Dendermonde to Antwerp ~ New Riding Strategy (Day 8, Part 1 of 3)

On our third day of riding we changed our strategy.  After the near collision on Tuesday, we decided we would be the last riders to get off the boat.  This was a winning strategy!  We arrived at the first suggested coffee stop as everyone else was finishing up.

 

 

From there our day followed a similar pattern.  We would ride along, enjoying the scenery, without the stress of riding close to others in our group.

 

This worked to our advantage when we got to the next stop -  the Wissekerke Castle.  There was a restaurant nearby and everyone was eating lunch there.  The castle wasn't open when we rolled in, but we learned that it would open in about 40 minutes.  We had a light snack, then watched everyone else ride away.  We had a delightful 45 minutes to ourselves.   We have tons of pictures so I'll do a separate post about the castle next.  The grounds were beautiful!

 

To get in to Antwerp we had to go through Saint Anna's Tunnel.  This is a historic pedestrian and bicycle tunnel connecting the city's historic center to the Linkeroever (Left Bank) district under the Scheldt River. Opened in 1933, it is famous for its 31-meter depth (100 foot), tiled 570-meter (about 1/3 of a mile) walkway, and original wooden escalators.  

 

 

We did not actually ride the escalator - there is also an elevator.  This was so crowded and a little crazy!  We didn't take any pictures, I was especially occupied with staying upright on my bike, but I found these pictures on the internet.  It was not this empty when we were there.  This is the tunnel under the river.

 

We rode a little further until we got to the city of Antwerp, one of the largest cities in Belgium with a population of over 550,000.  It was warm that day, but not as hot as the previous two days.  That didn't stop us from getting gelato!

 

Our boat hadn't arrived yet, so we leisurely wandered around Antwerp.  I bought this blouse.  It is so comfortable, I wish they'd had it in a couple more colors.

 

We found the Antwerp Grote Markt (Dutch for "Big Market" or "Great Market Square".)

 

 

We got a text message from Franklin that a particular chocolate shop was having a sale - buy one, get one free.  So of course we had to check it out.  Obviously, we did more than check it out...

 

We had a free evening in Antwerp and I'll share about that in a later post.

Merelbeke to Dendermonde ~ Ferry Crossing, Locks and Docks, and Dendermonde (Day 7, Part 2 of 2)

 

In our briefing the night before Franklin had told us about a ferry crossing we would be taking.  We all lined up on the ramp and waited for the ferry to arrive. 

 

 We rolled our bikes on and made our way across the Scheldt River.

 

 While we were riding, our boat de Holland came along!

 

Everyone was told to just grab the nearest bike while were getting off the ferry.  The bikes provided by the tour were heavy!  I was very happy to get my bike back.

 

 We rode ahead of the group for a while and enjoyed the countryside.

 

We arrived at another river crossing and encountered our first lock.  The primary purpose of locks on a river is to act as a "water elevator," allowing boats and ships to safely navigate between sections of the river that have different water levels, such as dams, rapids, or waterfalls.   A boat was coming through, so the bridge was raised.  This was interesting to watch.  Once the boat got through, we were able to cross and continue on our way.

Shortly after that we arrived in Dendermonde.  Our boat wouldn't be there for a while, so we decided we would grab some lunch at Barley's in the Grote Markt.  We ended up having some delightful pulled pork sliders and nachos.   Our server was very nice and curious about where we were from.  We opted out of a pastry, and got this wonderful sorbet trio instead!  Just the thing on another hot day.

 

The town of Dendermonde has a population of about 47,000.  It was a very mellow afternoon in town.  We enjoyed people watching while we ate.

 

 

It was a short ride back to the boat for the evening.  Total miles for the day 25.17.

Merelbeke to Dendermonde ~ Laarne Castle, Hopscotch Girl, a Dutch Rodeo & Lake Donk (Day 7, Part 1 of 2)

 

 

We started our second full day of riding in Merelbeke, just a few miles outside of Ghent.  About six miles from the start we arrived at the Kasteel van Laarne, which was built around 1300.  We weren't able to go inside, but we enjoyed wandering the beautiful grounds.

 

  

Across the street was a beautiful park with the "Hopscotch Girl" - a sculpture titled "Leap of Faith."

 

Our next stop was suppose to be an ice cream shop.  Instead, we rode through a small rodeo!  Franklin just shrugged his shoulders and chuckled.  "It's Belgium!"

 

Up to this point we had been riding pretty closely to everyone in our tour group.  We knew we had an official stop coming up, so we just rode along.  Unfortunately, we got in the middle of one of the larger groups.  Several of the men were ahead of us, with the women behind.  One of the wives wanted to stop, so another started yelling for the woman's husband to stop.  Being the good husband that he is, he decided to make a quick turn to get back to his wife.  Unfortunately, there was a curb he didn't notice and he went down, hard, right in front of Les!  Fortunately we were going slow enough that no one else crashed, but we quickly realized this was a group we wanted to get away from.  We were glad to arrive at our next stop, a welcoming place for cyclists!

 

Our pit stop was at Lake Donk.  This was a beautiful area with lots of shade.  It was another hot day, so we were thankful for the shade.  Les tried to get our pastry quota, but he was told, "Too many people, no waffles today!"  This was our first taste of the Belgian business mindset.  In America, they would have been cranking up the waffle makers, but in Belgium they didn't want to be bothered with that much work!  We settled for a couple of Coke Zeros...

While we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery, we met another Boat and Bike Tour group - they rode from Amsterdam and were on their way to Brugge, the reverse of our route.  They were almost done and had nothing but great things to say about their trip.  

Our Only Hiccup and Some Time In Ghent (Day 6, Part 2 of 2)

 

As I previously wrote, Les left his backpack at the coffee shop earlier this day.  Our guide, Franklin, just happened to be riding with us when Les discovered this.  We were probably only about 12 miles from the coffee shop, but not knowing how the day would play out, we pedaled on to Ghent.

Arriving in Ghent was a little scary.  The population of Brugge is about 120,000, while the population of Ghent is about 274,000.  Our directions took us directly to a bike garage.  We used the restrooms, then decided to split my PBJ since Les' was lost.

 

 

Unfortunately, without a lock, we couldn't leave our bikes in the garage.  So after eating our sandwich we found a little cafe and parked our bikes next to our table.  We ordered iced coffees and the dessert of the day.  It was about 90 degrees that day, so iced coffee hit the spot!

 

I was red-faced from the heat but I did not get sunburned the entire trip!

 

 

They also gave us each a small piece of chocolate.

 

 

Our champion, Franklin, found a HEMA store - a local department store (more like an ABC store) and bought a lock for us.  Les was wearing clip-in cycling shoes, so without his sandals, we couldn't do any exploring.   We could at least secure our bikes, but Les still couldn't do much walking.

 

We ended up staying put for several hours and visited with Franklin for at least an hour.  He has worked in the cruising industry for decades!  He's worked on the large ships and now he's working on Boat and Bike tours.  He is such a great people person.  Les finally went to HEMA, but the only shoes they had were some slip on rubber sandals.  They were good enough for a little bit of walking, but not great.

 

 

 

We waited about four hours in Ghent until we received word of where our boat was docked.   This was about a five mile ride.  We were happy to get back to our room and get showered!

 

Total miles for the day:  36.96