Getting to Gent

Gent wasn't that far from Gavere, maybe 15 minutes in kind of heavy traffic.

Traffic in Belgium is odd; in a good way. Everything is so much more fluid. There really aren't too many stop signs. You just look for the yield at the intersection and act accordingly. It's like a continuous "no cop. no stop." zone. Add to that the roundabouts instead of light controlled intersections. It's like you brake, but never have to come to a complete stop - like some sort of automotive shark.

The driving on the freeways is better too. People stay out of the left lane unless they are going fast. If you come up behind someone, they pull over. The major roads have three lanes. The trucks stay in the two right ones. Did I mention there didn't appear to be a speed limit? Yeah, when you got closer to places, there were signs giving you a speed to consider, but out on the freeway, you could go as you feel. There were always a few Porsches or Mercedes or big Audis to remind you that you could go faster if you wanted.

So I didn't exactly know where I was going in Gent. I had looked at the location of the Cyclingnews Apartment on Google Earth, but the resolution of those satellite images is terrible, so I couldn't really tell much as far as the scale of the city.

When I was in Hasselt, one of the tasks I completed was e-mailing my Europhone number to Emma and Peter. Luckily, they called me on the way in. I had the apartment number somewhere if I needed it.

With Emma on the phone, I drove around looking for landmarks and streets to identify my 10-20, good buddy. It took us way longer than it should have. Street signs in Gent and most of Belgium are terrible. They're these white panels that get posted on the corner of buildings. Most of the names are really long and end in -straat. The font they use is blocky and non-serifed, so reading it as you're rolling by at 20 mph is impossible. Plus, there are two train stations and two Sint Peters to look out for as landmarks. It took us about 30 minutes, and I had passed as close as about 3 blocks from where they were. (It was across a canal though.)

She finally steered me into Koning (King) Albert's Park, where there's an underground parking garage. I grabbed my bags and headed for the apartment. Having to pee really really badly, (5 cups of beer at the race), I was very relieved to see the outdoor urinal there by City Hall. It's kind of like a small bus stop with wrap around "wings" for some modesty, but you're still out in the open. Stad (city) Gent's are really nice. Stainless, frosted glass, a little civic logo. Wonderful. The bummer was it doesn't look like they had been serviced all week. They were already overflowing with pee. I was too desparate to do anything other than add to the overflow. Rain would take care of it. There's no way I would have made it to the apartment dragging my bags around.