Day 6 in Antwerp

Day 6 in Antwerp

I slept fairly well and got up about 7 in order to go to the lounge and try the internet.  It stopped last night, I guess everyone got on at one time or something.  I was able to upload photos on the blog for Day 5, so check it out when you can.  The internet was just flying at 7 and I wish it would stay that way but it won’t.  We met for breakfast at 8 and enjoyed the buffet.  They had all kinds of breakfast foods and evidently it was all good. 

We then had a meeting for everyone on the ship to discuss the optional trips and today’s city walk.  There are four optional trips available but in our group no one is doing the Zeeland trip, only I am doing the Delta Works tour (to see how they prevent flooding here), we are all do the Delft tour (yea, shopping for Delft china!!), and none of us are going to the Hague.  The rest of the time we will be on the ship or visiting the towns and villages and cities (including Amsterdam). 

Then we got warmly dressed and met on the dock for the city tour of Antwerp. As we stood beside the ship, I thought I had made a huge mistake not bringing scarp, gloves and wearing cuddleduds because the wind was brisk, think overpoweringly cold.  However, as we walked we were shielded by buildings and I warmed up.  Our guide was a man named Paul who really thought he had a sense of humor – Maybe he does.  This city has been destroyed several times by different armies, but there is an old part of the city wall left that is now called a ‘the castle’.  The city has a system where you can belong and use a city bicycle anywhere in the city and just leave it when you are done and then get another when you need one. 

We walked about the city past the Meat House also called the Bacon House because of its appearance.  We went to Peter Paul Reuben’s studio and heard about how he painted some of his pictures and his students painted others so that he could just sign his name to them.  We then went to the Cathedral which is being renovated, but it is still beautiful. 

We have returned to the ship and some of us are resting, some are kindling, some are ipading and then there is me, who is writing the blog.  Right now the internet is fast so I’ll try to load more photos.  I’ll be back in a while.