Day 296 – EU – Belgium [Liege to Eupen]


25/01/21

37.6km

  From Liege (Belgium) to Eupen (Belgium)

Europe


Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I wasn’t expecting snow today, which made the day that more special. As I left Liege, the streets were clear, it was just reasonably cold. As I exited Liege (50m altitude) I climbed to a plateau at 300m altitude. It was all snow covered there! Beautiful. I avoided all main axes of traffic and stayed on small country roads. By 10am it was snowing again, big fat snowflakes dancing all over the place. I made my first snowman of the year, small enough to fit on BoB the stroller, with berries for eyes and nose and twigs for arms.

Some of the running was very challenging. Not all secondary roads were cleared of the snow and I had to walk and push the stroller through the snow, it was hard work. I had thought about fitting some mini-skis on BoB to go through snow. I had identified a pair, from Decathlon, that would be just perfect. But this was my plan for the crossing of Germany and I never imagined I would have so much snow in Belgium! I will keep the idea for later.

As I made my way to Eupen I was surprised. It seems the primary language here is German. At the supermarket, in the streets and even at the place where I am staying tonight. Eupen is about 5km from the German border. I am trying not to think too much about it, I had been really looking forward to running in Germany. I had many friends I wanted to visit, many places too. Well, not for now, that’s for sure!

In the afternoon I had a Zoom conference with primary school children near Bordeaux in France. The children are studying books and events around travel this year. Having read “Around the world in 80 days” by Jules Verne, a favourite of mine, they also followed the evolution of the “Vendee Globe” race that is unfolding in the next few days. They asked a ton of questions and it was fun to answer, as usual, I am greatly enjoying the interaction with school children.



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: