Kayaking

“Il n’y a jamais deux sans trois” or as the Germans say “Aller guten Dinge sind drei”; which means that if you have two of a kind, a third one is likely to follow.

But, after two totally rotten summers in Belgium, the third one makes all efforts to be the exception confirming the rule: beautiful, sunny and warm interrupted only by occasional rain so that people don’t get overly enthousiastic.

Too late; far too late. Especially after last Saturday which was spent kayaking down the Lesse – a river close to Dinant. It’s really easy: You book in advance; go there on time and take a train ride up the river which you then paddle down in a boat kayak. If the staff at the registration get’s it wrong; you’ll even be able to enjoy the long tour (21 km) instead of the short one (12 km) which roughly means a 5 hour paddling including some good breaks in the sunshine and very heavy arms the next day.

I still can’t make up my mind of what was better: Watching people suffer shipwreck in the most stupid ways or admiring the very beautiful landscape around you. Most likely it was the combination of both 🙂

More information on here; needless to say that there were hundreds of people doing the same on this warm and sunny day but hey; if you want to be alone; just come on a rainy November day. But I guarantee; it will be less fun.

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Summer cycling

Despite the concrete buildings and the huge amount of people in summer, the Belgian cost can be very nice if only you take a bike and a friend with you and cycle around. No need to emphasize that good weather makes a difference too…

Anyway, we took the train to Knokke and after a short stop at the tourist office where a very helpful and kind lady answered all our questions, we went up north, always direction of the Netherlands, noticing hardly the crossing of the border. It’s a wide, open land with large dunes, white soft sand and low trees and bushes resisting the ever blowing wind.

The weather was warm and sunny; we even went for a swim in the sea… Once you are actually in the water, it feels good; to get in is the challenge.

After an additional side trip in the inner country along the canals, a stop for ice cream and another stop at an amazingly beautiful flower meadow, the sitting places in the return train to BXL were more than welcome.

Summertime

Working during the summer while everybody else is on holiday, or nearly, is actually not that bad. First of all, the phone is not ringing every now and then, the restaurants and pubs of the city are unusually empty (if they are not closed for annual leave, soit) and you can benefit from all the events going on whether they are for tourists or for the indigenous people like “Bruxelles les bains” or “Brussels’ Flowercarpet“.

Et de toute façon, l’été à Bruxelles, ça se résume à un jour ensoleillé par semaine…