August 27, 2015
To Antwerp: A really great day
The weather forecast for today was shocking. It would rain all day getting heavier as the day wore on and really not easing off much until about 5pm. And the wind would be in the same direction we had been enduring for a couple of days. What to do. We did consider taking the train to Antwerp but Antwerp was in a different country and it is often a pain taking trains across borders. We ate our excellent breakfast and thought, lets just go for it. Ken put on an icebreaker jersey under his rain coat and off we went.
We were certainly pleased with our decision. It was not actually raining as we left and an astounding thing happened we came to a sign for one of the mythical long distance cycle routes, the LF2, so we followed it. What a wonderful route after all my moaning yesterday it was actually well signed. We were taken through beautiful rural landscapes, through patches of bush and beside massive fields of leeks and contented cows munching on lush pasture. At some time we must have passed over the border into Belgium as when we came to the small town of Essen I noticed that the email addresses on adverts all ended in .be, After this we came to an astounding waste land with low lying swampy ground with dead trees - it looked as if their roots had been drowned. This went on for many km then fairly suddenly turned into very pleasant bush with big numbers of cars parked and people out walking in the many tracks. There were still no coffee places 'too early' to open at 10.30am. The rain had still held off and the wind much lighter than yesterday
At Kapellen we chanced on an extremely fancy place where we could get a coffee, in our cycling gear we sure raised the tone of the place. I had decided this year to wear regular shorts not cycling ones but they are just too uncomfortable, never mind no one knows me. The LF2 continued on and we felt very smug. Then we came to a place where there was a railway to cross and it led to an extremely busy road - not a reassuring sign in sight and guess what it started to rain! The GPS had been having a holiday so I set it on Antwerp and it gave us a good route. Antwerp surely is a huge city and the surrounds when judged by a cyclist reach out for ever. Our route took us via the port. Ken tells me it is the largest port in the world and he could well be right. We were going along on what seemed to us a good track when suddenly a man ran across the road intent on helping us. He gave us a vast number of extremely confusing directions and we felt we would never rid ourselves of him especially when he started running along to show us the way. Very kind but we had more faith in the GPS. It was getting wetter and the port turned into a pleasant waterfront area, we were getting close to the historic centre and I spotted a hotel. In I went the price was fairly steep but considering the location not to bad and they had a place for the bikes. The room is lovely and even had a proper coffee machine so we felt we were in the lap of luxury eating our lunch
We have walked an explored the old centre which even in the rain looks attractive. We have found a small supermarket and have bought a yummy looking salad, strawberries and wine for our dinner so we wont have to venture out again in the rain to eat.
The forecast for tomorrow is for good weather so the plan is to press on to Ghent.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,285 km (798 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |