Today I am hoping for a more fun bike ride experience. Yesterdays Amstel Gold bike race started in today’s destination town. Again, not a very big drive, only about 35 km, half an hour plus traffic time in Liege. I have no expectations about Maastricht, having never been here before. None of these small towns have been a disappointment though.
We find the “Centrum” of town but no parking, so we roll back a few blocks to a larger inside parking space with a very friendly and cheerful owner waving us in. We find a space and walk to the office observing a fun collection of restored original Mini’s and Fiat 500’s. A car guy lives here! He waves me into his office, and we talk a bit, I ask about bike ride routes, and he says, get unloaded and meet me back in the office.
Vera is planning to walk a few blocks into town, and I get directions to a small town, Kanne, 5 km down the road back into Belgium and then a route through the country and small towns back along the Muse River to a larger lock and dam, the Ternaaien Lock. It’s an easy flat route with a small detour onto a single track around some minor construction, easy enough to navigate along with runners, walkers, and another bike or two.
I get to the lock, hardly winded. Now where? Time to try an adventure loop away from the river and hope I can return to town without an “Out and Back” route. For the first time this trip I find a set of trails and roadways that feed me back into the city. A fellow cyclist points me to the Centrum as I get into town.
Have I mentioned how much more I like these smaller, more manageable towns? Easier to navigate, some traffic but not crazy, fun views and easier biking opps! Back to the Centrum area and I wind around town finding a variety of cozy little nooks and cafes. Vera and I reconnect at an old church that has been transformed into an extremely upscale hotel. A walk back to the car to stash the bike and then a walk down to a fun cafe for a coffee and some lunch.
A few days back, we drove by the site of the battle of Waterloo, the downfall of Napoleon. We planned to stop and visit as we passed but I must have been asleep at the wheel, and we missed the turn off. We are leaving Maastricht early enough in the day and make a last-minute decision, drive to Waterloo, why not! It’s about an hour and a half drive plus as we run into severe weather, lightning, thunder, huge downpour, crazy winds, power lines and trees down along and onto the highway and of course major traffic slowdowns.
After some dreadfully slow last 5 to 10 km, we arrive. The place is mostly deserted as the weather has driven most tourists away. We enter the museum section, buy some tickets to “The Lion” and the “Panorama”. The Lion is a gigantic man-made earth mound, 266 steps up with a massive bronze Lion statue at the top. The weather is still a bit sketchy but up we climb. Fast at first and then slower, then a stop and a restart, numerous times. This is a steep climb! The view is spectacular as the mound is higher than anything else for miles, plus the dark threatening clouds make it eerie. We don’t say on top long as the winds are picking up again, easier climb down of course and then we get hit by major winds, rain and hail, run for it. Into the Panorama Building for safety.
The Panorama is exactly what it sounds like, maybe 5 stories tall, huge round building that has a massive panoramic painting of the battle of Waterloo. The info on site says this is one of the few remaining panoramas left in existence in the world. We climb up onto a platform about 20-30 feet up and then we can walk around the inside and view the battle from a 360-degree view. Quite impressive.
We stop at the cafe to get a snack for the road, but the cafe just closed so a beer, a coffee and a bowl of peanuts will have to suffice.
Luckily, the storm mostly passed and the 1.5-hour drive back to Liege is uneventful other that the car Nav getting confused in the Liege construction again. Phone Google Maps to the rescue.
Tomorrow’s plan, who knows, the weather is predicted to be more of what we have seen, cool, windy, lots of rain. Fingers crossed that the weather app is wrong for at least some of the day.