Dag 4: Diest - Namen (81 km)

The day started cloudy and remained so till late afternoon; good cycling weather. In a way today's trip was a little boring since most of the time we followed an old train track from Diest to Namur, the first 60-70 kms steadily going upward and the last 10 straight down to the valley oh the Sambre and Maas. Climbing was no a problem. What hampered were the numerous streets that intersected our track. Although Belgian drivers are extremely polite, they stop for cyclists even if they have priority, we never took the risk to cross those streets blindly. We actually have met one single car that didn't stop, a Fiat with a Dutch numberplate.

As we had promised ourselves to do some cultural visits, we made the detour to Zoutleeuw ('Saltlion'), a commercial centre in the Middle Ages with a huge cathedral and enormous town hall, now an historical treasure in the rural greens. The only pub serves excellent cappuccino. And the Tai Restaurant in Namur is worth a visit too.

Today we entered French speaking Belgium and tomorrow we hope to cross the French border. We'll miss the friendly Belgian cyclists who joined us on our trip and simply started a conversation about our whereabouts.