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 

Day 31 Dordrecht, Netherlands - Livestock, Farming & the Canals

Tony's View

The first thing that we needed to do today was work our way out and through someone's house. So, this picture shows the tight fit. 

Traveling out of Amsterdam was a little bit of a challenge with bicycles coming from everywhere. Just like driving a motorhome in heavy traffic, you need to leave room in front of you because stopping takes more time. Well, when I leave the space for the tandem, another bicycle just moves in. There was a boom lift on the bicycle path that everyone was going around. In this traffic it is a tight fit. I ended up clipping the fender on the boom lift and it jerked us, but I was able to keep us upright. I do believe, we bent their fender. Thank goodness we didn't wreck. After about 5 miles we were out of the hectic area. Coincidently, many of the workers, we believe, were going to work at the Amsterdam hospital so traffic went down significantly at that point. A little later we went across another cool bicycle bridge.

We went another 5 miles and were completely out of Amsterdam. We then found a bakery and a grocery store and got our treat from the grocery store. There was also a fresh fish truck that Joan checked out. She said they had a lot of yummy stuff. There was fishing in the area.

Our route today took us by many very nice houses and several vacation resort towns with many channels or canals with houses on both sides going to a bigger lake. Here is a picture of a channel.

The one-way roads which were mainly bike paths had pull offs alongside so either a car could pass another car or move over for bicycles. 

Our route today took us right through another farmer's market again. This one was very big and when we thought we saw the end, our Garmin said go right. Wouldn't you know it the market continued on that street too. 

The good news is that when we turned, there was a strawberry stand, and the strawberries were a deal. Joan bought some and we went to a park to eat them as soon as we got out of the crowd. Yum, yum.😋😋

We tried to get a photo on how they make it difficult for cars on the road. They have these on both sides to slow the cars down. Traffic engineer talk. It's called traffic calming.

Speaking again about traffic engineers, there are many roundabouts over here. However, the bicycle path goes around the outside and bicycles always get the right of way. So, cars need to stop going into the traffic circle and coming out. Bicycles rule!! Just hard to get a picture to show you.

We got into the country and the trails for the first time weren't living up to the Netherland standards. Maybe I just took the wrong way. They were paved on both sides and not gravel. The second photo shows in this section there was a water problem.

Along this road, there were canals on both sides of the road and about every 100 feet. The farmers used the canals as fence with cattle and sheep in every sliver of land. We took a break and ate some more strawberries. You can see the cattle in the rows of canals. 

I looked up to see Joan over talking to the cows. She went up to them and one of them licked her. Joan yelled at the cow like it was our dog, Luna. She said, "don't lick me." I am not sure the cow understood, but it did stop. 

We went a little farther down the road and decided to stop so Joan could get a picture of this cow. 

In the second half of the trip today, we had to wait on two lift bridges. Here is a picture of one.

We also went on two ferries. One over the Lek River and the other was the Oude Maas River, both being pretty good size. We were wondering if they were the Rhine River. Joan asked on both ferries and they said these names. The second ferry people told us there were three rivers coming together. So many big rivers. It is confusing what is what.

We did run into construction just 1/2 mile from the Airbnb. They were putting in new granite curb and granite pavers. The construction worker helped point the way around. 

Joan's Extras

Dinner tonight was outstanding. We ate at Restaurant Post recommended by our host Onno. It was one of our favorite meals of this trip, except for our meals with the Pues in Glandorf, of course. Tony had a peach fusilli pasta dish, and I had a fish filet with mussels, scallops, risotto and broccoli. We topped it off with cheesecake for dessert.

On our walk to dinner, this cool dude posed for a photo shoot on the sidewalk outside of a store.

 Day 30 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Diny's Hometown

Joan's View

We slept in a bit, so we did get some rest on our "rest day" before starting out walking around Amsterdam. Our first stop was for the best apple tart in Amsterdam at Koffiehuis De Hoek per our previous neighbor, Diny Albers. I had been waiting for this treat ever since Diny showed me pictures.

Diny's home on the 3rd floor

Diny grew up in Amsterdam and gave me some direction before we left on what to see. Diny has a fascinating story of which I only know a little about, but one amazing part of her life is that her mother pushed her in a baby carriage across Germany when she was a baby so that they could safely get to Amsterdam. Diny grew up with cousins in Amsterdam. We saw her childhood home which was on the 3rd floor of the building in the picture. We also saw where she went to school at the end of her street. I got to play on the playground near what was her school.

From there we went on another "Diny" adventure. She told me to walk through central station and take the ferry to the left at the back of the station. It is free and will take us out on the river IJ. It was a beautiful sunny day on our 15-minute ride each way with unique features of the area.

Want to own a submarine?

Bopel instead of a Hotel. The letters are rooms too

On the ferry

Central Station

Diny also suggested that we go visit St. Nicholas Basilica also. We got there before it opened so we sat on a bench and watched the bike impound patrol cut chains and load illegally parked bikes onto their truck. It was fascinating for us because with all of the bicycles in this city which seem to be parked everywhere, how do you know what is illegal bike parking? Even funnier is that right after the bike impound patrol left with their full truck, people started parking their bikes in the exact same place. 

Cutting the thick chains

Inside of St. Nicholas was majestic like many European churches. We ended up staying for mass and the priest even translated a little of his homily into English for us since Tony had talked to him earlier.

Lots of beauty

Heading back to our room off of someone's back patio, Tony checked the back tire as we walked by and discovered it was flat. He changed yet another flat even though he could not find the source of the leak this time. Better yet, the homeowners had a nice tire pump which made the job a little easier.

Later, we made the joint decision to do the touristy thing and go on a canal boat tour. We both enjoyed it and learned a little more about Amsterdam. For instance, about 15,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals each year, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people get rid of bikes in their way, sometimes drunks throw bikes into the canals for fun, but most of the time per the guides, it is intentional.

We had a close encounter with another boat while driving underneath a bridge. Our captain had to put it in reverse rather quickly. It's kind of like a bicycle and a truck. The bicycle might have the right of way, but the truck is bigger.

Another point of interest are the crooked houses. The legend is that the people come home from the bars and never notice the house is crooked. The fact is that the houses are built on wood piles and the land underneath the piles is swamp, so the houses are shifting.

We also got to see the tiniest home in Amsterdam. We'll be sure to share this with Dan DeLand since years ago he pointed out the tiniest house in Sidney.

Tony's Extras

It was a blessing that Joan met with Diny before the trip. We had the opportunity to see so many wonderful things. Experiencing the best apple tart in the world was so much fun. The stainless-steel soccer field in the park was so cool and probably extremely expensive.

There was a swing like feature on the playground. I thought it was like a normal swing where all three swung together. Joan showed me it was a climbing thing and swings the other way. She is such a dare devil.