Bangalore to Belgium - Shocking food at McDonald's

27th May, 2015: 

After 12 hours of travel and 5 (good) + 1 (oh god! WHY?) flight meals, I stepped out to the Düsseldorf airport. The fresh air immediately cured my asthma and increased my VO2 max by 2.3mL/(kg-min).
I was scheduled to land at Brussels, but due to technical issues at the airport, the flight was diverted to Germany.


        Once at the airport, I got a good workout searching for my bike box running around to almost all the cargo carousels. Unfortunately, due to the short layover at Dubai, the bike box had not made it to the Brussels flight in time. Bummer!
 

Bird's eye view of Dusseldorf!

First touchdown at Europe!

I got onto the shuttle arranged by the airlines from Düsseldorf to Brussels and slept like a baby. 4 hours later, I stepped out onto the heartland of Bike racing - Belgium! At the Brussels airport, I breathed a sigh of relief when they had tracked my bike. I breathed a heavier sigh of relief, owing to my increased VO2 max, when it was assured that my bike would be delivered to team's host house at Gent.

At Brussels airport, my good friend and supporter, Jamie Anderson, provided a car ride from Brussels to my residence at Gent. Sorry Jamie, I was too jetlagged at the time and forgot to take a photograph.

Surprisingly, when we went searching for dinner at 8PM in Gent, almost the entire city was shut down! 

McDonald's came to the rescue and shockingly they had a salad on the menu!!

Back at the house I was delighted to meet the guys at the team following which I navigated successfully despite feeling like a zombie and crashed on my bed. Oh god, YES!