The End

After 2 hours of sleep (!) I got up for the taxi this morning and was at the Brussels airport by 4:45 am. Checked in my beer bag, it weighed just over 30 kg! The lounge opened 30 minutes late so I had to cool my heels a bit in the hallway, then spent a pleasant 90 minutes drinking coffee and surfing the internet. Then it was off to London; I slept the entire flight.

Once at Heathrow I went through the terminal-transfer shenanigans then parked in the lounge there for a good 2 hours. They had bacon sandwiches so I had a couple, yum! I eyed the bloody marys, but decided my liver needed to detox.

The flight home was uneventful - I watched This is 40, Hyde Park on Hudson and Hitchcock, and while they were fine I was glad I hadn't paid to see them.

New pannier

I did have a few heart-pounding moments as I watched the bags come off the conveyor, and more and more bags came down without mine appearing. I was on the brink of freaking out when it finally popped out, whew! Sadly when I got home, the malty aroma of delicious beer greeted me when I opened my bag. In 14 years of travel, this was my first bottle casualty, and it was a difficult to get beer. I had a moment of sadness as I cleaned up the mess.

But I did still have 13 bottles of great beers, and I have my super fun pannier for the girly bike. Not to mention tons of great memories and some new friends.



This trip by the numbers:

Cities visited: 7
Orders of frites eaten: 4

Beer loot!

Waffles eaten: 1 (WTF???? Not sure what happened there!)
Beer events attended: 3
Beers tasted: 100?
Beers broken in transit: 1
Cheeses purchased: 3
Cheeses donated to beer drinkers: 2
Bell tower steps climbed up: 641
Miles biked: 24
New acquaintances: lots!
Ribald stories heard: 23
Go-arounds: 1