5. The Trip to Benelux

On the fifth day, we started at Jindra's place. Here we bought breakfast at the store, and since Béďa's cousin has been living in Utrecht for a while, he took us on a morning tour of the city. And it wouldn't be a trip to the Netherlands if we didn't take the opportunity to travel by bike. We rented shared bikes and set off to explore the streets of Utrecht. And true to our nature as road pirates, one member of the group almost caused a traffic accident.

In the center, we visited the Cathedral of Saint Martin of Tours, and since it was our final day in the Netherlands, we went for a little walk to shop for local cheeses. A quick lunch by the car consisted of salads, and we headed towards the Belgian border towards the enclave in Baarle. It is unique in that the Belgian-Dutch border crosses through it, meaning that houses on the same street can belong to the Netherlands on one side and to Belgium on the other. Here, we conducted the tour mostly from inside the car and continued further into Belgium.

Our journey took us to Antwerp, where we left the car in a parking lot and explored the city using public transport. However, as soon as we arrived in the center, we were struck by the tremendous heat, which compared to the Dutch weather felt like being on a grill. Nevertheless, we visited the main station, the iconic Cathedral of Our Lady, the town hall, and Het Steen, which is the oldest building in Antwerp by the river. Fatigue and hunger began to take their toll on us, so we headed back to the car and made our way towards the city of Eeklo, where we set up tents near the local cemetery. For dinner, we ended up making sausages and settled down for the night.