The day began at the Diamond Hotel in Antwerp, with a breakfast of Chicken Korma, Samosas and Rice (No we weren't eating leftover takeaway from last night!) followed shortly by a swift return visit to the ensuites before departure.
After learning from previous days' endeavours, we decided that we ought to give the Laggards a head start out of the town, to avoid delays in them getting safely and promptly to Zeebrugge, so we drove 2 miles out of the city centre in order to save Mistress Garmin from showing herself up again, and irritating the group.
The Aces felt more confident about making their own way out, as Antwerp is "designed around the cyclist" although in the end they ended up having a hard time finding the tunnel under the river Schelde, and to add insult to injury, the moving stairs were broken, so they had to trundle their bikes up 6 flights!
We met the 4 cyclists on the Dutch border, in the Flemish town of Zelzate, where there was just enough time for a water stop and a quick look at the lifting bridge, before rushing off again, destination: Zeebrugge.
Following this stop, the AA team called quickly into Holland to take a picture of the border, before heading straight down to the beach at Knokke Heist to enjoy a scrumptious Belgian Waffle and some coffee served by a slightly unpleasant waitor.
We were just finishing the last crumbs of the waffle when we got a call from Gordon and David who said that they had reached a McDonalds just up the road. As we had but an hour to spare before the ferry, we decided to meet the team there and have a victory burger. As if by magic, or maybe just coincidence, Sam and Andy turned up in the very same spot some 10 minutes later. After limboing under the language barrier in McDonalds, and ending up with one extra meal between us for some reason, we managed to get the vehicles ready to roll and set off to drive the remaining 5 km to the port of Zeebrugge.
As luck would have it, we ended up in a rather unamusing traffic jam which made the situation slightly more frustrating as the passengers became more conscious of the time. However, we all arrived in one piece, and in no time we were on the good ship lollipop, aka the Pride of Bruges.
Fast forward an hour, and we were waving the mainland goodbye, and making our way to an offshore island called "Brit-tain" whilst having an all you can eat dinner with the very sociably designed choice of curry, bbq ribs and fishcakes - the perfect combination for two small, windowless cabins and four very flatulent cyclists!
The evening continued with a choice of the Sunset Bar and the Moonlight Lounge. Sunset bar reminded me of my 12th birthday party plus cider, whilst Moonlight Lounge was more of a mature affair, complete with lorry drivers chatting up teachers, and cyclists enjoying the somewhat out of sync and tune music.
As the midnight bell rang, it was time for the final dance before bed, and with Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft glistening in the distance like a faint amber river, we knew that we were within reach of Hull.
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