Day 7 - Thorn-Liege, Belguim - Sept. 1

The top photo is in Belguim - lovely old castle. The second one shows what making lunch looks like each morning.  Next comes our morning "koffie met Limburgse Vlaai"  - that was very good.

Another country and  now the difficulty with languages starts....we're in Belguim and we have heard a variety of different languages - we're still hearing some Dutch, some other dialect and French...good thing Bernie, Anna and John DeVries can speak the French language.  Most of the group can understand Dutch and make themselves understood in it. That sure was helpful in Holland when we needed to ask for directions or where some place was.  It was another perfect day - sunshine and warmer temperatures the whole day for the cyclists.   We were so blessed by this.

The graveyard beside the church

We left Thorn late this morning so we could do a walking tour of this very old city - it's called the white city because all the buildings have been painted white.  There is a huge big church right in the centre of the town - very impressive building - I'm sure we will post a picture of it sometime soon.
The countryside is starting to change - some rolling hills are there - mind you the cyclists are following the Maas River for most of the day today so are not aware of it yet. Some of the towns/cities we passed through today are Maaseik, Dilsen, and Maastricht.  The last 10 kilometres today was through the city of Liege - it was tough going during rush hour traffic and cobblestones for some of the way.  The cyclists teeth were rattling, not from the cold though.
Tonight we are staying at a  200 bed youth hostel - very nice building in the middle of the city.  The accommodations are very clean and well kept.  We were served a 4 course meal here as well - not as elaborate as the last 2 nights but very adequate and good after an 80 kilometer day.  We've made lunches already tonight as tomorrow is going to be a very long tough day - 160 kilometres so we want to be on the road as early as possible.

Total kilometres - 80       Flats   0        Total flats   9