day three

Today we crossed the border into Belgium. It was a difficult day for Sha. Her knee was still bothering her and today was when the hills began. While it did rain for much of the day, it was lighter than the previous day and there were some dry, if not sunny, times.

Around lunchtime, Sha was reaching the same point I had the day before. Her knee was in a lot of pain and she felt that if she did not rest it, she would seriously injure herself. She would take the bus into camp. A part of me wanted to keep riding, because I was feeling ok, but I realized that it was more important to support Sha. She had made a big sacrifice in her life and worked very hard to get here. We both rode the bus to camp.

Camp that night was in the city of Namur on the grounds of an ancient citadel that used to be one of the most coveted and powerful in the area. Because of the rain and the rocky ground, most people had decided that they didn’t want to set up a tent and just slept in the main dining area. Somehow, I didn’t want to do that, and managed to set up a tent anyway.

That night, they used some of the buses to take people into town. We got to walk around the streets of this incredible place. We stopped at a deli to pick up Belgian chocolate and then a chocolatier for some truffles. Before heading back to camp, we stopped at a café where we met some other riders who were drying their wet clothes at a laundromat across the street! I got to have Chimay (my favorite beer) in Belgium. They served it with an orange aperitif called Picon. Yum. I saw Picon advertised all throughout Belgium and France, but when I tried to find some in Paris to bring home, I couldn’t find it anywhere.

It was a good thing we decided to pitch a tent. Even though we were on top of a hill, it rained so hard that night that the dining tent that many people had slept in flooded.