As if the poor roads and bad driving weren’t enough to put us off Belgium, we can now add ‘victim of crime’ to the list. When we got to Seraing to watch the finish yesterday, we locked our bikes to a rack next to the Medical Centre. We took all the valuables and bags off the bikes – well so we thought. The only thing left was Mike’s bike pump, we thought – who’d want to steal a bike pump? The answer to that is ‘some Belgian tyke’. It’s not that it’s really valuable, but its theft is just annoying. Fortunately we didn’t have any punctures on our ride back to Maastricht and Mike has decided it was probably time to upgrade anyway (there’s probably a titanium pump he’s got his eye on), but he’s buying it in the Netherlands, certainly not Belgium. I shall also be suppressing any future urge to vote for Belgium in Eurovision, not that it’s likely they’ll even qualify – good, that’s what I say!
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol
Our adventures – originally by bicycle, now not so much
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 
Belgium is the kidney of Europe, you should only ever pass through it. It may give you some comfort that they treat car drivers with equal contempt. We nearly had a serious accident when the Belgians decided to mow the grass in the centre of the motorway with no warning just put a stationary vehicle with no cones, flashing lights or other safety measure to warn road users in the outside lane of the motorway. I was in mid-overtake and very fortunate not to have a massive accident! Bloody Belgium.