Help! My bike is lost!

Since my culture plates were incubating in the lab incubator during the day, I decided to take a sightseeing detour to Brugge, a quaint city I've been told by many is a must see . While switching trains in Ghent, I had some extra time so I went out the back side of the station and clicked a few pictures of the masses of bikes. I estimated that there were 3000 bikes based on a row count. There was even double-decker parking available and a huge full-service mechanic shop just for bikes immediately adjacent to the huge parking lot. Can you imagine downtown Kingston with 1500 bikes in one spot (Ghent is about twice the size of K-town)?

 Bikes, bikes and more bikes at Gent-St. Pieters train station (this is the Flemish way of spelling it)

Double-decker parking!

 One part of the bike (fiet=bicycles in Flemish) mechanic shop (the main mechanic shop is not shown)









Brugge was indeed a fantastic tourist spot with majestic cathedrals, small cobbled lanes, an amazing bell tower, tons of chocolate boutiques, etc. After my quick visit I had to finish off my stay with a Belgian waffle, of course, covered in chocolate sauce - pure decadence! I was going to take a picture but it was devoured too swiftly. As you can see, the weather is still fantastic - sunny everyday with fog in the morning burning off, then up to 10-15C, no wind. I took a picture of this tree - white roses growing on this! Behind it was a whole garden of red rose bushes. Is this really the end of November (sorry to my Kingston friends who had snow today)? I think I can get used to riding here all year round. Wherever I go there are groups of road riders in twos, threes or on Sundays 10-20s along the canal and of course cycling commuters everywhere.

White roses growing on a tree in late November!












Back in Oudenaarde, I headed over to the Donk for a CX skills training session. The trails were much more slick and muddy today and I came back covered in mud. I love the power washer!