Emotions on pedals - day 1
“Those who rebel meaningfully don’t buy a lot of stuff”. This was the quote from David Foster Wallace that inspired us to fuck Decathlon, save a morning, and leave with what we had. We ended up securing Matteo’s backpack to one of the racks helping ourselves with sturdy plastic bags and rubber bands. The baggage style was in full resonance with the improvised line-up of bikes: a solid Bottecchia city-bike heavily loaded with all the baggage (baptized “the mule”) and the small folding Dahon (my beloved “El Diablo”), which we also called “el Pony” or “el Donkey”, due to its reduced size and funny silhouette. (But I must anticipate that once again El Diablo did a fucking great job!). Our clothing was more casual than technical, and we insisted in carrying also a stinky old tent for camping emergencies, more to give us the courage to dare and to dream, if given the chance to. So, like Don Quixote and its faithful Sancho, we hit the road (Jack!) on a crispy Sunday morning full of energy and optimism. It was not hard to realize we had been blessed by the Sun, and at every breath we felt grateful for being fully present in the Great Wild Belgian Outdoors. A lovely canal was leading our way as we got out of Brussels. The water created an open space around us, a space populated by steaming boats full of iron waste bustling up and down, a space whose skyline was sketched by the shapes of some old industrial buildings. Our pace was leisurely, it’s Sunday after all, and we granted ourselves ample breaks on the river banks, to eat a power snack or to meditate in the open fields. Once we got to the city of Boom, having gotten excited by such a powerful name, we decide to crank up the speed and head to Antwerp via the most direct way. The suburban landscape along the highway is now a depressing series of malls and warehouses, but we soon found ourselves at the outskirts of the city. Just in time for a visit to Middleheim Park, where nature meets sculptures and art installations. A real playground for two pseudo-intellectuals of our sort! We blessed our friend “Steve the great”, a long distance bike traveler, who not only tipped us about this place, but also helped us finding a local host for the night in Antwerp: Kris from Warmshowers. Antwerp city centre is truly first class: bikes outnumber cars thanks to a capillary network of cycling lanes. Welcome to the 21st century! Our guide for the following 2 hours in the historical centre is our beloved Eugenia, who did an excellent job in getting us lost in the most inspiring corners and in telling us some stories of local folklore, whose lack of happy ending positively impressed me. Then off to Kris’s mansion where we are offered a bed and a room each. La classe! Off to the pub for a glorious Chimay on tap (something not easily found even in Belgium itself) and then a delicious meal at a Pakistani restaurant, where Kris kept on ordering wondrous dishes that we ended up devouring all together till we were almost exploding. A nice change from our usual diet, consisting of plain and easily digestible staple foods like porridge, cous cous, corn galettes, or other uber-healthy stuff. Those who travel by bike will understand that all the nutricious foods (those that keep you pedaling all day for the next 50 years) must be strictly non-processed.
