I was still determined to get my bike ride in before I leave Belgium tomorrow, so last night I stopped in at the bike rental place at the Antwerp train station. The man there was tremendously helpful. Not only did he set me up with a bike, but he walked me through all sorts of route options. Originally I thought I would ride to Brussels along what they call a cycle highway, but he discouraged that for several reasons. One of his alternative suggestions was the Kunststedenroute, or the "Art Cities Route": https://www.vlaanderenmetdefiets.be/en/routes/kunststeden.html. The whole route is 300+ kilometres from the coast to Brussels, but it passes through Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, and so on. My bike rental friend told me if I rode to Ghent and took the train back I would have a lovely ride along the Scheldt River and should be able to get in a full metric century (100 kilometres of riding). And, so, that is what I decided to today.
No rain this morning, although it was quite cold as I set out. I would have started earlier, but I wanted it to warm up a little. Even with a late start my fingers were numb as I navigated out of Antwerp. Partly because I needed to add a few kilometres to my route to reach 100, I decided to detour a little past the Guiette house, which is one of a group of buildings designed by the architect Le Corbusier that are UENSCO-listed. I was intrigued that a residential home would have a UNESCO designation and indeed I managed to cycle right by it without realizing! In the end, I did get a picture of the side of the house!
I suppose without scaffolding perhaps it is more impressive? Here is some information about it:
On 17 July, 2016 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to list 17 buildings designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier as World Heritage. The Guiette House is one of them. The other buildings are located in Argentina, Germany, France, India, Japan and Switzerland. Together with these countries it took many years and hard work to get these unique sites listed by UNESCO. The Guiette House is the only preserved building of Le Corbusier on Belgian soil. It was built in 1926 as a residence and studio for the Antwerp painter René Guiette.
In the end, I was more impressed with the tunnel I transited under the Scheldt! It required riding an elevator on either side of the river, and then a bike ride through this tunnel. I am sure it was a good kilometre long. A little eerie, in a way. That is a lady on a scooter way ahead of me.
To be honest, getting out of Antwerp had been challenging, and I was still cold as I reached the other side of the river. I was really not confident I was going to make Ghent. I had to return the bike in Antwerp by 19:00, so I had to make it to Ghent in time to catch the train back. I was under the impression that there was an train hourly, but I was confused by the train schedule, and moreover had failed to save it, so was also not confident as to when the trains were running and how long it would take to get from Ghent to Antwerp. All of this was unfortunate, because it meant I was too anxious to stop along the route and enjoy the cafes and restaurants and other spots that might have been nice to stop and relax at.
I had some almonds, but otherwise nothing to eat, so I did stop at a trailside snack spot around noon. It was run by a very friendly Filipino lady who has a cousin in Canada and was eager to chat and even teach me some Dutch (i.e., how to know which bin to put your beer can in vs. which one is garbage). She wished me a nice ride and visit in Belgium as I rode away.
My route crossed the Scheldt a few times--once with the tunnel, of course, and here I was crossing a lock on a canal that came off of the river, presumably to control flooding.
But the best place I crossed was here, where a little boat ferries cyclists back and forth across--so cool!
At many places along the route there were sheep in temporary enclosures, apparently to "mow" the grass.
By the middle of the afternoon, I was confident I would reach Ghent, but still unsure how much time I had to spare, so was keeping on pretty strong, rationing my water and almonds through the afternoon. I passed Wetteren as I approached the outskirts of Ghent-- you can see the impressive church tower high above the town!
Obviously with the position of the sun my photography whilst cycling was less than ideal, but really it was just the angle of the sun, because even my photo off the bike looks like that!
Shortly after 15:00 I reached Ghent!
I went straight to the train station to figure out the train. In fact the schedule told me there were trains every half hour and take less than an hour, and so the 17:27 train seemed just fine. That still gave me over an hour to spend in Ghent.
In about ten minutes I found the centre of Ghent and the famous squares and belfries. The town was bustling, and all the cafes and restaurant patios were packed.
I tried to lock up my bike at the enormous bike rack in the Korenmarkt square, but it was so crowded I could not fit in. There were well over a hundred bikes locked up--maybe two hundred! I found a fence I could lock the bike up at and then got some lunch. Burger King appealed, for some reason; strange cravings after riding 100 kilometres . . . After that I walked around a little and bought a postcard and with that my time in Ghent was done, so I rode back to the train station.
It was only after buying my ticket and the bike supplement and reaching the platform that I understood there was a change in the schedule and there was no 17:27 train. As far as I could understand, there is work on the railway between Sint-Niklaas and Antwerp which meant the train was running less frequently. I double-checked and confirmed there was a 17:57 train, which I figured was going to be fine. At 17:57, I boarded the train, found somewhere to stand with my bike, and we were off. Of course, work on the track turned out to mean a detour, south from Sint-Niklaas across the Scheldt River.
Anyway, all that to say that we were running well behind schedule and I was getting quite nervous that we would not reach Antwerp by 19:00. In fact, we did pull in at 18:55, and I managed to wheel out of the station and down the sidewalk on the bike, reaching the bike rental shop at 19:01. Happily, the door was still unlocked and I was able to return the bike without trouble; phew! Tomorrow I am catching the train from Antwerp to AMS to fly home, and I did not want to have to spend the morning dealing with an overdue bike rental!
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