Thursday, 16 September 2010
Our final touring day of the trip, I think the weather was telling us that it was time to pack it up, a real autumn day with a nip in the air, some showers and a strong westerly.
First though we went back through the tunnel to have a quick look at the centre of Antwerp and we soon realised that we should have stayed two nights here rather than at Turnhout, there was so much to see. As usual we started with the cathedral, here is the imposing entrance:
Inside it is just as imposing:
Back outside we had a good look around at the market and the houses of a prosperous bygone era.
Mindful of the far distance to be travelled today we couldn’t stay too long so back through the tunnel, by now the escalators routine and then follow the route I had set out the night before, more or less skirting the border. I thought we were lost when the road petered out and become a track through the forest but it turned a most welcome change from the monotonous roads we had been following with some very pretty mushrooms in the woods.
We crossed the canal from Terneuzen to Gent and decided to take a more scenic route through the polder, stupidly I misread the map and though the border was a road. This resulted in a detour I really didn’t appreciate. Still, it led us past this radioham with his impressive tower.
From there on we were on familiar roads and soon the last bit from Philippine to Biervliet was behind us and the welcome sight of “Het Hooghuis” in front of us.