October 25, 26, 2018 – Antwerp

October 25, 2018 – Antwerp
After breakfast we were given a 90 minute walking tour of the Old Town. Antwerp has buildings from the 1300’s to brand new. The cathedral is tall and can be seen from everywhere in the city. After the walk we headed to Peter Paul Ruben’s house. We were happy to see that we could go through it for the senior rate of 8 euro. (Regular rate is 10€).
Ruben’s house was interesting but most of the paintings were done by his students. The house and gardens are worth the visit but be warned it was very crowded inside the house.
Next, we walked to the train station. What a beautiful building. We noticed signs that said ZOO so when we exited we looked to see what this meant. Right next to the station was the Antwerp Zoo. Who knew?
It was noon so we headed to an outdoor cafe called “Beer Central”. They advertised 300+ beers. They also had my favorite meal of Mussels and fries. Tom and I both ordered the mussels while Carol had baked chicken and fries. All 3 of us ordered Belgium beer that was on tap. The pots of Mussels were huge. I would guess we each got at least 4 dozen if not more. I finished mine and Tom made a valiant try but had to leave some.
After lunch we went to the Cathedral. In the early 1600’s, Ruben’s was commissioned to paint large religious paintings for the Cathedral. One is over the main altar. I am glad we decided to go because it was the highlight for this city.
We got back to the ship at 4:20pm and started to work on getting packing finished. 5:45pm to 6:30pm was crew and program directors goodbyes. This was followed by our farewell dinner. Another passenger hooked me up with her niece who would be staying at a hotel across the street from the train station. We made plans to meet in the morning. Finally, back to the cabin to finalize packing and sleep.
October 26, 2018 – Antwerp
I woke at 4am as I heard the crew getting ready for disembarkation. Then at 5am I woke again as people with early flights stood In the hall talking. Finally, I just got up and dressed. I needed to be out of my cabin by 8am. Breakfast was served from 5:15am to 8:30am. I took my 2 bags up to the lounge at 6:45am and headed to breakfast. After a leisurely meal and lots of coffee, I headed to the lounge to wait until 9am to get a taxi to the station. The 3 Carols, Tom, and I hung out until their tour bus was ready. They headed off to see Ghent before getting to Brugges for 3 days.
I asked the front desk to call us a taxi. She said it would be there in 15 or 20 minutes. We headed outside to wait. After waiting a half hour, Jorn, one of our Program Directors, came out to head home. When his taxi appeared, he let Mary and I have it.
I went into the Hampton Inn where Mary was staying and they nicely offered to hold my bag. My day was getting better. I walked around Antwerp until 11:30am, picked up my bag from the hotel and headed to the train.
At the stations they mark where the numbered cars on a train will stop . I had a reservation for seat 21 in car 13. Unfortunately as the train came in the cars were in reverse order. I, and others, had to run 5 train car lengths to get on our car. I had just gotten on and the train took off. Too close for comfort. It was only a 2 hour ride to Paris.
Blog on my 20 hours in Paris when I get home.