by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Sunday, September 20, 2009
It was an adventure negotiating the trains with our bikes! In Mechelen, we had to haul our bikes up three flights of stairs to get to the train platform. Then, we had to get our loaded bikes on and off the train. We managed it, but it took a bit of effort. We changed trains twice: in Brussels and in Basel, Swizterland. The trains were packed with people. Fortunately, for our long stretch from Brussels to Basel, we boarded the train at the start of its route, so we were able to get good seats by the window. Tons of people got on and off the train. I have five different people sit next to me between Brussels and Basel. The train ride went smoothly until we got to Basel. We were confused by the train schedule since it had us get off at one station at Basel with “10 minuten interlopen”, and then board our next train at another station in Basel. We saw a women who was getting off when we got to Basel, so we asked her about the train schedule. She was really helpful, and we found out that we had to get off at the station in Basel, France to go through customs before entering the Basel, Switzerland station. We had assumed that Switzerland was a part of the EU, but it is not a member of the EU. Switzerland is in the middle of the Europe, but they are the only country that is not part of the EU. All the neighboring countries are part of the EU. We short layover in Basel, Switzerland station before boarding the train to Freiburg, but we couldn’t do anything while we were there. Everything was in Swiss francs, but we were not going to change our money to Swiss francs because we were only going to be in Switzerland for an hour. We couldn’t even go to the bathroom at the train station because you had to pay in Swiss francs to use the bathroom. It was so ridiculous! We boarded our final train, and it was a short ride to Freiburg, Germany. We arrived in Freiburg, but we had not figured out where to stay yet. I found a good hostel listed in the guidebook, but we didn’t know how to get there from the train station. Fortunately, they had an information kiosk next to the train station that had a computer with free Internet access, which was awesome! We were able to look up directions to the hostel. It was 11pm when we arrived in Freiburg, so it made more challenging to find the hostel late at night. We were within blocks of where the hostel was, but then we couldn’t find the street that it was on. We wandered around for a while, and then, we finally found the hostel. This was the first time we had stayed in a hostel, so we didn’t know what to expect. The hostel was really nice, and everyone was really friendly and helpful. The place had a carefree, hippie atmosphere, and the man who was working there said to us, “Make yourselves at home here.”
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Saturday, September 19, 2009
We made it Mechelen after only a few hours of biking. We were worn out from the long day of riding yesterday and the lack of sleep the night before, so we were ready to stop in Mechelen. The campground was very strange. We arrived at the place where the campground was marked on the map. It was in a big recreation area, but we couldn’t figure out where the campground was. They had a big gate around the recreation area, and we asked someone about camping. They said there was camping and let us through the gate to go to the reception inside the big building. We paid for camping, and they gave us the keys for the bathrooms. However, it was only 1:30pm, and they said we couldn’t set up our tent until 4pm. We got to the “camping” area, and it was really strange. They had three trekker huts, and they said we could set up our tent in front of the the huts. However, the “camping” area was in the middle of a park with benches and a paved walking path. It was a Saturday afternoon, so there were lots of people in the park. There was a beach where people were swimming, and there was a playground where kids were playing. Since they had a gate around the recreation area, they closed it down at night, so we decided to lock up our bikes behind one of the trekker huts and head into town. When we came back later, the place was empty, so we set up our tent in the middle of the park. Although the campground was very strange, it was blissfully quiet after the craziness of our campsite last night. We were the only ones camping there, and we were so happy that we did not need our earplugs at all. 🙂
Riding into Mechelen
Mechelen campsite
Our main task for the day was purchasing train tickets to Germany. Originally, we were planning to bike to Brussels. However, the bike book recommended taking the train from Mechelen to Brussels since there is no good bike route into the city. When we got bike maps, none of them showed the Brussels area. We didn’t want to deal with taking the train to Brussels and then fighting traffic to ride our bikes from the train station to the campground. Instead, we decided to skip Brussels and head straight to Germany instead. We weren’t sure how it was going to work to take our bikes on the train, but it ended up not being a problem at all. We just got an additional train ticket for our bikes, and we were set. However, we had a little bit of a problem when we bought our tickets. We said we wanted to go to Freiburg, but we did not realize that there was more than one Freiburg in Germany. The man who helped us was really great, and he thought he got the right Freiburg for us. He showed us the route, and Jonathan saw that it went through Basel, Switzerland. Jonathan remembered that Freiburg was near Basel, so we knew were going to the right Freiburg. We successfully got our train tickets for Freiburg, Germany leaving at 11am the next morning. We would arrive in Freiburg late on Sunday night.
With our important task completed, we were free to spend the rest of the day wandering around Mechelen. Continuing with our theme that there is a party going on everywhere we go, there was big festival going on in Mechelen. The streets were full of stands and lots of people walking around. Mechelen is a neat city with a grand square with a huge cathedral and fancy guild houses. Having finally made it to Mechelen, we were glad that we decided to continue on to Mechelen.
Mechelen Grote Markt
Mechelen Grote Markt
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Friday, September 18, 2009
We debated taking the train directly from Gent to Germany and skipping the last stretch of riding through Belgium. We were spoiled by the pleasure of riding in the Netherlands, and it was not as much fun to ride along busy roads in Belgium. However, we found a bike map that showed the route from Gent to Mechelen that avoided the busy roads, but it was longer since it followed the river. The ride was mostly along a bike path, so it was an enjoyable ride.
We had a couple issues with our bikes, but this was the first time we’d had any trouble since the first day with all the flat tires. Jonathan got his first flat tire in Gent, but he had patched up the tire with our glue-on patches. However, we had barely gotten out of Gent when his tire was flat again. We were both frustrated because our Kevlar tires were supposed to prevent flat tires. The tires were a huge pain to get on and off, but once they were on, we should have had smooth riding. Just as Jonathan was about to put the inner tube back on the tire after patching it, he checked the tire for sharp objects causing the puncture and discovered the nail still stuck in the tire that had caused both flat tires. He removed the nail, and we had no more flat tires.
I also had a problem with my bike cleats making my feet sore after riding with them for long periods of time. I finally figured out that the cleat on the bottom of the shoe was not adjusted properly. When I was pedaling, the cleat should have been placed where the pressure comes from the ball of my foot, but all the pressure was actually on the upper part of my foot and my toes. After adjusting the cleats, it was so much more comfortable to ride.
We tried to make it to Mechelen today, but it was too far. We were completely worn out, so we decided to stop for the day. Unfortunately, Belgium has very few campgrounds, so the next campground was in Mechelen. We stopped in the town of Puur, and it only had one hotel that was expensive. It was our only option for the night without more riding, so we asked for a room. However, we did not know that there was huge festival in Puur that weekend, and all the accommodations in the area were completely booked. The hotel owners told us that they did have camping at the festival, so we thought that it might not actually turn out so bad. Then, we arrived at the festival campground… It was a huge field, and they were packing as many tents as they could into it. There were tons of people there bringing in lots of beer, so there was going to be wild party at the campground that night. Since we didn’t have any other option, we decided to camp there for the night. We had to wait in a long line just to get into the campground. They searched everyone’s bags for banned items such as weapons, drugs, and glass. They were mostly concerned about glass, and they had a huge pile of glass containers that had been removed from people’s bags. Once we got into the field for camping, we had to wait in another line. They moved a piece of rope every few minutes to open up another section of the field for camping. When they did this, the next group of people rushed onto the field to claim a spot to set up the tent. It was total chaos. We managed to get a spot for our tent, and we were packed in by all the other tents. We set up our tent, and then, we left the campground to get a little peace and quiet before attempting to get some sleep. We were starving, so we stopped at a pizza place. After our long day of riding, the pizza tasted like a slice of heaven. We returned the campground later that night, and it was relatively quiet since most of the people were at the concert. I managed to fall asleep, and Jonathan was surprised that I slept through some really loud noises. At one point, the generator for the super bright light in the field ran out of fuel, and everyone started cheering loudly. Someone else threw a chair into the dumpster for fun, and that made an incredibly loud crashing noise. However, I was woken up when our drunken neighbors returned from the concert. They thought it was the funniest thing in the world to scream “Oooooouga” at the top of the lungs. Every time I had almost fallen back to sleep, another idiot would scream “Oooooouga” again, but I finally managed to get back to sleep. The campground was surprisingly noisy in the morning. I thought that everyone would be sleeping after staying up most of the night, but they were up before us. Our lovely neighbors were up and still randomly screaming “Oooooouga” in the morning. They also had a radio station broadcasting live from the campground, so they starting playing loud music at 9am. Jonathan and I did not stick around long. We packed up and headed out as soon as we could.
Festival camping at Puur
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Gent is neat, old city that has the charm of Brugge without the hordes of tourists. Gent was founded in around 800, so it has a lot of neat, old buildings. The campground was on the outskirts of the city, so we had our first public transportation experience in Europe. The bus was really nice with comfortable seats. We got off the bus right by St. Micheal’s bridge, which has the best view of the city’s monuments. Most of the city center was a pedestrian zone, so it was a pleasure to walk along the streets without dealing with the crazy Belgian drivers. Gent was also a huge construction zone. There were cranes everywhere doing restoration work. It looked like they were doing a lot of work to make the city as big of a tourist attraction as Brugge.
View from St. Michaels Bridge
We toured the Castle of the Counts, a huge castle with a moat around part of it. We walked around the castle walls, and we had a great view of the city. The castle also had exhibition on medieval torture, and it was really gruesome. I would not have wanted to be accused of a crime in the Middle Ages.
Castle of the Counts
We climbed the Belfort tower for another great view of the city. It was much better than the Belfort tower in Brugge because you could walk around the tower outside for unobstructed views. There was an archaeological dig taking place directly below the Belfort, and it was really neat to see it from above.
Belfort
Archaeological dig
View from Belfort - St. Baaf Cathedral
View from Belfort
View from Belfort
Of course, we also had to stop and get some more Belgian chocolates! It is amazing how cheap the chocolates are in Belgium. It is the one thing that is cheaper in Europe. If we bought the same amount of chocolates at Chocolaterie Stam in Des Moines, it would have been much more expensive.
Gent is beautifully lit up at night, and it was neat to walk around the city at night. We decided to walk back to the campground instead of taking the bus, and it was a longer walk that we realized. It took us 1 hour and 10 minutes to walk back. We were so worn out from walking that we were looking forward to riding our bikes the next day. 🙂
St. Baaf Cathedral lit up at night
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Belgium was not as bike-friendly as the Netherlands. There were very few bike paths, so we spent most of our time riding along roads. Unlike the drivers in the Netherlands, the Belgian drivers were not courteous to bikers at all. Almost everyone drove like maniacs, acting like they were race car drivers. They did not move over for bike riders at all. We pulled over to the side of the road when a car passed us. The drivers were even crazy on the quiet, country roads through the farms. We would be relaxed from riding along a quiet country lane when suddenly a car would come barreling down the road out of nowhere and refuse to slow down or move over for us. We had to quickly pull over to the side or get run over. In the Netherlands, most people would ride their bike to get around, so there were fewer cars on the roads. Belgium was designed more for car traffic, and we saw more big roads in Belgium than we did in all of the Netherlands.
We spent most of the day riding through cornfields, which was a little ridiculous considering that we came from Iowa. 🙂 We felt like we were on a European RAGBRAI.
Riding through cornfields in Belgium
We stopped for lunch along the only bike path of the day, and there were a bunch of goats and sheep grazing on the side of the bike path. Some of the goats would get up on their hind legs and balance themselves on the small, lower branches to eat the leaves of the trees. At one point, one goat was on its hinds legs eating from the tree, and two other goats put their front hooves on the back of the first goat so that they could also reach the leaves on the trees. It was hilarious to watch! It was like they were trying to do a cheerleading trick. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get my camera out in time to get a picture of it.
We spent most of the day following the canal that goes from Brugge to Gent, and we saw several big barges going along the canal.
Barge going down Brugge - Gent canal
The campground where we stayed in Gent was really nice. It was the first campground that had numbered campsites for tents. Every other campground was set up mostly for caravans, and they just had a field where you could put your tent anywhere. Our campsite was separated from the other campsites by a row of bushes, and we even had our own picnic table. The campground was in a hugh sports and recreation complex with indoor tennis courts, squash courts, indoor ski park, sports fields, and miniature golf. We arrived at the campsite early in the afternoon, so we had some fun and played a round of miniature golf. The miniature golf course was challenging. One of the holes had a little ramp, and you had to hit the ball across a little ravine. The holes used the same material that is used for outdoor tracks, so there was not much friction to stop the ball from rolling. This made the course even more challenging. There were several times where we barely hit the ball, and it bounced outside of the hole.
Campsite at Gent
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Tuesday, September 19, 2009
Brugge is an amazing well-preserved medieval city. Brugge was an important center of trade during the Golden Age because it had direct access to the sea. However, when the channel to the sea silted up, Brugge was no longer a commercial center, and the city slept quietly until it was discovered by tourists. Now, the main industry is tourism. Brugge is a neat place to visit, but it is packed with hordes of tourists. As we walked into the city, we saw a parade of tour buses entering the city. We were there during September, and there were tons of people. I cannot imagine what it is like during the peak tourist season in the summer.
City gate
We climbed the Belfort tower, and the view was really neat. However, after climbing the church towers in the Netherlands, the Belfort tower was a disappointment for us. Unlike the Netherlands church towers, you were not able to be outside for the best view. Instead, you were inside the bell tower, and you could only look out the windows on each side. And, the windows had fencing over them obstructing your view. However, it was neat to be inside the bell tower when the bells rang on the half hour. It was really loud! The price for climbing the tower was also increased for all the tourist crowds. We only paid 3 euros to climb the towers in the Netherlands, and it was 8 euros to climb the tower in Brugge.
Canal with Belfort in background
View from Belfort tower
While in Belgium, it is mandatory to eat lots of Belgian chocolates! There are chocolate shops everywhere in Brugge, so it is easy to eat lots of chocolate. We stopped at The Chocolate Line, and the chocolates were delicious! My favorite was a white chocolate with a filling that tasted like rhubarb pie. We also went to the chocolate museum that traced the history of chocolate from ancient Mayans and Aztecs to modern Europe. However, they did not give any chocolate samples until you had gone through the entire museum getting hungry reading all about chocolate. I was expecting there to be more samples of chocolate in the museum. If I designed a chocolate museum, there would be chocolate samples everywhere!
Creepy chocolate statue that is eating itself at the chocolate museum
We also went on a boat tour along the canals. There are parts of the city that you can only see from the canals, and it was neat to go underneath the old, stone bridges over the canal. The guide for our boat tour was awesome! He had a perfectly-styled curly handlebar mustache. I had seen mustaches like that in the movies, but it was awesome to actually see one in person. 🙂 Belgium has so many languages that our guide had to give the tour in Dutch (Flemish), French, and English. It amazing they can get anything done with so many different languages.
Oldest bridge over the canal
Pretty gabled houses along canal
Swans swimming in the canal
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Monday, September 14, 2009
This was our last day in the Netherlands. The border crossing was totally anticlimactic. We only passed a sign for entering a new province in Belgium. The European Union has made traveling through different countries in Europe similar to traveling different states in the US.
Border crossing from Netherlands to Belgium
Before entering Belgium, we had a half day of riding through the Netherlands. We rode through Middelburg, a small city with an impressive townhall and church. They also had a flea market going on in the main square. It was fun to go through markets in European cities and see the items that are for sale. Sometimes you will see made-for-TV items being sold. In Amsterdam, we saw a man selling a special mop. He even set up a sample wood floor for demonstrating the amazing properties of his mops.
Final day of riding through Dutch countryside
Middelburg Stadhuis
Middelburg church
Middelburg flea market on main square
After leaving Middelburg, we went on our longest ferry ride of the trip. We have had great luck in the timing of ferries. We arrived a few minutes before the ferry left. We bought our tickets and boarded the ferry, and the ferry left immediately after we boarded. Once we arrived on the other side of the channel, we began riding inland, and we said goodbye to the North Sea. Sluis was the last town we rode through before leaving the Netherlands. It was neat city with an old fortification wall surrounding the city. Sluis had a huge shopping district that was packed with people. Apparently, Belgians go to Sluis for bargain shopping.
View of Sluis from old city wall
We followed a bike path along the canal that goes from Sluis to Brugge. It was a beautiful ride along the canal lined with huge elm trees. Brugge was a bigger city than I expected, and it was the biggest city we had ridden through since Den Haag. We arrived at rush hour, and there was tons of traffic with people driving like maniacs. We managed to ride through the city without getting run over by the crazy drivers and made it to the campground outside the city.
by Cassie, November 11th, 2009 | No Comments
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Today, we entered into Zeeland (“sea-land”), which is a series of islands connected by a series of bridges, tunnels, and dams. There are lot of beaches, and it is a popular place for tourists. The majority of the tourists come from Germany because their country is landlocked and does not have any beaches.
This was the first day of our bike tour where the weather was not very nice. It was cloudy with short rain showers throughout the day. It was also extremely windy! We saw a lot of windsurfers and kiteboarders taking advantage of the wind. The kiteboarders do jumps where they are several feet in the air. It looks like a lot of fun!
Windsurfers
Kiteboarders
Kiteboarders
It was exciting to ride across the exposed bridges between islands with the wind and the rain. The bridges had windmills on them, and it was so windy that you could hear the blade going “whomp, whomp, whomp” as it rotated.
Windmills on Deltaworks
Our campsite tonight could not be more different from our campsite from last night! Last night we were camped next to a wild party, and tonight, we camped next to a cow pasture. When we set up camp, the cows were right next to our campsite! The campground is run by a German man in the middle of the Netherlands. The reception sign was only in German, and the man only spoke German. We were not expecting to use our German yet, but we managed to pay for our night of camping in broken German.
Camping next to cows!
The campground was outside the lovely, small town of Veere with cobble stone streets and neat old buildings. The church was the most interesting part of the town. It looked really funny because they ran out of money to finish building the tower. Our bike book said it looked like a “stubby giant”. The church was enormous for the size of the town. The church also looked like it was heavily damaged during WWII. Some of the stained glass windows were bricked over, or they had put in several small windows instead. In contrast, the stadhuis (town hall) was a beautiful building with a lovely tower.
Church with stubby, unfinished tower
Damage to church
Marina and Stadhuis tower
by Cassie, November 10th, 2009 | No Comments
Saturday, September 12, 2009
We had beautiful, sunny day for riding, and we rode through the lovely Dutch countryside after leaving Delft. Then, we headed into a big industrial area by the canal that goes from the North Sea to Rotterdam. After crossing the canal on a ferry, we reached the lovely town of Brielle. This weekend was Monuments Weekend, so everything was open to the public for free. Brielle has a big church with a tall tower that we climbed. We had an incredible view from the top of the tower. I love the tile roofs that they have in Europe. The tile roofs are so pretty when you see them from above.
View from church tower in Brielle
The church also had people playing the organ every hours, so we sat and listened to the organ concert. The man who was playing the organ was rocking out, and you could feel the vibrations from the organ.
Brielle church organ concert
After leaving Brielle, we rode back to the North Sea coast. We crossed a huge bridge to enter the island where we camped for the night. The bridge had huge metal barriers that could be lowered to block the sea from coming in. There was a disastrous North Sea flood in the Netherlands in 1953, so they constructed a series of storm surge barriers called the Delta Works to protect the land from the sea. They are an amazing feat of engineering.
Storm Surge Barrier
It seems like there is always a party going on wherever we go. There was a big end of the season party at the campground the night we camped there. We were camped right next to where the party was, so we got to hear the band playing until late into the night with everyone singing along to the songs they knew. Thank goodness we brought earplugs!
by Cassie, November 10th, 2009 | No Comments
Friday, September 11, 2009
Delft is a really neat small city (population 100,000). It feels like a mini-Amsterdam with neat, old buildings along canals, minus the chaos of Amsterdam. When you ride your bike in the Netherlands, you feel like you are royalty. Delft had a guarded bike parking area! We left our bikes there, and we were free to wander around Delft without worrying about the bikes.
Submerged bike in canal
The highlight of our day was climbing the tower of the Niewe Kerk (New Church). The tower is 108.75 meters tall and 356 steps to climb to the top. The tower is the second highest church tower in the Netherlands after the church tower in Utrecht. We were able to go to the top of the tower by ourselves without a guide, which would have never been possible in the US. The climb to the top was up a narrow, steep, winding staircase. It was the same staircase for going up and down, and there was not much room to pass people coming from the other direction. They allow 60 people to climb the tower at the same time, which seems unimaginable in such tight quarters. We only passed two couples on the way up the tower, and it was a tight squeeze. The view from the top of the tower was amazing! You could see the big cities of Den Haag and Rotterdam. The top of the tower was a little scary because there was only a low railing preventing you from going over the edge, and it was a long way to the bottom of the tower.
Niewe Kerk
View from tower of Niewe Kerk with view of Oude Kerk
Looking straight down from Niewe Kerk tower - it's a long way down!
View from tower of Niewe Kerk looking across the main square to the Stadhuis
The Niewe Kerk is a Protestant church, so it is plainly decorated inside. It used to be Catholic church, but it was stripped of all its decorations during the Reformation. The church is also the burial site for most of the royal family, including William of Orange. During the Eighty Years War against the Spanish, William of Orange set up his residence in defensible Delft, but he was assassinated in 1584. Since the royal family’s traditional burial place was overtaken by the Spanish at that time, William of Orange was buried in Delft instead.
Mausoleum for William of Orange in Niewe Kerk
Delft has had a couple serious disasters that damaged both the Niewe Kerk and the Oude Kerk. First, a huge fire wiped out most of the city. It is believed that lightning struck the tower of Niewe Kerk, and then the fire spread to the rest of the city. Once they had rebuilt the church and replaced all the stain glass windows, there was a huge gun powder explosion in 1654 that blew out all the stained glass windows and damaged both churches. As a result, some parts of the church are relatively new. The stained glass windows were not replaced until the 1900s.
You cannot climb the tower of the Oude Kerk because it is leaning almost two meters off center! If you view the Oude Kerk from one of the bridges over a canal, it really looks like the church tower could topple over at any time. The tower has a big bell in it, but they only ring it on special occasions because the vibrations from ringing the bell could cause damage to the tower.
Leaning tower of Oude Kerk
Our only disappointment was visiting the Royal Delftware factory. Delft is known for their beautiful blue-painted pottery, so we wanted to see it made. However, it was really expensive to tour the factory, and while we were there, nothing was going on. It was Friday afternoon, and it looked like everyone had already gone home for the day. The big tour buses were parked outside the factory, so we learned a lesson that places with the big tour bus crowds should be avoided unless it is somewhere that we really want to visit.
