This was a very difficult day. After three hours of sleep (my roommate for the night snored--and I had even thought to bring earplugs, which proved useless), I was up and on a train, bike and all, out of Gent before 9:00. This train ran from Gent to Brussels, and it being a Monday morning, we were in the midst of rush hour. This meant that we had to do a bit of pleading to get our bikes onto the train. In the Brussels Midi station, we changed for a train to Jemelle, which involved more pleading. This train was full of various troops of some Belgian version of the Boy and/or Girl Scouts with backpacks and all. But by 11:30, quite worn, Stephannie, Carl, Melinda, and I were in Jemelle, and could start riding.

Jemelle is in southern Belgium, on the edge of the Ardennes. The flat riding along canals was over. We rode first to Han-sur-Lesse, over some small to medium hills, and then stopped for lunch. Out of Han-sur-Lesse, Carl and Melinda quickly left Stephannie and I behind. The hills started in earnest, and didn't really stop for the rest of the day. It was also quite sunny and warm, except for one spectacluar thunderstorm that almost overtook us in a field high on a plateau (and then a smaller shower later). I was almost certain that I would be struck by lightning. Luckily, we came almost immediately upon a very wide highway overpass under which we waited out the storm.

We rode up one particularly nasty hill into Daverdisse, and according to our route sheet, had only 5k to go to Redu, where we could turn off to catch a train the rest of the way into Arlon. Heading out of Daverdisse, we rode at least 4k downhill, and the rain came again. After waiting it out under trees, we started riding, and found ourselves climbing steeply for at least another 3k. At the top of the hill, we rode headlong into cows being herded down the road. Cows are actually very large and frightening to nearly run into on a bike. Shortly thereafter, we were in Redu. It was late afternoon, and I was spent and shaking, but now we could at least turn off and head for the train station at Poix-St.-Hubert. I had a Coke and some cookies, and with my sugar level restored, we started off.

From Redu to Poix-St.-Hubert was generally downhill, but it still took nearly an hour. Once there, we had to wait almost another hour for the train to Libramont and then Arlon. Waiting for the train, I was as drained and empty (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) as I've ever been. Just before the train came, Martin, my roommate from the night before, caught up with us. On the train from Libramont to Arlon, it started to rain yet again, though the sun was still shining. Plunging into the fields along the tracks, we saw the most clearly-defined rainbow I've ever seen .

We reached the hotel in Arlon at around 8:00 that evening, and were the first people there, except for Melinda. (Carl had decided to ride the whole way to Arlon, which took him on a closed highway, and got him in after us.) Our coordinator and a couple of other people had shown up by 9:00, and we headed out to dinner. We went to a spectacular French restaurant for a dinner that lasted for four hours and several bottles of wine. About half an hour after we returned to the hotel, George and Eric bicycled up the road to the hotel. It was nearly 2:00 in the morning.

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