Tag: Benelux 2011

First waffle in Belgium (this is shaping up to be one of those stop-in-every-small-town-for-a-snack days, a la RAGBRAI)

a little mud

My every-6-months Coke. And of course bars that have special glassware for every beer on the menu also have a special glass for this.

Met and rode for a while with a friendly group of 10 folks from Limburg (in their 50s/60s, taking a 3-day ride and staying at hostels)

Cutting through the countryside between Brussels and Antwerp yesterday (I decided a few days into the trip after Delft that I wasn’t as in the mood for museums and cities), I arrived in Bornem (in heavy rain) and found a hotel. The manager saw me arrive by bike and was very supportive– he let me stow my bike in a shed, didn’t make me sign in (“just pay tomorrow when you leave”) and said “a cyclist? I’ll give you the front room.” I wasn’t sure why the front room was special until an hour later, when they blocked off the main road it overlooked and a several hour long Derny Criterium started. (See attempt to post a cell phone video of it in the previous post– not sure if that went through). Basically, it’s a race between pairs of competitors, one on a Derny moped and one on a bike– the cyclists draft their motorized partner for more speed, around and around on a course. With the cobblestones, the rain, and the very close follow distances, it was pretty exciting, even if I had no idea what the announcer was saying.

Biking all day = no guilt about eating pork topped with speck in butter sauce (not shown: potato croquettes)

A few hours of cold wind and driving rain = calling it a day at the next town with a hotel. Ferry operator (my 6th! ahoy!) drew me a map.

Strange bike path through industrial yard– sort of looks like that sky-claw is waiting to pick me up.

Crossing canals by biking across a set of locks (I’ve never seen locks in action before). This board shows which locks are lowered and crossable

Friday: New country = new map (the 50,000:1 Vlaanderen Fietsroute, light on detail so mostly useful for navigating by pattern, e.g. “I should hit an angled T intersection and cross a canal in about 8km”)