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| Page Views: 3,086 Last Visit to Belgium: 2002 I Was Born Here | Schelde cycling from ferry to ferry by irisbe - last update: Jul 27, 2006 |
We followed a big part of the road marked red on this map.
We started at Schelle, went to Laarkapel, then to Veer at the Wintamsluis.
We crossed the water (Rupel) by ferryboat the first time at Wintam-Niel. Then we kept close to the Schelde, at our right hand side, and had a drink at the Notelaer.
We kept the Schelde to the right again and skipped the left turn towards Bornem (Oude Schelde) but cycled straight to Weert. However if you have plenty of time, then do take the direction leading you to the Old Schelde, it is beautiful.
At Weert we had another drink, then we cycled to the next ferry Driegoten at Weert-Hamme to cross the Schelde again.
You can however cycle to Mariekerke and even to Sint-Amands!
The Schelde is on our right side again but we are cycling North this time.
We pass Tielrode, then Temse, then Steendorp and we end up at Rupelmonde.
This little town really is worth staying a little longer then just passing by!
At the time we were there, there was the event "Campo Viejo" or... Rupelmonde in Flanders anno 1576!
The next town to arrive is Bazel.
We took another stop there for a drink. If you take a whole day to do this trip (and don't get off every two minutes to take a picture!) you will have time to visit the castle of Bazel, it is very near your route.
After that last pit stop we cycled to the next ferry that brought us across the Schelde to Hemiksem.
Another short cycling trip took us back to the location we parked our car.
The complete route should be around 51 km, I think we did about 41 km.
The map we used was an promotional gift of the local newspaper "Gazet van Antwerpen" to whom I give all credits for this wonderful route they generated from a combination of 4 existing cycle routes:
Stedenroute LP2a; Baksteenroute, Vlaanderen Fietsroute LF5 and Groene Route Kruibeke.
It covers different towns in the Province of Antwerp and the Province of East-Flanders. |
Schelle We parked our car on the carpool in front of the Sint Petrus & Sint Paulus chuch.
There was a lot of space and we took the bicycles off the holder that was attached to the car.
We put on some sun protection on our shoulders because the sun was hitting hard! |
Schelle Schelle is a town in the Province of Antwerp.
This is where we started our cycling tour.
I found these websites:
<p><font face="Times" size="3" color="#CC0033"><a href="http://www.patisserielauwers.be/Paasei.htm"target="_blank">About the biggest chocolat egg ever made by a pattisery in Schelle.</a></font></p>
<p><font face="Times" size="3" color="#CC0033"><a href="http://www.ngw.nl/int/bel/s/schelle.htm"target="_blank">Heraldic wheapon.</a></font></p>
<BR> |
Just next to the church I found this little Madonna cave that was constructed against the sidewalls of two houses. |
Hemiksem Sint Bernardus abbey When we cycled to the West, direction of the Schelde we saw this Sint Bernardus abbey at our right, that is located at the nearby commune called Hemiksem. |
There is a legend about it:: It is about the black boatman.In 1794 the French robbed and plundered the churches and monasteries. The abbey of Sint Bernardus at Hemiksem didn’t escape the French fury. On a stormy November evening the French bounded with their weapons at the gate of the abbey. The brother-concierge looks through the little hole in the door what was going on. Very quickly he alerted the abt and the other monks and brothers. They had already packed a lot of valuable things in coffins because they knew what the sansculottes had done in other places. Sanssculottes was the nickname for the French that meant “without pants” because of their uniform. In a hurry all the ciborium (?) with the holy hosties (?) were put in a coffin together with the golden grails and silver of the church. They sneaked out to the ships that were waiting for this occasion at one of the little creeks. Usually they used these boats for fishing on the river Scheldt.They loaded the treasure in three boats in total. With 15 in total they sat in the boats that were shaking on the water of the creek, the water was wild because of the heavy wind. It gets even worse if they are on the river: waves are splashing into the boats and it gets so dark the monks are not able so see each other anymore! So dark it became! All of a sudden: a big wave pours too much water in one of the boats and makes it capsize. It disappears into the dark deep of the Scheldt! The servant of the monks couldn’t bear the thought of all those valuable things at the bottom of the river and he decides he will go back to look for the coffin with the treasure inside. Few nights later, at the light of the moon and at low tide, he decides to go. The same night one of the dead monks appears in his dream, raising his finger in a warning, saying: beware! Beware the greedy! Nevertheless the servant prepares everything for his search, hooks, ropes… and he leaves. He is lucky!!! Only 20 meters from the border he finds what he was looking for! With all his strength he pulls the coffin with ropes to his boat and then tries to get it lifted up to get it inside. And yes!… he almost succeeds now… but then… the he got twisted in the rope and the coffin falls back in the water and servant and boat are pulled down into the dark water! Up to now… with heavy weather, above the turbulent sound of the storm, the sailors still can hear the terrible sound of the voice of the servant “Beware the greedy! Save me from my gold and my money! Save me!” The “black boatman” is, tied to his coffin for eternity, doomed to float the river up and down, with high and low tides. The last time he was even heard in Vlissingen, but most of the time you can hear him somewhere between Hemiksem and Rupelmonde! |
Laarkapel This little village has all the same type of houses and there is a small square called after the electricity company. Most likely this town was specially designed and build on behalf of this same company.
Many houses were being restored.
I don't know about the prices but despite the area was quiet and nice, you had to accept you would have to live under the high voltage wires that starts here and are going to provide electricity in the nearby factories and villages. High pylones are disturbing the wide green view of the fields. |
Laarkapel Here you find a rather big electricity plant. |
The Dijkgravin The Dijkgravin is a personage from a novel of Marie Gevers. It was offered by the Lions Club of Small Brabant. There are a few benches where you can sit down for a little while. If you have the statue in your back then you are facing a road that goes down. If you follow that road you will end up at the castle of d'Ursel at Hingene. |
De Notelaer We are here in the area where a popular drama series was filmed called : Stille waters (Calm waters). The Notelaer is the name of this building. It is a neoclassicism hunting and Summer pavilion, finished in 1794 on request of Wolfgang Guillaume, 3rd Duke of d'Ursel. Design by Charles de Wailly a French court architect. In 1968 it is put on the list of protected patrimony. It got restored very recently (2001?) by and Antwerp company, located at Wilrijk (I know because my neighbour is involved in this restoration!). |
If you go down the little path and follow the cobble stone road, you will end up at the beautiful garden. Here you will discover a whole terras furnished with tables, chairs, benches. There is a little kiosk where you can buy drinks (self-service) and it is allowed to eat your pick nick here. |
I had myself a cherry gueze although I thought this one was a bit too sweet to my opinion. For those who like sweet beer, try one of these! |
You can visit the house (1,5 euro). It holds a collection about the series that was filmed here (Stille waters) and as it was part of the series, house of the personage Alex Vorlat, you can visit the living room at the 1st floor and it will show exactly how it looked like at the film set. At the top you have a nice view over the river. |
In the back there is this little pool that offered a nice view! |
eye catching can catcher Something you find along the way! it is called "blikvanger", in Dutch this has 2 meanings: 1/ eye catcher 2/ can catcher I think it suits both! it is eye catching and you can throw your empty cans and bottles in it and help to keep this area clean from litter. |
We are getting close to the lock of Bornem, close to Temse. |
There is still quite some traffic on the water. I thought this picture which came out a bit blurred was excellent to paintbrush! |
Not only commercial traffic on the water! The closer to Temse, the more private boats you will see. |
Here you see the bridge that connects the Temse with the right side of the Schelde. We go cycle it underneath, we are not going to cross it. |
It is a huge iron bridge with a lot of traffic. |
Here we have a nice panoramic view on Temse at the other side of the river! |
Weert Instead of taking the turn left to go cycling the Old Scheldt route, we go right and keep the river at our right side until we arrive at Weert. We Belgians have something with signalisation! LOL If you need to find where you need to go, it will take half an hour to find the right sign! |
We are at Weert! First houses are nice restaurants, like this one called the Blauwe Reiger. |
Next to the restaurant you find the "Zilver Reiger". It is a museum, a pub, a tourist information office and a place where you can rent bicycles! |
Here you can watch the sign, it says you can find everything here '-) and the statue is that of the silver bird where the place is named after. |
This is the entrance of the tourist office where you can find a huge amount of cycling and hiking maps. It also houses a museum about hand crafts and old culture of the area. |
This is the entrance of the cafetaria. If you plan to go with a group you can make special arrangements. |
You can order a slijkneusbier or a slijkneus cake or cookie. What is a slijkneus? hehehe let's say it is a mud nose! and the cake that comes with that name looks like a dog snoopy dog's mud nose LOL We were not hungry yet because we just had our pick nick at the Notelaer, so we ordered a beer. It is brewed by Brewery Den Hopperd, at Ramsel, tel: 016/680978. |
The tavern inside looks like it used to look ages ago! this is really nice! It is very neat and very well maintained! |
It is famous for its old traditional games. |
Things you hardly will find anymore are still available here and you can even make arrangements to have "game” afternoons with your group of people! |
A pile of old antique games on a pile, waiting for you to come along and try them! |
There are several bicycles to rent. More info: De Zilverreiger Streekmuseum Scheldestraat 18 B-2880 Weert Tel: + 32/(0)3 889 06 03 Fax: + 32/(0)3 889 16 17 |
Driegoten pond Looking at our watch, we decide to take the short tour and leave the trip more South to Mariekerke and the ferry there for another occasion. We will cross the Schelde Weert-Hamme called Drie goten. You can use this ferry each half hour between 6:30 am at Summer or from 8:30 am in Winter up till 7:30 pm. |
The boat is a bit bigger then the previous one but it still is plenty. With this kind of nice weather and on a holiday or weekend day a lot of people chose this kind of recreation. |
Arriving at the other side... |
Off the boat and on the bicycle again. From the boat I could see a marvellous house at the right of the ferry arrival. It was under restoration. This little bridge was part of its garden; maybe it connects on part of their garden to the part on the other side of the road. Anyway I thought it looked marvellous :-) |
Statue of the writer Filip de Pillecyn Filip de Pillecyn was born on 25th of March 1891. He was the youngest in a family of four kids. As his father was collector on the steam boat, he got to know a lot of people and his family was well known by many in Hamme. Hamme was a small poor village and Filip spend his first years here. He often played near the water board and was fascinated by the river. He had a lovely childhood here, despite the fact that he noticed far too often how the villagers went to work with empty stomachs, working hard and long days for a very poor wage. When his father died, his nice innocent years came to an end. At the local public school it seems that Filip de Pillecyn already had some writer’s talent. His first attempt to write a novel ended with one page. Discouraged by his eldest brother he forgot the whole idea, that is, for the time being. He didn’t stop to visit the catholic library with Flemish and Francophonian literature. He focused on the French novesl of Raoul de Navéry. His eldest brother got a job at the community house and this gave Filip the opportunity to go on with his studies. He went to Sint Niklaas to highschool. (1903-1910). When he was in the 5th year, his mother died. After finishing he went to the <a href="http://www.virtualtourist. com/m/.144757/article/150/117/18/?s=T&lastp=15"target="_blank">University of Leuven.</a> (1910-1914).
He contributes to the student’s paper : Ons leven.
Then came WWI.
In 1915 he escapes to the Netherlands where he got some new experiences working for the “Maasbode”.
In that same year he volunteered in the army fighting against the Germans.
After the war he became journalist writer at “De Standaard” and the main writer of the catholic union paper “De Tijd”. He was co-creator of the satirical paper “Pallieter”.
He married Elvire van Duyse and went to live in Brussels. When she died he remarried a teacher of Mechelen (Malines) Suzanne de Cavel.
He got his doctorate in 1926 and became Dutch/English teacher at the Athenaeum in Malmédy.
It was a quiet time and this gave him the opportunity to stay occupied with some novel writing. In 1931 he publishes his first important work “Blauwbaard”, and other works will follow.
In most of them he always “returns” to Hamme, near the Durme: Soldaaat Jan (Soldier Jan), De veerman en de jonkvrouw (The boat man and the lady), Mensen achter de dijk (People behind the dike, they all refer to the place he once lived and that recall his attraction to the river, to the water.
Although he lived his last years in Gent, where he died on 7th of August 1962, his heart was still at Hamme. |
The ice cream seller is always there in Summer time and this is a very exceptional picture: usually he is surrounded by a mass of people all patiently waiting to buy his ice |
This is the spot where the statue stands (and the ice cream seller too LOL): the Durme finding his way into the Schelde. |
Up to Tielrode Back on our cycle again and at the horizon behind the green and purple fields we can spot already the church tower of Tielrode. |
The paths (only for cyclers and hikers!) are great again! |
Pond Hamme-Tielrode We have to cross the Durme at Hamme-Tielrode. With a little fantasy and effort you can easy find out the schedule of the ferry :-) |
No problem should it rain, or should you just have to wait: there is this little shelter with bench where you can sit. |
I saw the tide is low; it can differ almost 6 meters in total. You can see it on these wooden pillars how the water goes down. |
The boatman is taking us safe to the other side, to Tielrode, the little village we spotted the tower of the church earlier. |
All the ferries are free. They are organized by the Flemish government. However there is always the possibility to add a small contribution. I know there exists an organisation to protect the ferries (my ex-colleague is active member in this) and I hope these contributions will go to the organisation. |
An old deserted boat but what a lovely colours that orange/brown rusty iron and the green. |
Potpolder In front of the "potpolder" stands the statue, inaugurated in 2002, in honour of the boatman Cyril van Bogaert (1905-1977). His nickname was "Den Toeter". (the hooter?) The plaque is at the backside but as we were obvious looking for it, two local men helped us giving the information to look at the right place. A potpolder is a lower piece of land that can be used to derivate the water of the river should there be a risk of flood . |
The Polder is magnificent and I hope it will never have to proof to be helpful '-) |
I was very much thrilled with the colours of this landscape and I couldn't help painting it... I think this way it does even better express the soul of the landscape :-) |
Temse I little village with a very nice centre! |
The commune did a wonderful thing with the centre of this village: the flowers, the neat streets, very nice to cycle through! |
Industrial architecture ... |
I should find out next time what is here in this building, it looks like a museum. |
And again... difficult to make a choice where to sit for a drink should you feel thirsty! There are terraces made next to the water front, lovely! |
This statue, 25th of May 1991, is called the Kay walkers (people who stroll along the kays and meet each other to have a talk, most probably local gossip?) LOL no for serious they used to pull the boats by rope along the river, a hard labour! |
Another statue, the guy at the left is sitting on a can of vinegar |
up to Steendorp Outside Temse you find these kind of little fishing pools. I thought it looked funny artificial '-) |
Steendorp Steendorp (stone village) a lot of brick stone factories are settled here, hence the name of the village? |
The entrance of the power plant |
Rupelmonde More boats and water recreation possibilities at Rupelmonde! Rupelmonde lies at the spot where the river Rupel ends in the river Schelde. It used to be an old Roman settlement and during the Middle Ages it was an important village. |
You can m ake a trip on a river boat. |
The village is an ocean of peace, no traffic roars past and in this oasis of silence you can easily forget time. But since the commemoration of the fourhundredth anniversary of Mercator's decease in 1994, time will never stop in Rupelmonde anymore: the town has been bestrewn with sundials which indicate the advancing time without mercy. (extract of the official website of Dendermonde <a href="http://users.pandora.be/ve erle.heyman/zonnewijzers/#Engels "target="_blank">klik here to read more.</a></font></p> |
Campo Viejo From 10th to 18th of August 2002 (but I think they do it yearly?) you can visit the temporary settlement of the event: Campo Viejo de Rupelmonda en Flandes anno 1576, or how it looked like in Rupelmonde in 1576 under Spanish suppression. The entrance is 7,5 Euro and you can visit the tower where Mercator was held imprisoned and you can watch a few executions as well should you be interested '-) |
Mercator! Here Gerardus Mercator was born on the 12th of March, 1512. Who doesn't know Mercator who made revolutionary maps! He was the one that designed the 2 dimensional map of earth, while earth is a round planet. We hardly think about it anymore, but some one had to have the idea to make a 3-d planet a 2-d map! |
To Bazel now! Along typical Flemish cobblestone roads we cycle towards Bazel. |
Your route takes you right to this old barn, now a pub where you can have a drink or some snacks. To the left will take you to the Castle of Bazel, to the right (we are going to) will take you to the ferry of Hemiksem (Kallebeek). |
I discovered 2 new beers of which I tried one hehehe I still had to cycle ok?! The beers were abbey beers like and the dark one was called Boerke (farmer) and the white one (on the picture) was called Boerinneke (well that is his wife!). Boerinneken: 9,5 % Brewery: Den Ouden Advocaat Ster 51b B-9100 Sint-Niklaas tel: +32/(0)3 776 59 49 Schol! Santé! Cheers! Gezondheid! |
With another beer in my legs I cycled to the Kallebeek ferry. What was I happy I kept it to one beer ... those cobble stone roads are romantic to view but hard to cycle! hahaha |
Kallebeek pond Hemiksem-Bazel This is the biggest ferry of all. A lot of people can find a place on this boat! |
During Winter: every half hour between 5 am and 10 pm. During Summer: every half hour between 5 am and 10:30 pm. |
I love "structures" so I couldn't resist taking this picture! |
And a second one at the other side :-) We got off the boat at Hemiksem and cycled a few miles back South to Schelle. At a certain point you have to turn to the right and it looks like it is a private propriety but it isn’t you have to pass through the gate. At Schelle we easily found the parking lot again where we left the car. We did about 6 hours with that additional stops for pics (must have taken 100 in total of which I made a selection); 3 stops for a drink and the 4 ferries we took. It was a marvellous day and if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, don't hesitate, hire a bicycle or borrow one and make this tour yourself! You will enjoy it! |
If you pass this plant, then you have to turn right and right again.
Just before you turn the second time you will view on the main street a little white chapel.
From the previous Laarhof or Het hof van Ravenstein, dated from the Spanish erea, only the monumental gate of the chapel building remains.
All the rest disappeared in 1951.
The Laarhof is said to be property of the same family Suys since 1559 (!)
Nearby you can see the Laarkapel (the white chapel).
Inside you will find a baroque altar. |
Cycling along the Rupel You will find many nice houses and pubs! alongside the river(s)
This picture is taken at the Tolhuisstraat.
Tol means taxes and huis is House, so I think this is the place where taxes where forced (maybe upon river traffic?). |
At the opposite of the previous house you will find several pubs and taverns. I liked this one, it looked like it was previous a chapel.. |
The nature is at its best here in August! Fields are covered with wild flowers! Just beautiful! |
You cycle along the river Rupel on the dykes. You have magnificent views from there. On weekend days when good weather it might get crowded in the afternoon! Every one wants to enjoy the Summer holidays cycling or skating or just hiking! |
Old pond Niel Wintam We cycle until we reach the little ferry Niel-Wintham. From 6th September on this will be replaced by a more modern one at Schelle-Wintam. Pity because it is so pituresque this small boat. It was a bit queuing when we arrived. We had to wait about 10 minutes and where lucky! We were the last two that could find a place at the back of he boat! |
All the bicycles where put crosswise as you can see and the people had to sit along the side of the boat. Except me I sat on the stairs at the end of the boat, which gave me an ultimate view and possibility to make this lovely picture! |
Near Wintam The ferry put us ashore on the Northern island that was formed with the sand that was digged to make the new sea lock at Wintam. It is a nature resort in development, an open landscape with little pools, wet and dry land. This biotope encourages different kinds of specimens to develop spontaneously. |
Heck cows (?) primitive sort of cows, and Karik horses (primitive resembling horses) are set free. They find the food they need there. So no extra feeding by tourists! This way they will keep healthy. You should bring at least your zoom or binocular with you if you want to do some bird watching! I was sad I didn't! It would have made marvellous pictures: this locations is becoming a real bird resort! |
We are now cycling North along the Rupel again we turn West at the end and arrive at the Sea lock of Wintam. You can walk over the bridge but you can't stop because the bridge is the lock door :-) |
It is a huge and modern construction with huge lock lights. Nice to see it full with boats, big and small! A voice through a microphone will alert the people if they can enter there boat or not. |
Rupelmonde At the left bank of the Scheldt we can spot Rupelmonde. Very nice city and more about it later when we will pass through! |
Before we arrive there, we will have to do some extra hours of cycling! For those who are thirsty there are plenty pubs along the road! It is almost too tempting to stop at each of them; they all look so nice and cosy! This one is called "Groene Dijk" (Green dyke). |
The boat the Westhinder (left) at anker (?) at Rupelmonde, next to it an old (neglected) army ship. |
No wonder the pubs have names like Green dike! Look at this wide view! |
The contrasts of colours of green, the sun and the shadow, it all creates such a wonderful patterns! |
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 Comments for irisbe about Belgium | | | | |
RhineRoll Thu Dec 7, 2006 15:28 UTC
I very much doubt the alternative suggestion will happen to me :)) | gkitzmil Thu Nov 2, 2006 22:36 UTC
Yes, I drink all that I can. I have found three good places to get Belgian Beer. I've not seen Boon here yet, though. | pieter_jan_v Mon Sep 25, 2006 18:11 UTC
MANY LOST BEERS HERE! PJ | lmkluque Mon Sep 25, 2006 17:13 UTC
I don't drink beer but, lLoved your Tourist Trap tips! Interesting, informative and humourous! I'll come back when you've finished. |
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