Day 32 Antwerp, Belgium - Warmed Up for our Belgium Arrival

Joan's View

We knew that today was going to be about 80 degrees, but we started out a little later because we got free breakfast at our modern Airbnb. Onno & his wife, Cora, transformed an art studio into Airbnb rooms. Right outside their place is the harbor. The picture is Tony getting ready to go.

While the area that we pedaled today was taking us farther from the large network of waterways and canals in the Netherlands, there were still plenty of rivers. One sure sign was shipping containers stacked along the harbor. We also crossed a few bridges with wide bodies of water, but only Tony takes those pictures.

Once we got farther inland, we rode for miles on this road lined with some sort of tree that has a wide span of branches. Beyond the trees on the right were another row of the same kind of trees. Tony usually knows his trees, but he could only guess that they were a variety of locust. The sunlight shining through the trees made it memorable.

Even more cool was that about every second or third tree had a bat house on it. Bats are actually very beneficial. I even bought a bat house at our previous house and made Tony hang it. Might have to do that again. 😀

We took several breaks today since we had a 50-mile ride in the heat. This is one of our breaks along a small pond. 

Somewhere along the route we rode through the town of Zevenbergen, almost a mini-Amsterdam. The main street had a canal down the middle of it with small bike/walk bridges to get you from one side to the other. There were a few vendors selling along the side of the street of our bike route. I got Tony to stop again to check out a wooden beer sign. We joked with the vendor that if he came to the US, we would buy it. He said that he would be there tomorrow, and we all laughed.

We had pedaled for maybe another ten miles and were inside a state park only it's whatever they call it in the Netherlands. We found a bench where some other bikers were parked and struck up a conversation. Of course, we had to explain our bike and our route like we usually do at most stops. The interesting fact about this couple is that they have been to the US 29 times. They love our national parks. However, they have never been to Ohio. We asked about how far it was until we get to Belgium and if there are signs. He said that we were very close, but we would not see a sign. He pointed out the differences between Belgium & Netherlands. Besides the license plates, the power lines are all buried in the Netherlands, Belgium houses look different from Dutch houses., and Belgium houses are scattered in lots of different places because they do not have the strict Dutch building regulations that require them to build in central locations.

We rode through miles more of the park which provided a cool ride, in terms of both temperature and views. At one point we passed our friends from our rest stop, and they yelled out that we were in Belgium now. Yay, but it all looked the same from the forest.

Near the edge of the woods, we came upon another small chapel and stopped for a prayer. Marla's best friend's husband got t-boned by a teenager texting and is in ICU. We bumped them up on our prayer list.

Riding out in the farm fields we saw this unique piece of farm equipment in the field. The farm looked like a nursery for bushes.

We were about 10 miles from our Airbnb and the heat was starting to drain Tony's energy and legs, so we took another break. We failed to find a bench in the shade, so Tony made himself comfortable in the grass. I picked and ate a few blackberries in the bushes behind him.

As we approached Antwerp, like any other bigger city, there were lots of turns and stopping at intersections. Tony somehow managed to navigate into the middle of a skateboard park. The kids at the park looked wide eyed at us as if they were thinking, "Are you going to go down the bowl?" I shook my head and said, "No" regardless of what they were thinking.

Arriving at our Airbnb about 2:30, we started laundry again, and grabbed some food. Rain was coming around 6:30 so we went on the hunt for the Belgian waffle place recommended by our host. We found where it was supposed to be, but there are renovations going on at that spot. 
Our plan was to stop at the grocery store anyway after that. Since we were close to Central Station., we checked it out. This has got to be the most beautiful Central Station that I have ever seen. You can see the train gates from the top of the stairs.

Tony's Extras

This is the first time either Joan or I have been to Belgium. Looking forward to touring Antwerp tomorrow.

By the way, I did get a picture of the cool beer sign. Saying good beer always on tap here. That sign is made out of wood and would fit well in our basement. Being 4 feet by 4 feet, made it hard to travel with it on the bicycle.

The couple that we were talking in the state park who visited the USA 29 times gave me a website to help plan out the Tour de Beer with. It is www.fietsnet.be