This is going to be one of those big vacations that will have a lot of emotional variety. The concern I experienced during all the days and nights of planning and hoping all the puzzle pieces fit properly. Airport departures and arrivals with bike cases are always unnerving, I’ve never permanently seen items go missing, but I did have a 2–3-day no luggage and no bike trip for a World Champ event. Getting to places and not knowing the language and try and piece things together, lots of other ups and downs. Transportation, transit, all the normal day to day things I don’t have to think about at home, not as easy.
Then there is always the “I gotta check out and move on” moments, especially when the time spent has been overall wonderful. Well, that’s today when we say goodbye to our week-long stay in Brussels. The lodging was great, the people we met have been very helpful and friendly. The sites, museums, architecture, way of life and culture have been refreshing and exhilarating. So long Brussels I say with some sadness.
However, The Forest is calling my name. One of my personal highlight days is at hand. We got the rental car yesterday, found a good place to park it last night and now, load up time. Oh, yeah, down 5 flights of stairs with the luggage but everything fits easily Ito the Toyota HRV Hybrid. I don’t have to totally disassemble the bike, just off with the front wheel, all packed and we wind our way through a part of Brussels we haven’t seen until today headed for ultimately Lille.
The in-car navigation works well, just must remember to pick a country first before looking for a city. It will not automatically find a town unless you have picked the right country. We are headed to an area of small country towns around the Forest of Arenberg, a renowned 2 kilometers long sector of the Paris-Roubaix bike race. Time to ride some extremely rough roads. It seems to take forever but finally we pull in at about 11.
Bike kit on, unload the bike and off I ride, the Forest is only about 1 kilometer ahead. Oh yes, it is as rough as I remember, 200 meters in and I’m already getting blisters, with gloves. I get through the Forest, Sector 19; just excited and happy I could do it again. Off down the official race route to ride sectors, 18, 17, 16 and then turn around and ride back across those sectors to the car. As I ride, I begin to realize the women’s Paris/Roubaix race is headed toward me on the same roads. Yikes, I need to stay alert! Someplace before sector 17, I make a wrong decision which gets me off course, I just don’t know it for a while until I am really lost. I end up in a town close to the start of the women’s race and I am waved off the course. The women have a slightly different route so trying to follow the yellow arrow route markers is no help, I can’t tell if I am on the women’s or the men’s route.
I get my phone out, hello Google maps, and try and find a way back which leads me onto cobbled roads that I have not done today and hardly anyone else has either from the looks of it. Then I’m on a gravel, mud hole, slimy, (you call this a road?), almost single track road and I finally see a county road with cars. Long story short, I make it back to the car with barely enough time to drive to our scheduled check in time of 16:30 in Lille. (Yes, 24-hour time, get used to it) I’m starving, thirsty, beat up, blistered and sweaty but I have a huge grin inside me!!! Yes, I’ve done the Forest of Arenberg for the second time in my life, and I would do it again.
We are now 1-kilometer from our Lille Airbnb, and it is 16:25 and we are stuck in traffic, Friday rush hour. I get my phone ready to message Emmanuel, our host, but no need, we make it. Mostly, I come to an intersection of 6-8 streets and there is no way to know which way to go. We make a right and stop in front of a Novotel Hotel, not nearly as flash as the Aussie ones. I call Emmanuel, we figure out how I can drive around the block and meet him in the street and he directs me into a parking garage entrance I would never have thought was a road I should take.
A bit more chaos getting parked, unloaded and up into the lodging (Yes more stairs to only the second floor) and then time to collapse. My cold virus is coming on strong, and I have no drugs to help and no pharmacy until Monday. Good thing we brought some food from Brussels, snacks, and time to relax and try and get a full night’s sleep. Glad to be unstressed for a while.