Leaving Dendermonde
Breakfast at 8:30 and now we are going through a huge lock system. 3 lanes from left to right for real big vessels don to small little boats. The Manifique is in the big boys lane. Looks pretty interesting. We are going down to the lower lever. Eventually we are stopping at Tholen.
Because we are whiners the route for the day has changed from 38 kilometers to "just" a couple of hours across a dam. Great. Now we will be up in the air in the wind tunnel the entire way! The wind is supposed to be right in our face for the whole ride. People are already saying that this is the "Harvey route" because he couldn't possibly get lost on a dam! Ha ha.
The Manifique will be waiting for us the the other end of the dam and we will continue to Antwerp in Belgium. The border crossing is two posts in the water. No customs - they don't care.
Tholen
"Horsing around in Tholen". Horses were shoed here back in the day.
This was pretty much it for 9 miles across the dam. Here the wind was at our back.
Early on I had decided that there was no way that I wanted to take the bike ride across a dam. Then Connie said she was going to do it so I caved to peer pressure. A bunch of us rode into the central plaza of Tholen where we had our lunch for an hour. At 1:00 5 "wise ones" returned in a group to the Manifique. The rest of us decided to follow Tom across the dam. The first part was almost unbearable but it got slightly easier. Once we actually got to the dam we went for a very short time with the back at our backs! The rest of it (about 6 miles was mostly a cross wind from the right. Merely uncomfortable, not unbearable. The only real problem was that there was no interesting scenery on the dam, just the same view for nine miles! By the end of it I guess I was glad I did it. We burned up a bunch of calories anyway.
When we finally got to the end we had to make one decision - upper or lower road to there the boat would be meeting us. David Tivoli and I scouted ahead, opting for the big bridge. We knew we had to get to the second river. From high above we spotted the Manifique, was below. The lower road was the choice. 50-50 odds and we lost again. We saved the rest a bit of pedaling anyway.
Ready to go down that canal to berth in Antwerp
Jumped on board and we set sail for Antwerp, Belgium. Not much ceremony at the border - a white post on the shore that signified we were in Belgium. JUST across the border into Belgium was a nuclear power plant and a petrochemical plant. As we are getting closer to Antwerp we are seeing more and more industrial plants. Antwerp or Rotterdam is supposed to be the largest port in the world. I have heard both - anyway this is a huge port. We will dock early this evening and have opportunity to go out for a while if we wish. Dinner in 20 minutes - we'll see about later this evening - I'd like to find a internet cafe for access the internet tonight. Salad with spiced ham, butter fish with pasta and mixed vegetables, mango with whipped yoghurt for dinner.
Statue along river in Antwerp
Another alarming story - The legend of Lange Wapper. Don't ask....
Main square of Antwerp. Belgian flag unfurled.
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