20260922 Gorinchem to Breda, on to Antwerp

Our GPS app suggested leaving Gorinchem by cycling over the river beside traffic on a huge suspension bridge. But – we noticed a small ferry just across a small park from our hotel. A six-minute ferry ride saved us from a not-so-pleasant beside-the-highway bridge crossing. The small town after landing had a garbage collection system of simply hanging the bags on street poles. Racoons in Toronto would have a field day.

I (John) spied a German bunker in a field from our bike path along the top of a dyke. We were also passing windmills and fields of sheep. There were definitely many fewer canals than we had seen the previously days, the further south we went.

On our grey and misty ride into Breda we noticed a huge Toyota warehouse with a sign announcing MUSEUM on the right. We pulled into what turned out to be the main installation and teaching facility for the importer of Toyota into the Netherlands, Louwman & Parqui, with Mr. Louwman’s personal collection of hundreds of classic cars. Apparently he has an even more impressive building and collection of cars in The Hague! We spent at least an hour in the huge warehouse, admiring all models of cars and enjoyed talking to a staff member who told us about the volunteers who come in regularly to polish windows and bumpers on the vehicles. (The company gives them a nice lunch, it’s a social event for true car fans.)

Mr. Louwman must enjoy camels as he keeps two at the back of the huge parking lot. Patti made friends.

Patti was careful to observe spitting distance protocols.

In the Spring we had made plans to connect with our friend Nick who made a two hour drive in his new custom-built camper van from Bochum, Germany. We’ve both known Nick since the late sixties and early seventies (I went to high school with him and Patti met him at Scarborough Music Camp. Nick’s a professional percussionist.) It was great to see him, and always special to meet up with a friend while on the road.

Nick had reserved a spot in a private trailer park area about 7kms outside of Breda, and after a relaxed lunch at a nearby golf course’s restaurant (mushroom croquettes and beer for Patti) the three of us cycled from there into town to walk around the city and catch up. Breda is a pleasant city with at least four square blocks of pedestrian-only shopping streets.

Weirdly, our check-in receptionist at the hotel was an AI-generated full body figure on a computer monitor. They called it a hologram. It was a bit creepy but efficient. Surely this isn’t a sign of things to come.

The city offers free bike parking in a multi-level garage around the corner from the hotel. No security offered, but a lock seems sufficient and it’s well lit. The bikes aren’t locked to anything. The locals use a simple and convenient lock through the spokes. One can imagine a pickup truck backing into a garage like this in Toronto and simply carting off hundreds of bikes.

We bade Nick good night, he cycled back to his trailer park, and we went to bed.

Gorinchem to Breda: 41 km.

The next morning we had a very flat and rather tedious 60 kms to Antwerp. Most of the ride was alongside the main rail line to Amsterdam, so we witnessed a steady stream of trains, including the high-speed Eurostar from London or Paris.

We enjoyed an excellent coffee and snack at a cafe next to a small but busy train station when we were approaching Antwerp (Kalmthout) , and noticed a moving war monument honouring the meeting of a Canadian soldier – Lt-Col. Denis Whitaker (a quarterback with the Hamilton Ticats!) with a Belgian resistance fighter Eugene Colson after the liberation of the village in 1944 by the Canadian Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. The Canadians played a very important part in securing this area, thus enabling the Allies to bring in millions of tons of equipment into the strategic Antwerp harbour.

We arrived in Antwerp after cycling through its immense port area on the Schelde River. There were lots of cyclists making good use of an excellent cycling network. We were happy to notice Zaha Hadid’s Port of Antwerp Harbour building on the way it, because we had visited and admired her Museum of Transportation building in Glasgow on a previous trip.

We were staying in the Hotel ‘t Sandt in Antwerp where we had stayed before. It’s a great location, and they provide covered, secure parking for the bikes, a real plus in a larger city. We like Antwerp very much, and in addition to seeing some sites we’d seen on a previous trip, we looked forward to seeing new ones. More about Antwerp in the next blog post.