For our first day we were quite nervous. I wanted to leave early to get this first, relatively long stretch done. By 10:30 we were finally in the saddle and took off. Very exciting moment.

The first meters with the fully loaded bike I was extra careful but it turns out that the difference in riding was neglectable. The weather was quite ideal: cloudy but dry and not cold. With frequent pauses, we reached our first stop: Bruges.

In Bruges I parked the park at the central station and we used the lockers in the station for our luggage. After that we were off for a little sightseeing. The town seemed quite nice with an impressive old town, but on a Saturday it was quite crowded. We soon settled down for waffles and hot chocomel and off we were again to our destination of the day: Dunkerque.

Our Airbnb was a very pleasant surprise in that it was actually a repurposed garage turned gym, turned Airbnb. So we were able to park the bike in there which was really great. Knowing the bike was safe, we headed to the beach to finally reach the sea. Always one of the greatest moments in each vacation, when you first get to the sea.

For dinner we found a place in the marina where we got the moules frites, that we had hoped for.

The trip had started promisingly and the next morning the ferry was waiting for us.