Early Spring in Namur
I think spring is springing in Namur! Today we had a beautiful sunny day with the temperatures around 7 deg C outside, getting up to about 10 in the sun which is virtually summer compared to some of the subzero temperatures we’ve had this winter!
Since I’d bought a new bicycle recently (a Dahon Vitesse D7HG) I decided that now that it wasn’t snowy and icy and dark that it would be a great opportunity to “break it in” with more than just a trip to the post office. So I jumped on, unfolded it, and off we went!
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Here’s my new bike with the Citadelle de Namur in the background. Isn’t it cute? :D
I did a bit of a roundabout trip, and I think I did close to 20km total in about 2 hours. It was such a nice ride though, mostly flat along the river, that it hardly felt like much work at all, though I am certainly feeling it now! :) My original plan of riding along the Meuse down toward Andenne was foiled by roadworks blocking off the RAVel in that direction, so I decided instead to head the other direction up the Meuse and check out the little island I’d seen from the Citadelle as well as the giant lock there.
Firstly though, I met some friendly swans. They were courting each other, much like all the other swans I saw on my trip. One couple were being very lovey-dovey in the water, dancing around and nuzzling each other, it was really quite cool to watch (no photos though, since they were quite far away and in a lot of shadow).
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Swans and Geese on the Meuse
Further down the river I stopped to take some photos of the beautiful view back to the Citadelle on my real camera, it was so picture-postcard beautiful!
Namur
Namur
In that last picture you can see the island I went to look at. It’s a wildlife refuge, with no bridge, but I saw lots of swans and ducks and other birdlife in there from the shore.
I also had to cross the lock:
Meuse River Lock
I really had a lovely ride, and the bike seemed to hold up pretty well. It was lovely and smooth except where there were uneven cobblestones, and we even negotiated lots of muddy areas where the roadworks were going on - thank goodness for the mudflaps! Heh. I think my next trip will be in the Andenne direction, but on the other side of the Meuse this time :)
Mirrored from liedra dot net.