The Big Green Egg...

We are the first people in MONS town square early Monday morning so photograph the beautiful old town hall without anyone in the foreground. There is a lot of the ancient town intact including an enormous bell tower, but it all needs some TLC. Extensive works have just started to spruce everything up for 2014, the 100th anniversary of the battle for Mons. This first battle of the Great War started on the outskirts at NIMY, where the Germans were completely taken by surprise at the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force. The result was the first shot fired by a British soldier on the continent since Waterloo. This was rapidly followed by the awarding of the 1st 2 VCs of the war to 2 machine gunners who held the railway bridge against enormous odds.
We cycle down the side of this canal and under the very same bridge, to carry on for miles without seeing a soul. Then we head south into the low hills of a nature park, near the border with France.
Warm Showers host Lionel and his family live in a renovated village farmhouse here, and have just returned from a trip to Paris Disney, with their 2 little boys. We are treated to delicious homegrown pumpkin soup then a barbecue cooked on a fantastic piece of American kit called a Big Green Egg (A green, egg-shaped ceramic barbie). With the meat cooked, and the fire out, there is enough heat still to cook a perfect loaf of bread for breakfast. Lionel also has some smart cycling kit including an aluminium recumbent bike.
In all we meet 4 generations of the family as Grandma and Great-Grandma arrive in the morning to look after the boys whilst Mum and Dad drive to their jobs in Brussels.
We join the rush hour traffic too for a few miles, then escape to a very wide canal, seeing no-one for hours, only passing coal barges. At an enormous deep lock 2 large pleasure boats are like toys at the bottom. The huge guillotine of a gate lifts up for the boats to pass under after they have risen up this huge water step. The lock was built in the 60s, replacing 13 smaller locks.
The cycle path then goes awry, leading us into a large wharf where coal is being unloaded from barges, swinging overhead and spilling great heaps in front of us! Our escape is through a working quarry so it is with relief we eventually make it over a bridge to a safer path.
TOURNAI is another lovely old town I'd never heard of! As well as the usual fine town hall on a cobbled Market, there is a covered 13c stone bridge, a Cathedral, and the tallest bell tower in Belgium at a whopping 70 m.
Back on the canal for a while, then across country, completing 60 miles at MENEN to look for a campsite and the famous Menen Gate. The tourist information lady pours cold water on both these plans. There is no campsite and the famous gate is at Ypres! We are too deflated to cycle on and stay the night in a bland hotel.
There is no photo with this blog as Mike was planning to take one of the gate - normal service should return with the next instalment.


Miles to date 4,269

Location:MONS to MENEN