A "comfortable pace"

So things have just been positively leisurely.  The day after we went to Bath and Stonehenge, we had a down day and checked into the hotel in London that is part of the tour.  That day we went to the British Museum which would take one days to fully process, and then we visited Regent's Park which is both sprawling and stunning.
The next day we went on a panoramic tour of London, and then walked from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.
This does not hold a candle to today's chain of events which started with a wake up call at 3:45am.  We were up, packed, showered and on the bus by 5:30, after which we drove to Dover, took the ferry to Calais and then went to Brugges for a whopping hour and a half (we managed to eat some pizza and find a free place to go pee) before getting back on the bus again to head to Brussels.
I will interject here that from what little I did see of Brugges I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad that Michael and I are spending a few nights there after he meets me in Paris.
Brussels was insane.  Our driver had a nightmare time trying to park because there was a bike race going on which is ironic because Michael is wrapping up his own Whistler Gran Fondo as I write this.  Weird, right? 
As if that wasn't enough, it's Beer Weekend or something here in Brussels and it's totally ridiculous.  The line ups to simply buy the tickets in order to then get in line to simply get into the beer tents are horrific.  And because the tents are crammed to capacity, they can't let people in unless people leave and so what happens when they let a handful of people in is that the crowd erupts in a massive cheer to celebrate this momentous event.
I'm not even kidding.
Anyways, at this point we'd been up and travelling since before 4am and so when I saw a parade of floats going down a side street - replete with marching band, carnival dancers and baton twirlers - I was like "Well, naturally".
Tomorrow promises to be equally ridiculous as we take the bus into Germany, do a Rhine cruise and then end up in some place called Karlsruhe. 
Anyways, the point of the epic "first world problem" post (as I sit in the Renaissance bar drinking red wine because the WiFi is free here) is that the particular tour that I am on is considered a "comfortable pace".  If  London to Dover to Calais to Brugges to Brussels in one day is comfortable, what is the "lively" option?
But fundamentally the point I am trying to make is that Michael beat last year's Whistler time by about 8 minutes, which is awesome.
Congratulations, potpie!