Belgian Blitz on Bike

“Let’s bike to Antwerp”.

We were a bunch of international friends, with whom I was sharing a pitcher of beer at Tango, our favorite pub in Delft, at that time. The fun-filled Summer School had recently ended, the first-quarter lectures had started but no assignments had been handed out yet. And I was longing for an adventure.

“Tomorrow will be a nice sunny day, perfect for a cycle trip” replied Jabus from across the table. 

Vivek jumped in from nowhere, “Antwerp is only hundred and thirty kilometers from Delft, at an average speed of just ten kilometers per hour it will take only fourteen hours?” 

I wasn’t sure if he was sarcastic or was merely giving out facts to help us decide. Michael, our mentor of the month, did not share the enthusiasm, “You guys must be crazy. Do you even have a map to plan your bike trip?”. 

“Where is the fun in that?” I replied jokingly, “We will ride towards south on the red cycle-paths. Let the sun and sign-boards guide us”. 

Jabus took that seriously, “Dushyant, if you really want to do this trip, I will join you, who need a map anyway?”

 “Then let’s start tomorrow at 7 am in the morning in front of the Space-Boxes. We should reach Antwerp at around 9 pm”, I announced, already excited, anticipating a mad adventure. 

“I will join you”, Vivek chanted as he rose to get another pitcher of beer.

Next morning, at 6 am I forced myself up from a hangover. I quickly showered, packed my bag with an extra pair of clothes and a bike repair kit. Jabus was already waiting at the Space-Box cycle-stand when I came out. It was a bright and sunny and the sky was a spotless blue. Perfect!! While we waited for Vivek, Jabus showed me a rough sketch of our cycle track he had prepared early in the morning from Google Maps. To my surprise, Vivek showed up, almost on time and we embarked on our journey.

We biked. Through big cities: crossing Rotterdam, Dordrecht and Breda and through beautiful countryside.

We biked. Along glittering canals, into the swampy woods and across green fields, under dark tunnels, over countless bridges and on the snail-paced ferryboats.

We biked. Often in circles, lost and confused, sometimes due to incorrect sign-boards and lack of map, and sometimes due to our lack of basic understanding on direction of sun at different times of the day.

We biked. About hundred kilometres, when our back and behind started hurting. Badly.

Nevertheless, we kept going until we conquered the Belgian border. We celebrated the victory lying down in a green field, basking in our glory and red sunset with Belgian beer. Cheers!


 

Victorious in our Belgian Battle, we now headed for Antwerp War which was still thirty kilometres away. Drunk on two bottles of Duvel beer, I tried my best not to transgress into the motor-highway next to the cycle-path.


Jabus and Vivek had a tough time, not only in keeping me away from the highway, but also keeping up with my pace. The Belgian beer had miraculously cured me of my pains and had boosted my adrenalin level so much that I was cycling more than twenty kilometres per hour, non-stop. We reached Antwerp in less than two hours.

At 22:00, 15^th September 2007, The Antwerp War was won. It was time to sign the Truce at the local hotel for a peaceful sleep.

This is the article which i wrote for sTUDELTA, but two days before the date of release the management made cost cutting measures by scraping off few articles to reduce the number of pages from 24 to 20. This article was scraped off too.