Hopefully I've got my major 'whoopsy' out of the way. I managed to pack everything except my powerlead adaptor, without which I couldn't charge my PC, my phone my SRM etc. therefore no communications!!!! Duh!
I tried the two big electrical stores in the nearest big town of Aalst without any luck so I fgured I was down to a choice of one location, a major international airport. I remember Brussels and its airport from my working days, difficult to negotiate and crowded, so I knew I wasn't up to that on Saturday while I was short on sleep and jet lagged so I went to bed instead, 11 hours sleep and I certainly felt a lot better. So I went this morning at 8.30 after my breakfast thinking it would be quieter early in the day. The roads where OK, short term airport parking was OK but the airport itself was a zoo! but then July 1st is the start of the holiday season here and it showed.
Airport stores where not in abundant supply but I managed to find a store with a selection of plug adaptors, three of the sort I needed, so I bought two and hightailed it out of there as quickly as I could. At least I am on the 'air' now.
My trip was OK, but then I fly business class to make it as painless as possible but even then they tried to charge me for my bike as excess baggage. Since my baggage allowance was 35kg and I was only 3 kg overweight a short conversation ensued which resulted in commonsense prevailing, no excess charges.
The first day is always tiring, I actually arrived in Schiphol Amsterdam at 6am, I was expecting 7am, fortunately the Hertz desk was open, most of the competition didn't open until later. My car got upgraded to a sporty 6 speed manual box Renault, having spent the last 8 years driving automatic boxes, that certainly gets your attention early in the morning and jet lagged I can tell you but I was soon enjoying using the gear stick and clutch again, not exactly my Porsche Carrera of old but enjoyable nonetheless.
The 2 1/2 hour drive from Amsterdam is easy enough, after stopping off at the big big bike shop in Aalst for a few essentials that were not worth bringing, a stop at the greengrocers, where the lady remembered me from the last trip which was nice, picked up some fruit supplies, finally a stop at the super market for a few healthy snacks and I was ready to check in to my hotel.
Saturday afternoon I was a bit of a zombie, just trying to stay awake. I got all my stuff out of the car, my baggage, bike and my shopping. Unpacked and rebuilt my bike, had a welcome shower and lay on the bed to watch stage one of the tour which was showing on four different channels I think it its entirety, mistake, right from the off I was struggling to stay awake. It had beem my intention to try and stay awake until around 8pm then get a good sleep. I wa asleep before 6pm and finally got up about 6.30am feeling a whole heap better I can tell you.
So after a quick trip to Brussels Zaventem airport I wanted to do 3 hours just turning the legs over. As it was I was feeling quite frisky for the first hour or so and pushed on quite hard, especially up some of the rolling hills, the power numbers where promising I felt. The middle hour I was on road that I didn't know where I was, basically 'winging'it, just when I thought I should resort to the map in my pocket I suddenly realised I was on a road I knew well but going the wrong way! I had managed to ride a complete circle despite trying to ride a straight line. I always consider I have a really good sense of direction but the winding lanes of Belgium really threw me out, hopefully I'll get better as the weeks roll on. The trouble is that I can't remember all the village names, or at least can't remember them in context and frequently the theme of signs that I was following just stopped.
Still I got my 3 hours in, the weather was sunny and back in time for the tour TTT so its all good.
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