The secret of getting ahead is getting started. - Mark Twain
Today is 93km according to my plan, which probably means it's more. I've had my rest day and a prompt start is all I need to get me to Ghent on what is a flat day though with a day off I need to shake off the cobwebs and be alert as I navigate out of Antwerp.
My first stop is after 20 miles. Getting out of Antwerp was easy, rather than trying to stick to a set route I headed in the right direction and just took the path of least resistance and this let me see the back streets of Antwerp on a Sunday. Peaceful, with a flea market starting to assemble itself. To cross the river I take a lift down to the tunnel that allows pedestrians and cyclists to cross easily.
Sunday and all the weekend cyclists are out in groups numbering 4 to 20. This was a group of 10 in what I thought was swanky matching kit. Interestingly the rider closest to the camera has an all black bike so she has gone for brown walled tyres to break-up the black; it will have been a deliberate choice.
Another route; the SCHELDEROUTE follows the river Schelde. That is the full house of eight routes I have touched on even if only briefly. The one I haven't mentioned yet is the green belt route around Brussels as I ducked round the southern border of Brussels on the GROENE GORDELROUTE. The ninth route is of course the VLAANDERENROUTE which makes use of the other eight to complete one big circuit of Flanders all thanks to the website FlandersByBike.
This better lit photo from my day off in Antwerp where a wedding party had congregated outside the town hall.
A rest day provides time to answer a question a few people have asked. I stated earlier that Belgium is built of bricks because they don't have an abundance of accessible stone. Like all facts this isn't strictly true. When the need arose to have roads that weren't constructed from wet sticky mud, rock was found in the Flemish Ardennes not far from Geraardsbergen where I climbed the Muur (wall). This stone was cut into square setts (so not rounded smooth cobbles at all) and are used throughout Belgium and down to Paris and further afield for road building. If Dutch bricks were transported to England as ballast on the return journey when English wool was sent to the Netherlands then Belgian setts were sent to New York as ship ballast ready for goods from America to be transported back to Europe. Belgium stone is tough stuff and ideal for roads.
It is a watery route following the river Schelde and this is my second ferry crossing. The first I boarded just before its departure. This one was supposed to run every 30 minutes though I had a 50-minute impatient wait as the ferryman cancelled the 12:30 sailing. It was actually a well timed lunchtime rest.
I followed the top of the embankment that keeps the Schelde from flooding the low lying ground so a flat day. When I arrived at my hotel I had covered 99km so a ride round the block bumped that to 101km.
I am by the canal so this is an early view of Ghent docks.
Today's route which followed the river.
Ghent old town.
