Yesterday, I had a long brekkie, chatting to Sena and a couple of Sydney-siders and then checked out and trammed into town (Antwerp) to look at some Rubens paintings in the Cathedral. Now, they were good paintings, but the whole religious impact that they are supposed to convey was kinda lost on me. Sure check ’em out, but don’t expect a life-changing experience. The Cathedral was impressive (but arent they all, rich religious bastards!) and it was only 2 euro.

Then I hit a net cafe, 6 euro for 2 hours. Why oh why did I sign in to MSN.. oh, that’s right, nevermind 😛

It’s now 3pm and I’m finally leaving Antwerp’s hostel. Sena is there again to say goodbye. Hey she was on the tram into town too! Stalker? 😛 Who can blame her really? hahaha If you ever stumble across this.. I’m joking.. you were cool and I hope your arts study is going well..

So, I have no frickin’ idea where to go. hippy touring tip – buy maps that include the town you’re staying in and don’t buy large scale car maps. Reality: Meh, I’m not spending THAT much on those funky maps! Just frickin wing it! Europe is so densely populated, there’ll always be somewhere to stay. Maybe not in winter though, or the east or or or.. 😉

Anyway, after one hour of riding I was back in Antwerp where I started. Asked a few people and finally discovered the building I had to go into in order to cross the river! Yeah, there’s a tunnel under the Scheldt(sp?) River that takes you to the other side. Once there, I asked again and it was “N70, that road there, straight, will take you all the way to Gent”.. and it did, pretty much.

Two major towns and some minors along the way – Sint Nikkolas being the first and Lokeren the second. Good to know the in-between towns so I know if Im off course.

Just as I rolled out from Antwerp on the other side of the river (1hr after starting!) there was a bike crash. I think a car hit the rider. Dude was on the ground, blood spilled, twisted up in his bike. Oohh.. this doesn’t look good..

There were other people standing around him, locals, in a better position to help, so I waited until I saw him move and was sure I couldn’t do anything to help, and then I rolled on with a sick feeling in my stomach.. nasty seeing any rider down, especially nasty when cars are involved..

The N70 is not the main road to Gent, perhaps like Maroondah Hwy traffic levels. The big difference though is that it has bike lane along the WHOLE FRICKIN ROAD!!

Okay, so they took me off course once, but luckily I realised relatively quickly and asked another rider for directions, which saved the day. I AM going too fast to read the signs. I’ve noticed that lately, I don’t so much cycle tour as ‘cain myself to get from a to b as fast as I can’. It’s not quite TT style but I keep leaving too late and having to suffer to arrive on time.

This wouldn’t be the case if I had proper maps and planned stuff. The cool thing about being RUSHED on a bike tour is that even when I’m hammering, it’s not like a car where you miss everything. I still stop and take pics of interesting stuff (read: catch my breath!)

The whole ride was into a head wind. Well, not quite. When I was going the wrong way I had a tail wind hahahah!

At one point, I was drafting a scooter!! It took my approx. 20kph up to 30+kph for a few minutes. They eventually noticed me and I waved them on faster until they turned off. It’s a scary thought that they might have paid good money for a motorscooter that can only travel as fast as a fully loaded hippy bicycle tourer!!!

Oh yeah, motorscooters can use bike paths, it seems. Quite a few faster ones zipped past me.

Stopped at a Colryut(sp?) for drinks and food. It’s like a supermarket but seems geared up for bulk, frozen goods. SPA mineral water tastes like shit!! Lucky I drank the stuff so fast it missed my tastebuds!

Made it to Gent. Spent a while with the stupid changing street names and streets that go around corners until I found the hostel. Yay, I was immediately happy. The guy at the front desk was funny as too, which was nice.

I was in a full room of six. Not so good, but beggars can’t be choosers or some guff.. Bit more expensive here than Antwerp because the bathroom was in the room.

Met an interesting dude from Slovakia attending a conference and another bike tourer and another guy who just finished 12 month around the world trip. So, again it was late before I finally left, cleaned, looking for dinner. Lucky some places close at midnight. I picked a Turkish place – Ankara I think? It had a picture menu for dumbass Aussie tourists like me!

Wandered the beautiful cobbled streets a bit, sat by a really romantic canal (well it would’ve been romantic if I wasn’t alone!) and took some night photos. Gent is very pretty.

ANTWERP -> GENT STATS:

74.74k (actual 50k), 4h06m, 18.1kph