In Antwerp: the Kalmthout loop

August 16, 2021

Yesterday Rachael and I both awoke feeling anxious. We’d each been lying in bed thinking about the fact that we hadn’t wrapped the suitcases for shipping yet, and feeling stupid about it. With another day until they’ll be picked up there’s still plenty of time to wrap them. We’ll be in trouble though if there’s a problem with the packing materials are insufficient and we can’t wrap both suitcases. It’s Sunday, and if we need more shrink wrap we’ll be in trouble. We should have done this yesterday. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fortunately there’s plenty of shrink wrap and plenty of tape. After an interesting little arts and crafts project we get the job done, feeling proud of ourselves and competent again.

That was yesterday. Today’s anxiety is whether the pickup will come off without a hitch. What If the driver doesn’t show up? What if the suitcases are rejected on a technicality? Are they really less than 10kg each, for one possibility?

All we know is that the driver will arrive sometime between 9 and 6. The agent at the hotel desk tells us there’s no need for us to hang around all day.

We’ve given the hotel agent all the details they need, so they’ll just handle everything when the courier arrives. It’s raining lightly this morning so we’re in no hurry to get out the door so we hang around for awhile hoping the courier will arrive before we go. Not long past ten though the rain stops. With the possibility that it will stay dry for the next four or five hours I decide to hop on the bike before I lose my chance. Rachael decides to take a pass today and elects to take a walk around town later.

When I stop at the front desk to ask for the bike room to be unlocked the agent gives me a smile and the information that the suitcases went out the door a half hour ago. Yes!

I’ve carved out a shorter ride for myself today, in the hopes of making it back dry. I’m heading north for the first time, and the ride begins with a mile or two in town until I come to the Albert Canal. It’s cool, grey, and quite windy.

The Albert Canal. We’ll be back here again tomorrow, following it east toward Hasselt.

The bicycle bridge over the Albert Canal.

I’m glad I got out the door today, but this was the least interesting loop of the set. North of Antwerp the suburbs seem to stretch on a long ways and I don’t really feel like I’ve left town until I’ve got ten miles in. The route I’ve picked is all minor bike routes through this stretch, most of which are more like glorified brick sidewalks. After ten miles on the bricks I’m excited when it finally feels like I’m out in the country - and tired enough of them that I’m happy to see a dirt path ahead.

North of Antwerp. This was quite a nice stretch really - quiet, green.

I’m riding through a prosperous neighborhood, with several well manicured homes having thatch roofs.

Hooray! It’s not often that I’m so happy to see a dirt road.

The next five or six miles are the best part of the ride as I bike through farmland. It’s blessedly quiet, so much so that the only sounds are the crows and the rustle of cornfields in the wind as I cycle past. I wonder about my decision to ride today when a brief shower breaks out, but it passes a few minutes later.

How about this sky? I won’t like it if it starts raining when I’m fifteen miles from home.

This is interesting. The large hedge along the road here is carved like a topiary, with large windowed arches providing views through to the other side.

The only other traffic on my road. Look at that fine home on the right!

The only sounds are the wind, my tires, and the rustling corn.

There’s no real destination to today’s ride. I mapped out a route that felt like the right length for today’s conditions, and when I come to the small village of Kalmthout it’s time to turn back for home. The return route is along F14 the whole way, another of those bike highways. Like F1 that we followed south of town to Duffel, F14 follows the train line the whole way. It’s much faster riding - the surface is better, there are very few traffic lights or intersections. Andto my surprise I have a tailwind with me. It’s not what I was expecting - I’d been expecting a headwind and was anticipating a challenging and possibly drenching ride.

It looks like I could get drenched though. The sky is definitely darkening, the wind is gaining strength, and it feels like it could rain any minute. I pick up the pace.

When I come to the Kalmthout-Heide train station though, an arresting pair of figures compels me to stop. The information is all in Dutch, but later I find this reference about the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944 that explains it. The Canadian army fought through this terrain, attempting to free Antwerp and it’s vital shipping facilities from the occupying German forces. The article explains these two bronze figures greeting each other at the train station:

The Monument of Gratitude in Kalmthout, a village 20 km north of Antwerp, pays tribute to the exemplary partnership between the Canadian forces and the resistance that succeeded in securing the Port of Antwerp’s vital equipment and liberating villages North of Antwerp, including Kalmthout.

Two life-size bronze statues visualise the first encounter between Lt-Col. Denis Whitaker of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry and Antwerp local Eugene Colson (° 2000), whose 600 resistance fighters - mostly dockers - had seized control of the Antwerp port area since 4 Sept. and had defended it alone. Denis Whitaker (° 2001) was a decorated soldier earning the Distinguished Service Order twice, Canada’s highest military decoration short of the Victoria Cross - who notably distinguished himself at Dieppe and Woensdrecht. Out of their collaboration in Antwerp grew a lifelong friendship.

The Monument of Gratitude, at the Kalmthout-Heide train station.

Then, back to my race against the rain front. It goes well for a while, and at one point the sun nearly breaks through a patch in the clouds that follows me south for several miles. Then, enough rain breaks out that when I get the chance I shelter under an overpass while I wait to see which way things will go.

Almost as soon as I stop the rain does too. I start biking again and then a few hundred yards down the road it starts raining harder and I stop again under the only shelter around, a shrub overhanging the trail by just enough to be useful.

It stops again, I ride again. Crossing Albert Canal once more as I enter town, it feels like I’ve made it. I get a smug feeling as I face into a 20 mph wind and look west at the Port House with a gloomy sky just offshore behind it.

It’s darker in the distance than it looks here; and the wind must be blowing straight this way at over 20 mph.

I’m too soon smug. A few minutes later the rain comes - modestly at first, but intensifying by the minute. By the time I make it back to the hotel I’m quite wet.

And wetter than Rachael, who’s coincidentally crossing the lobby as I enter the hotel. She’s just returned from her six mile hike about ten minutes ago, getting in while it was just starting to sprinkle.

We go out for dinner at five and find a very nice hole in the wall cafe down a street we haven’t walked before. When we come out again the sun is out and illuminating the town’s gorgeous buildings. The streets are much quieter now with all the holiday traffic gone from the scene, reminding us of what a beautiful city this is.

After six days though, it’s time to move on. It’s a long way to Rome, we’d best have at it.

Six days, six Belgian beers. This is the first one I haven’t really cared for - it’s just too strong, and I don’t even finish it. I think I’ll steer away from tripels in the future.

Heart

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Ride stats today: 34 miles, 500’; for the tour: 170 miles, 2,000’

Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 170 miles (274 km)

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