Week 4 starts with another wonderful full breakfast courtesy of our Air BnB host, Luci. Mostly the same as the last 2 days but with a boiled egg served in an egg cup. You crack the shell and eat right out of the shell in the cup. A bike ride sometime today is on the plan and we are kind of close to Dunkirk, historic war town, and maybe we can find a ride around there along the ocean or canals. The car is loaded and off we travel, eventually aiming for Gemund Germany at the time share for the week. Dunkirk looks newer than I thought it would. Maybe some significant rebuilding since the wars. We drive around some and stop and look at our bike map of the area but can’t make heads or tails of the area. My coach plan is to do intervals today and with the clock ticking, time to go back to Gemund and ride there, sorry Dunkirk, not this time.
The drive is uneventful, GPS bringing us in by alternative highways. A stop at a service plaza for coffee and lunch. The car keeps flashing a dash message that says, Take A Break, with a small steaming coffee cup, dam it’s impatient. Surroundings start to look familiar as we get close to our destination even though we arrive via another direction. Riding bikes around here has made us aware of the area because we are constantly looking at a map to keep from getting lost on a bike.
Out of the car, unload and gear up to ride the ridge above us that is mostly flat and deserted highway with only a few hikers and dogs. Max, the Pomeranian would love this area to go for a walk. The warm up is a bit brisk, riding up some climbs to get to the flat but it feels good after sitting in a car for 4 hours. Hard work but good, time to get back, we have an appointment with the local brewery and schnitzel house, same as last Monday, seems fitting, nice place.
Tuesday, after a good sleep, into town for some tourist advice on today’s ride plus some groceries.Oh, and Bushy needs to post the miniature cobble stone he bought in the forest back to Australia. I’m not as excited about today’s ride but Bushy has a plan and as it plays out, it is a good plan. Back to the dam and Rurberg and then a bypass trail through the forest to a town called Schwammenaul, yea I don’t know how to pronounce it either, back to a main road that we were on a week ago that seems to climb forever.  and then drops back down into Gemund. We must be getting fitter because the climb doesn’t seem as bad. The cruel part is the last kilometer or so back to the time share, steepest part of the ride today and half of the hill is under construction so the surface is crap. No traffic this time so other than the dirt bucket above my head as I pass by the dig site, the climb is OK. 2 hour ride, good stuff. Even the sun came out for us the last 5 to 10 k of the day.
Snacks and recovery and time to wash clothes again, the time share has free washers and dryers to us, thank you.
The only snag is we left a good bike pump at the BnB in Lille so we need to drive back there on Friday before we return the Mercedes no later than 11:00 A.M. on Friday at the Brussels airport. Gonna be an early check out from Gemund to get that all in.