Antwerp
Thurs.29th August: Leaving Amsterdam on Wednesday morning, we headed south for a little town called Gorinchem, our chosen overnight stop. As we only travelled about 75 kms, we were there before midday and as we crossed the canal into the town, and Mike successfully squeezed Boris through the skinny streets along which many cars had been parked, just to make life difficult, we were looking forward to settling in and pedalling into the town centre to explore what seemed to be a delightful little village. But…on reaching the yacht harbour camp site, we discovered to our dismay that there was no room for us, camp full!! Disappointment!! Out came the map and the Camperstop book to peruse and choose an alternate destination. The streets were so narrow in the town and on the outskirts, there was nowhere to leave Boris while we went exploring so we squeezed our way out again, managing to take a couple of photos on the way
and rejoined the traffic on the motorway heading towards Antwerp, stopping for fuel for Boris and fuel, I mean lunch, for us before leaving the main road for a short drive to the yacht harbour at Etten-Leur. (There’s a pattern here…we have found camper friendly sites at several boat harbours recently…we like them).
What we thought was a small town, on an investigative bike ride turned out to be quite large, mostly residential with countless apartment blocks in the centre of town, but what do all the people who live there do?
We spent a very relaxing, quiet and peaceful afternoon and night at Etten-Leur.
This morning we drove across the border into Belgium and on to Antwerp, about an hour away from Etten-Leur, settled in to the campsite on the edge of the city, and cycled in. It is easy to get around on bicycles here in Europe, especially in Holland, Germany and Belgium as the cyclist is well catered for with an abundance of dedicated cycle paths which are mostly flat, no big hills to climb and they even have their own traffic lights! Motorists are courteous to cyclists who seem to have the right of way…it wouldn’t happen in Australia! We rode right into the centre and enjoyed the ride although it was a bit hairy with the trams, cars and other cyclists, all of whom knew where they were going and are supremely confident in the traffic…not like us novices. After locking up the bikes, we roamed around taking in the sights and actually enjoyed being in another big city. It was busy but not too crowded, which is probably why we enjoyed it, the weather is lovely at the moment, which adds to the enjoyment and we returned ‘home’ happy to have visited Antwerp.
Friday, 30th August : To begin with, it was a slow departure from Antwerp this morning as the motorway was down to one lane due to road works,
but we arrived at our next stop, Eeklo, at 1-ish and after lunch ventured into the town to check out train timetables at the railway station and to visit the supermarket for supplies. The town is quite large and busy, a little run down but then it’s not a tourist town
and fortunately for us, most of the lovely Belgian people we’ve met speak English. I say fortunately because the language, which I assume is Flemish in these parts, is totally indecipherable to us, unlike French, German and Italian because we have a sort of working knowledge of each and with the help of dictionaries, can usually figure out what road signs and menu items mean.
Saturday,31st August : This morning was very overcast, with heavy black clouds hovering so we packed the rain-jackets before cycling to the station via one of the town’s cafes for coffee, which was served with a mini muffin, yum. At the next door café, there was some sort of celebration going on…a young man dressed in a jester’s costume was ‘singing’ to a group of customers to the accompaniment of cheers from a group of young men at another table.
We discovered what it was all about when he came to our table, spoke to us in Belgian and then in English, and told us that he was getting married in two weeks and this was part of his ‘bucks’ party’. He sang an Irish song for us as he didn’t know any Australian songs and then Mike had him and all of his mates doing the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi thing, amid much laughter. A good start to our day, even though it was raining heavily by this time.
After wiping the bike seats dry, we continued to the station, bought return tickets and set out for Gent, a 25 minute train ride away, and spent the afternoon exploring that city with its fabulous old buildings, trams, canals, wide streets and countless cafes. I had to try a famous Belgian waffle
before our return train ride to Eeklo. He still hasn’t found a beer he can’t drink but bravely continues the search!
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