscent of body parts, sexual organs; some look like temples, curtains, folds of an accordian, some are like small cities or fortresses; ‘cities’ that look like they are out of the film ‘Inception;’ these look like the Sagrada Famiglia in Barcelona; the heads of cauliflower piled one on top of the other; lungs, intestines
- strangely, the end of the tour (which was conducted in Dutch) there is an almighty ‘bang!’ from a cannon – I have no idea why they do this, but it’s terrifying if you are not expecting it.
Day 20 – Han sur Lesse to Bastogne – 54 km cycling
- easy ride today
- Bastogne not the most visually appealing city – but pretty much destroyed during WWII – this was where the Battle of the Bulge occurred
- walked in to the Plaza McAuliffe, which is the centre, with some nice restaurants around but the plaza itself is mainly a carpark – main attraction there is the recovered American WWII tank the ‘Barracuda’ that has the massive shell hole that took it out of the war still visible
- I am the only person in the tent field of the campsite tonight!
Day 22 – Bastogne
- rather nice breakfast in Plaza McAuliffe
- went looking for Bastogne Barracks which houses a museum. Closed. Grrr…
- then up to the large American memorial outside of town and the Battle of the Bulge Museum – the American memorial, a large star-shaped edifice, has the most amazing panorama!
- I had to shush a noisy little girl who was yelling from the bottom to her parent at the top of the memorial. Shush little girl!!
- laundry day!! Woohoo!!
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