With the End to End completed, today I cycled from St Vith to the train station at Spa to head home. To my delight, I realised I could do the entire 35-mile trip on the RAVeL network: Belgium’s excellent paved, wide, smooth, car-free cycleway system, generally on towpaths or railtrails.
Most of the day there was not a car to be seen or heard. Except when the railtrail passed over the racing circuit at Francorchamps, Belgium’s F1 venue, when you could hear nothing else but the scream of engines.
Its website claims it as the ‘most beautiful circuit in the world’. Hmm, doesn’t say anything about the horrible din.
Otherwise, a beautiful, relaxing day of stress-free riding in fine weather. Think Maurice Ravel’s G major piano concerto slow movement, Jeux d’eau, or the Tombeau de Couperin. Lush, smooth, precision-engineered, soul-stirring: same applies, whether Ravel or RAVeL.
Miles today: 35
