The home stretch

The state of (open/free) wifi access in Europe is still pretty weak so updates have been spotty plus we’ve been too busy to write much anyway!

Back in Gent to rest from our driving “vacation” and get ready to return to the real world. Having a coffee at a cafe on the vridagmarkt while the laundry spins. A most delightful way to do laundry.

Speaking of spins, we did one last spin in the alfa on saturday, running down to Poperinge (a chance to taste hommelbier at the source)

and Ypres before washing the car and heading to geert’s in muelebeke where the duetto will slumber for several months alongside geert’s mustang and vette. Geert showed us all the sights of muelebeke… we had grand meals (stofvlees van josianne is the best!), met some local celebs and hung out with the local cycling team post ride. The Morgenvrienden really have the club cycling thing down pat. Four groups of different abilities head off each Sunday am and all converge back at their local bar for beers and storytelling. Someday I’ll get the chance to ride with them. But will have to make sure not to drink so much the night before!

Our last day of the actual grand tour took us from Chausee sur Marne (not as exotic as it sounds) back to Belgium. Still had one or two fun excursions planned along the way. First was a stop at the old Reims Grand Prix course. I’ve always wanted to stop here to see the remains of the track. As the track used existing roads (which are still open roads) the stands, pits, etc are right at hand. It was exciting to see the stands and officials tower looking in the distance. We pulled in and a jag xk 150 from the uk had also stopped to pay tribute. We took a bunch of photos of course, walked the pit lane and then sped off for a fast lap 😉 sadly no souvenir vendors. Might be my next business.

We next set our sights on lunch. At Chimay. Another of those things we’ve longed to do for years but have never been able to pull off. The end of our trip has been blessed with unseasonably sunny and warm weather all the way into Belgium (here they’re breaking hi temp records set in the 1920’s) so it was extra special to sit outside to enjoy the special beers and cheeses produced here. We even had a view of the dairy cows likely responsible for the milk in the chimay cheeses and butter.

Race courses visited/driven on:
Spa Francorchamps (ended up on a part of the old course now lopped off since it no longer uses public roads as part of it’s track)

Nurburgring (lap of the nordschleife… Also possible to lap the modern F1 track but figured this was enough!)

Monaco grand prix course (missed the tunnel but did some minor parts of the course down by the waterfront… Not really a planned visit)

Reims gp course (lap and a half)
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Had we wanted to go nutty with race tracks there is also the mugello track near Florence, a track very near Pont du gard (we did also drive on part of the Chimay road course on our way out of chimay).

In the interests of domestic harmony I figured these four were enough!

Will they to do a bit of a wrap up upon our return to the USA. Tanks for coming along on the ride.