In Belgium and holding out for the weather and Customs

Ran into a couple of unexpected snags over the past week - nothing serious and probably will work out for the better. I still don't have the Beemer out of Customs yet and that probably won't happen until early next week. Difficulties started back in Canada. The truck that was shipping the bike and crate to the port facility in Montreal broke down and the bike didn't make the shipping deadline so had to go a week late (sailings are weekly - or in this case should be spelled weakly) Anyway, this introduced a 7 day delay in getting the bike on the ground here in Antwerp. Now the bike is here but there are complications with the Customs folks and they don't work on weekends. No really... Should be sorted out by early next week and on the road.

Believe me, I am thankful for this delay. The weather across northern Europe and UK has been pretty unforgiving with heavy rains and winds. I have been up on the Atlantic coast of the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the past week and the winds reached gale force a couple of days in a row. Not sure what that would have been like on a bike and sleeping in a 1 person tent but I imagine it would have been pretty terrifying.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I rented a little Citreon C1 with unlimited mileage. Avis is going to have a hernia when they see the odometer on this puppy when I return it. In the week that I have had it, I have been to Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium!

I wish I could have seen more of Austria, southern Germany and Switzerland. I covered a lot of ground in just two days. It is really beautiful as you can well imagine. Easy going lifestyle, friendly people and great roads. The cities are like any big Eoropean city. Rich with history and unbelievable architecture. Other parts of the cities are pretty tied, worn down lookiing and smeared with unintelligible graffiti. Such a shame. I will aviod cities for the rest of this trip and as Martha Steward says "that is a good thing".

Going to have to plan a trip with Lill to cover that area for sure. She would love it!

You can see a picture of the car here: http://www.citroen.co.uk/offers/promotion.asp?promotype=C1

So, it is now the 07 day of the 07th month of the 07th year and I had hoped to be in London at MI-6 today. However, knowing that there would be a delay getting the bike in Antwerp, I took my picture infront of MI-6 last week when I was there. Sneaky eh? It is a secret so don't tell anyone! But, I wanted to have 7 countries in 7 days etc and I was able to do it! Not totally as planned and in fact, I may have to change the tour from the Bond Tour to the Smart Tour after Maxwell Smart - "I missed it by this much Chief" Anyway, given the weather and wind, I am grateful to be safely stranded in Antwerp for the time being. I am making day journeys to many of the WWII and WWI battle sites and beach heads. It is really sobering to see these locations and to pay respects to the poor souls who lost their lives so that guys like me have the freedoms that I have. To say that it make you grareful is to grossly understate things.

Must run. I haven't had breakfast yet and .....just let me just say that Belgian Waffles with whipped cream should be a day starter for everyone!

All the best
D