Hitting the hills

Day 14 consisted of following the 'Canal Albert' from Maastricht to Vise, then gradually rising out of the valley and heading towards Verviers. I got lost for about 20 minutes in Verviers due to non existant signs, which turned out to be caused by the road I should've taken being completely dug up by roadworkers. Using my best french to navigate out of the city, I soon made it to Theux, where I camped for the night in a campsite at the top of a very steep hill just past the town.

Being in the middle of nowhere, I expected it to be a relatively small, cheap campsite with only a couple of guests including myself. It turned out to be one of the most luxurious campsites I have ever stayed in, with unbelievably posh facilites including enormous shower cubicles without timers on! With another cyclist (Belgian) in a tent beside me (although he also had his car), we sat in the sun chatting about bikes, whilst drinking beer and listening to the campsite owner playing David Bowie out of their window!

The sun was short lived as after being woken up to rain in the early hours, in continued until 5 in the evening, leading to my first rest day whilst on the road. I filled the day with showers to stay warm and planning a proper route through Luxembourg, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Waking the next day was improved (after being cold nearly all night) by not hearing the sound of the rain pelting the outside of my tent, so I got up, packed all my stuff and headed down the hill towards Spa. Due to not having visited Spa Francorchamps (the race circuit) for a long time, I decided to detour slightly so I could ride past it and throught the towns of Malmedy and Stavelot, which both have corners named after them. This turned out to be an intesting choice as leaving Spa I encountered my first proper ascent, taking about an hour of crawling up a steep slope from Spa to Francorchamps. After taking a photo of the La Source hairpin, I made my way through the hills towards Luxembourg, which I arrived in without incident and pitched my tent in a campsite in Clervaux.