June 12, 2017
Antwerp - Diest: Diamonds to Diest*
*Diamonds to Dust: A film about Actress Jayne Mansfield Pardon the pun, couldn't resist.
An astounding 80% of the world's uncut diamonds are traded in Antwerp. Last night we took a stroll through Hoveniersstraat and Schupstraat, around the corner from our hotel, where the diamond exchange buildings are located. On a Sunday the streets of Antwerp's diamond district were very quiet and there wasn't much to see except buildings securely locked up behind metal gates. Hardly a soul was on the streets, few restaurants were open and no shops. Today was Monday and on our way to our breakfast cafe, we were startled by the hectic scene. Cars, pedestrians and cyclists, all racing through the streets so as not to be late to somewhere. There still wasn't much to see of the diamonds, though.
The weather had changed and we had a cool, overcast day. We took our time getting ready to leave and when we were finally on our bikes, rush hour was over. During our short stay here, we had hardly seen anything of what Antwerp had to offer, but we didn't want to miss the Art Nouveau neighborhood of Zurenborg. We planned our route out of the city accordingly.
The Art Nouveau quarter, defined by three streets, Cogels Osylei, Waterloo straat and Transvaal straat, was built between 1890 and 1906. What a fascinating period of cultural and economic development before the onset of World War I that must have been. And now for many pictures and little text.
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We finally pried ourselves away from all these amazing buildings with their beautiful windows and doors and mosaics. Our route took us largely through residential areas on our way to Lier. We could have spent several hours in Lier, there would have been enough to see. But we knew we had to draw the line somewhere, we couldn't see everything. We were now in pedaling mode and said 'next time'.
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Believe it or not, again today we had a west wind, but the countryside had changed. We were no longer riding on charming little paths through the fields in farm country but more often next to or on regular roads.
We had a fine hotel. It was unpretentious but the room was spacious and the personell helpful and friendly. First thing we were given the key to the garage where we could park our bikes. Actually, never on all of our trip in Flanders was it a problem to lock up our bikes indoors for the night. I might add, this has not always been the case on our bicycle tours in Germany. After getting cleaned up we started with the usual routine - finding something to eat, doing a bit of laundry, journal writing, planning the route for the next day and booking a hotel - and all of a sudden we realized tomorrow we would be leaving Belgium. Quo vadis?
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 717 km (445 miles)
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