Part I : FulBIKER in Gent
I’m sharing this picture of my first time on my rented bike in Gent because I want you to note that it was raining, cold, and most importantly that I was wearing sandals. Despite the circumstances, I am absolutely thrilled.
A bike in Gent unlocks the city. Within 20 minutes you are across the city. The red roads throughout the city are bike roads – bikes have the full priority and cars are not allowed to pass bikes. You have to learn the signs. An especially important word to know as a biker is ‘uitgezonderd’. Not only is it fun to say, but it also means you are allowed down this road although other traffic is not. This saves you a lot of time, especially once you learn that google maps can not always be trusted to make bike routes. You learn to ask the city bikers for bike routes, and to find the bike highways.
Another favorite sign of mine are the signs that track the number of bikes that have crossed the street that day, and that year.
These are spread throughout the city, but I have included the sign on my favorite bike street here. I took this on the 31st of December, 2022. So almost 1.7 million bikes in 2022 crossed just this one street. That is impressive! If you happen to be biking with me through Gent, I will ask you to guess how many bikes have crossed the street that day. Chances are, given my experience, I will win.
However, there are some downsides to biking in Gent. The tram tracks are one of the biggest, which are the perfect width to allow your bike tire to slip into, bring your bike to a halt, and throw you off the bike. My first (and only experience so far, knock on wood), was about 5 minutes after that first picture was taken. While I was lucky I did not break anything, I got right back on the bike. I was left with some very impressive bruises, scraped up feet from my sandals and a sense of weariness around the tram tracks. The key is to cross them as perpendicular as you can, and to be very careful when you must ride between them.
(“But didn’t people warn you!?” – Everyone person who lives in Gent when I tell them my story)
So this is my warning to you. Other downsides include rain a lot of the time while you are biking in the winter. Or, even worse, steady wind. The other day, I was biking straight into the wind, very slowly making progress, and looking forward to turning at the next light so that I would no longer be riding directly into the wind. Come to find out, after turning 90 degrees, I was somehow still riding directly into the wind. Even worse than steady wind, are the wind gusts that have almost blown me over a few times. And worst of all is my stubbornness, that no matter the weather, I always ride my bike. Most of the time it is much faster than the local public transport and it is cheaper. This past weekend I found myself biking 40 minutes to a friend’s house on the outskirts of the city because the bus took the same amount of time, and the bike gave me more flexibility. The warmer weather is not even upon us, and yet I am often a bit sweaty by the time I get anywhere because I felt the need to bike fast. So it goes.
My recommendation to anyone biking in Belgium is the NodeMapp app. This app allows you to plan your bike route from point to point along bike highways. In my experience on bike adventures through Flanders, the bike highways allow you to pass through small villages and along nice paths that you would never see taking a bus or train.
Part II FulBIKER in Antwerp
Here I am on my bike in Antwerp. I picked up my Swapfiets rental the day I arrived in Belgium. This was the best decision I made in those first two weeks. While finding housing and figuring out my residence permit was chaotic and stressful, my means of transit was not. In Antwerp, chances are biking is the fastest and most direct route to almost anywhere. There is no way I would have made all of my apartment showings and district house meetings without my bike, and It was the perfect way to familiarize myself with the new city. I highly recommend Swapfiets to anyone in Antwerp. Although it is a bit more expensive than VeloAntwerpen, it is worth it for the bike quality and ability to park wherever you want.
Coming from the US where there is virtually no substantial bike infrastructure in most major cities, I was initially a little intimidated. My only biking experience was when I was younger and my family would bike around the rail trail for fun. However, it only took a few weeks before I got the hang of things. For me, the biggest benefit to biking in Antwerp is the freedom. I don’t have to wait for a bus or sit around in traffic, and parking is never an issue. Because of this, and Antwerp’s excellent bike lanes, I happily bike 30 minutes to work every day! In America my life is heavily dependent on a car, so this sense of freedom is incredibly liberating.
For me, biking is especially important after dark. As a woman, walking home alone at night has always been a source of anxiety for me. When I first arrived in Antwerp, I was hesitant to stay out too late. As I became more familiar with the city and talked with more women, I realized that the safest I’ve ever felt coming home alone at night is on my bike. If I’m biking home I’m much faster than any danger on foot and I don’t have to wait around a dark bus stop or be stuck with strangers on a tram car. I am much happier to agree to late plans or stay longer when I’m enjoying a friend’s company because there’s no little voice in the back of my head saying “oh no how are we going to get home.” Although it may not seem like much, this little bit of independence I gained from learning to bike in the city has definitely improved my quality of life.
Biking around Antwerp has also given me confidence to tour other cities by bike. If the weather is good it’s a great way to explore a new area and gain access to parts of a city you may have never been able to see. I definitely recommend renting bikes in Bruges, Ghent, and Amsterdam! I remember one day in particular when I was traveling and I got lost on the metro while trying to meet a tour guide. The guide was about to leave in 15 minutes and the metro would have taken at least another half hour to go back in the right direction. I was panicking.
Then suddenly I saw a city bike! I grabbed it, took off, and made it to the tour just in time. Although it wasn’t the most relaxing route, it made me realize how much I’ve grown on this Fulbright. One year ago I would have never had the confidence to pick up a bike in a completely foreign city by myself and bike fast enough to make it to my tour. Biking has been one of the most significant lifestyle changes for me in Belgium and I hope I can continue to integrate more biking into my daily life back in the US!
Part III FulBIKER crossover
To put our biking skills to the test, we decided to meet in the middle, or at least close to the middle, of Ghent and Antwerp. Pictured here are the routes we took to meet in the town of Sint Niklaas. By writing the node numbers on a piece of tape and sticking them to our bikes, the routes were easy to follow.
It was a beautiful day for a bike ride, although the smallest amount of riding into the wind feels like a big battle on such a long route. Along the way the scenery varied from farm fields, train tracks, rivers, forests, small towns and neighborhoods. Some examples are pictured below. While in Sint Niklaas we enjoyed some ice cream to refuel and visited the Sunday market. Our time in Belgium helped us appreciate the freedom that comes with having extensive bike infrastructure that connects the entire country.
Biking is a simple thing. It is a simple thing that makes us happy, that gives us time to relax throughout the day while we bike through our cities. It, along with so many other seemingly simple things that were the substance of our life in Belgium, were what made our time here unforgettable.
Lynn Pickering is a 2022-2023 Fulbright scholarship recipient to Belgium and she has spent the year conducting research on Explainable AI at Ghent University. Her research works toward an AI that explains clearly how it makes decisions, allowing for a user to determine the fairness and usability of the AI. Her overall research focus is on making AI work for humans, and making sure AI is used responsibly. Lynn is in her second year as a PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati.
Articles are written by Fulbright grantees and do not reflect the opinions of the Fulbright Commission, the grantees’ host institutions, or the U.S. Department of State.
As a 2022-2023 Fulbright open research grantee to Belgium, Valerie Pascetta has spent nine months researching zoonotic viruses at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on using archived human and wildlife tissues collected from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to trace changes in viral genomes. Valerie also enjoyed taking courses at the University of Antwerp and volunteering at the Antwerp Zoo during her grant period.