After a quick hoon around town, during which I nearly hit about a dozen tourists all up, I set out on this 100km mission at which point the heavens opened and pissed on me from a great height. My intended ride was a loop between Bruges and Ghent - a much larger city 40kms southeast of Bruges. However, I was to take a slighter longer route and make a couple detours along the way, so I expected it to be a 60km ride there, and a more direct 40km back.

The whole 100kms was to be entirely off-road (minus what I do in Ghent). All of Belgium is connected by cycle paths, most of them following canals, and what's more the whole country is as flat as a pancake - perfect :)

My first little detour outside of Bruges was the cute wee city of Damme, 6km northeast of Bruges.

Last time I was here there was a car show going on for old BMWs, and today it appeared to be old Porsches - a huge line of them were pulling out of town as I arrived.

The photos I subsequently took were rubbish thanks to the weather again, but during the whole weekend we did get two hours of sun, and it happened when Katie and I were back here the following day (more on that later).

Again, more photos of it all here.

It seems the Belgians have been doing a spot of tree felling since I was last here. Three years ago, this road looked like...

...this (much nicer!) And before anyone asks the obvious, yes I'm sure it's the same road hehe.

Back to the canals.

Nice day for a spot of fishing in the canal.

At this junction I was going head right towards Ghent. Three years ago I continued straight and over the Netherlands border to the small Dutch town of Sluis. As I got to this point, these two on the bikes were lost and asked if I knew the way to Sluis which of course I did - big moment for me to be able to direct foreigners in a foreign land hehe ;)

More missing trees (today on the left, three years ago on the right). What was wrong with the old ones?

So yes, 40-something kilometres to Ghent, the bulk of it following this canal which was littered with cyclists.

360 panorama of the path - nice! Full-size photo here.

You can't really see it here but Belgian horses seem to have very hairy ankles and look as though they're wearing flared pants hehe.

And Belgian cows seem a lot fatter than normal. Whatever they're feeding them, it's working!

I don't know what this is meant to be hahaha. It was in someone's back yard!

Another quick detour...

...along a main road for a kilometre (note the dedicated cycle lane - brilliant!)...

...and over the Netherlands border, for no reason other than it was right there and I felt like it :)

The first European to discover New Zealand was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642, and his Dutch mates later decided to name the new-found land after the Dutch province of Zeeland, and hence the name New Zealand was coined :)

The property on the right straddles the border crossing. I wonder which country appears on his mail.