Long Overdue!

I have gotten lazy and the countries went so quick. We were last heard of in France (northern that is). I believe the next day of riding we accomplished was just south of the French-Belgium border. We continued to ride into really strong head winds. Condition, which make riding a bike somewhat miserable. There is no break from peddeling, up or down the hills. We found many more hills in northern France. Our morning riding into Belgium was fantastic the lovely GPS took us on a "paved road" which was more or less a grass walking trail. We enjoyed the mist and light sprinkle as we inched closer to Belgium. Upon arriving we were saddened to not have a sign but signs for chocolate shops lined the road. We had been wondering what type of terrain Belgium might offer. For the first twenty kilometers or so it seemed to be gradually down hill. We joked that Belgium must be all down hill.
In the first big town we find ourselves in what do we see two, not one but two Chinese food restaurants. Once Georgias mind was set there was no stopping her. Unfortunately those two didn't pan out. We continued on our route. Within seconds what did we see a third Chinese food restueraunt. Dumplings here we come. After a lovely meal we hit the road. We had no idea where we were going so we simply went north. Emmas map was going to run out soon and we were all very unfamiliar with Belgium. Mid afternoon and the sun was shunning things were looking up. That changed rather quickly. We soon found ourselves in an epic lightening storm. We re-routed to the closest campground 14km down the busy road. Luckily there was a bike shoulder, however it was also acting as a drainage ditch. The lightening was striking within miles of where we were. We wondered about stopping but there was only hilly fields and large trees which didn't seem safe. We road on and made it to our campsite. After setting up and getting ready to settle in the rain had stopped. Our stuff was wet from the morning so the next day we waited for the sun to fight its way out, hoping it would dry our things. We have since read up on riding in lightening storms and proper procedure.
We knew Belgium was small but we didn't really think it we would only be one full day in it. On our second day we were in need of, what else, food and a map. After three grocery store failures and no map and a completely unrecognizable langue later we found our selves full on food and rushing northward new map in hand. We arrived at a campground and within seconds a lightning storm surged up. It was the most comical quickest campsite set up we have ever had. After fully unpacking the rain had stopped and the wind had calmed. We woke up our third day in Belgium and by eleven we were in the Netherlands/Holland. The next available Internet time we looked up the size of Belgium which is comparable to the size of Massachusetts. By the time we had entered the Netherlands we had truly left all the hills behind. However a country known for it's windmills should have been a good hint. We found a lot of wind, and unfortunately it wasn't going in our favor. We pushed forward in some extremely windy sections, like the narrow bridges and dike system in western Holland or Zeeland.
The Netherlands is amazing on a bicycle (minus the wind if it is not in your favor) there are bike paths everywhere and everyone is on a bike. It is really overwhelming at first but I have gotten completely used to it. We are now in northern Holland making our way to Germany then over to Denmark. The winds have calmed slightly as we are a little more inland but they are still presistsnt. We did have a bit of a tail wind today!!
Sorry about the long wait, it will be quicker next time.

Photo: a drying moment at our first campsite in Belgium.