Burn carbohydrates, not hydrocarbons. Eat Nutella.

9/13/10 - 9/14/10 Oostende to Oostduinkerke (30k)

Erin and McKayla started the day off with an invigorating, pre-breakfast run along the Belgian beach. We all enjoyed another respectable hostel breakfast, spoke French and Spanish with three Belgian girls who shared our hostel room with us, and we then headed along the Atlantic coast toward Oostduinkerke. We found our hostel in record time, and had the entire afternoon to explore the town, grocery shop, and find another "Fietsnetwerk" map, or LF cycling map of Belgium. In town, we sipped koffie and chocolat-chaud at a cafe and joined in on an outdoor jazzersize class for 8-year olds.
When we returned to our hostel, Amie selected our "arms and abs" routine for the day. We took full advantage of the playground for our arm exercises. We shared the hostel with about 150 Flemmish 13-year-olds on a school field trip, so I'm sure we got some funny looks as we were hanging upside-down on the various playground elements. We made a delicious stew for dinner, complete with white beans, tomato, potatoes, scallions, corn, and carrots. All of this, plus gouda cheese and a baguette, cost us only 7 Euros!

Oostduinkerke to Kortrijk (50k)

We had an early start this (Tuesday) morning, and made our way south to Ieper, Belgium. Despite a strong, cold cross/head wind, we moved fairly quickly through the LF trail system. We rode between farms, through small towns, on dirt paths, and along canals to reach the small city of Ieper before lunch (50k). We locked our bikes and walked around the city in search of an inexpensive cafe/bakery to warm-up in, but ended eating our lunch on a cold park bench. Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and hopped on a train to the city of Kortrijk, which is only about 30k from Lille, France. Tomorrow we plan to either bike or train to Lille, and then catch a train into Paris where we will spend the rest of the week! Let us know if you are in Paris, or if you know of any good biking routes in western France!