Verlaine

On Wednesday 17/03/2021 we departed at 09:00 for a bike ride to Verlaine, a small Walloon village in the province of Liège.

Five cyclists were ready at Houtemveld in Tienen and we picked up two more cyclists in Laar (a district of Landen).

These two cyclists left our group again on the way back at Walshouten, so we arrived back in Tienen with five.

The predicted weather was good this time.

At the start, there was a bit of drizzle and on the way back, a few short rain showers, but nothing too serious.

With the wind (2 Bf from the northwest) at our backs, we were already in Montenaken around 10:30, just before crossing the language border.

In this last Flemish village, we had our first picnic stop on a small grass field near the local electricity cabin.

Despite the numerous puddles, some of which were several dozen meters long, on the consolidation roads through the vast Haspengouw fields, we arrived at the shopping center of Verlaine around 12:30.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere to get Take Away coffee in the many shops present there.

So we continued cycling through the rain to the center of Verlaine, right near the church, the destination of this bike ride.

At the local butcher, the Evrard Boucherie, we had our lunch break under the corona tent for this establishment, as it was still raining at that moment.

After taking in the necessary calories and without rain, we began the journey back to Tienen.

Just outside the village of Verlaine on the way to the next village Haneffe, we made a stop at the local tumulus, a Gallo-Roman burial mound.

This tumulus was relocated back then (due to roadworks?) and is now located on publicly inaccessible private property.

With a few light rain showers still and the wind in our faces, it was still a reasonably tough return trip.

However, for my companions, all seasoned cyclists, this was not a problem.

The last stop under a laurel bush in Boëlhe, the ancestral village of the current haute finance family Boëhle, was rather poor.

Because even here, due to corona, there was again no room for us in the inn, despite it raining.

The last stage, on very familiar terrain, went, as usual, without problems and around 17:00 the towers of Tienen came back into view.

And around 17:15, I safely returned home and still had enough daylight to wash the worst mud off my bicycle.

Today we cycled 96.7 km at an average speed of 15.7 km/h.

We had 571.3 altitude meters to conquer and spent 6h08 actively on our bicycles.

To complete the ride to Verlaine successfully, we were away from home for over 8 hours.