Fietspad

Finally the first Dutch word I learned has started to come in handy. The last few days I discovered a fietspad (bike path) that goes along the country side and farm country from just behind my house in Opwijk and leads to Aalst. There are some extensive fietspads all over Belgium and I'm looking forward to exploring them.

Today, I road from home to Aalst, about a 45-50 minute ride each way. The path meanders along farms and small towns and is sprinkled with tempting cafes and dirt roads that I can't help but to want to go down. There are even some trails with dirt jumps and birms (spelling?)that my friends and I would have killed to have growing up. As far as I could tell, these trails were well established and not in danger of being torn down by angry farmers, a luxury we didn't have as bikers in Davis.

Along the way, I enjoyed the company of almost every kind of farm animal there is. At the end of my trek, I also found a sweet wearhouse building covered in spray paint murals... I took video of it and will try to add it to the posting later. As for right now, I'm off to practice and then heading to the college town of Leuven for a night on the town with my teammate Bart.... Should be a blast, and I have been told not to expect to go to bed before 5... stay tuned to hear about the adventure