Team writing today… We slept well, as happily has become our pattern on this trip. We are not looking forward to returning to our 4 AM wakeup routine once we return. It has been amazing to not awake to the sound of an alarm clock. We both are ready to retire and make this permanent.

With the help of Google and friendly people at bus stops, we were able to navigate Antwerp today. When you travel by bike, public transportation or your bike is the only way to move about a city. Our bike is a little hard to find parking for, and we were dressed for church, so public transportation was our chosen mode of travel.

We attended the Antwerp ward. During each meeting we had kind and competent translators. After church, while we were waiting for a bus a church member recognized us and gave us a ride to the city center. We walked around the city center, market area, city hall, the river, and an old castle fort. It was warm and sunny so we took the opportunity to go and sit peacefully inside the Church of Saint Paul. We finished our journey on a tram back to our Airbnb apartment where we are resting and trying to decide which chocolate to eat next.

We are just under 800 miles of riding at this point and are sad that we only have about 120 miles left. There is rain in the forecast for the next few days. We are so grateful for the good weather we’ve had for most of our trip. And if it rains on us, hooray for Jean-René! (Although he sent us an email saying his farm has had enough rain.)

We’ll be heading back into the Netherlands tomorrow.