Day 4 of the Bike Barge Trip - Antwerp to Baasrode - Tuesday - July 9, 2013 (Day 8)

We have a very long day ahead of us. As it turned out we rode about 30 miles but it took us 8 ½ hours of which we did actual riding less than 4 hours. Our breakfast was a bit later at 8:30 and by 9:30 everyone was ready to go.

Before leaving Antwerp we did a short tour of the city again, but it took us about and hour and a half. First we went to the top of the Mas Museum for the view of the city. As we were there we could see our barge leaving the city and heading to our next destination. The Mas Museum is about half as tall as the cathedral in this city, to which we headed next. We rode through the red light district and saw some girls in the windows just like in Amsterdam. Tom told us last night that more than 90% of them are not there on their free will. It was completely different and not “nice” like the one in Amsterdam, if you can call it nice. We stopped at the cathedral and some people paid the 5 Euros to go in and see it. I just peeked in and then looked at couple of the shops near the church.

There goes our barge, the one with the yellow smokestack

View from the top of the Mas Museum

Antwerp guild houses

 From there we headed towards Sint Anna Pedestrian Tunnel. This tunnel was built in the early 1930’s. We had to take an elevator down 31 meters with about 20 bikes in it at a time. Then we rode the tunnel to the other side of the river. It was really neat and it was cool down there too, which was nice since the day was becoming quite a scorcher.

Taking the elevator to the tunnel

Riding in the tunnel under the river

We rode through several small towns and villages. We stopped to see the Belgian “Fat Ass” cows which are a bit weirdly shaped with lots of fat in the rear ends. For lunch we stopped in Bazel at The Wissekerke Castle, that had a terrace where you could eat your own lunch if you bought something from them. We ordered drinks since we were really thirsty and French Fries. But our fries never came. I think the kitchen was overwhelmed with the number of people and our food was given to someone else. We finally got tired of waiting and told our waiter to cancel the order. He by the way looked a lot like he could be young Sacha Baron Cohen. The castle has been recently renovated and looked absolutely beautiful. They also had a very old dove tower in the property. I guess the more doves you had the more important you were a few hundred years ago.

Fat Ass cow

Wissekerke Castle

Dove Tower

Our guide Tom peeking from the Dove Tower

Sharon inside the Dove Tower

We continued our trip along the Scheldt River and ended up in a town of Rupelmonde, where Mercator was born. He’s the one who designed the current way of making maps. There was 2 statues for him. One as an old man and one as a young boy and as Tom our guide pointed out he was holding an iPad.

Statue of the old Mercator

Statue of the young Mercator, with iPad ;)

Rupelmonde

And it only took 3 ½ days before Jeff left me behind. He took off at Nora and Keith’s egging to see who was faster. I didn’t see him for miles. But what I heard later, he won. Before long it was time to get something to drink. We stopped in this place that had some kind of wicker museum attached to it. Everyone was really hot and tired. It was sunny and temps were around 90 degrees if not more. From there we went to a small town of Sint Amands. We went to see this special house owned by an artist couple. She paints and he carves fossil rocks and makes them to statues and jewelry and puts them in the walls of his house. The whole house is covered with fossils and stones so that they make pictures. Every winter they go to the Sahara on an old Mercedes van to dig fossils. It was really neat. He even had a car standing on end between the house and the tree. He was upset at the city inspector because he said that he didn’t pass a few building codes. Their gallery is called Sahara Art Stones. From the artist house it was only about 3 or so miles to Baasrode where our barge was waiting.

Wicker museum at our refreshment stop

Bread vending machine at a bakery

 Artist Joris Maes showing us some of the fossils on his house

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

Sahara Art Stones Gallery

After a quick shower our dinner was waiting. This time it was barbeque. Ramon and Captain Karl overdid themselves. There was every possible kind of meat bbq'd and we also had salad, potato salad, french fries and for dessert fruit salad. After dinner it was time for Tom to tell us our tomorrow’s schedule and we have two choices. We can either ride 30 miles or stay on the barge and then ride with the captain 5 miles to Ghent and look around and then ride 5 miles back with Tom and the group. Not sure yet which I’m doing. I’ve had way too much sun today and I’m tired and my lip hurts.