After we left our guides, we went back to the boat to rest a little and have lunch, then headed back out on our own to explore.
This is a big old boat that appears to be in dry-dock, and of course, we had to have a good look around it!
Strong boy holding up really big boat! He was quite happy to pose as I guess he understood my sign language. :-)
This lovely old building I think used to be the port authority building when this was the port area. Now you have to go through a lock into the Scheldt River, where there are no tides for the main port. We spent both nights where there were no tides, then came down for the day.
Another view - this time in daylight - of that great museum building.
Want to rent a bike? Just put your credit card in the machine, ride as long as you wish, then put it back into this location or into another one. We noticed that the back wheels are bigger than the front ones.
Another way to see the town is on this little train. We walked a long way on this lovely afternoon! Not entirely by choice. :-)
M-m-m-m, sweet!!!
What do you think? My guess is lightning rods. It was on top of a pretty high building. MUCH more interesting than the ordinary ones!
Another artist, Antoon Van Dyck. Somehow, I missed the statue of Rubens.
I just really like this picture - don't know what it is.
And again the Cathedral of our Lady - you can tell I was really impressed! This time the sun was behind me.
I think we were meant to keep our hands off this lovely lady. :-)
This was some kind of holiday - I don't remember what it was, but it meant that most of the stores were closed, and there were a LOT of people celebrating in Grote Markt, where there was entertainment, tents set up, kids stuff going on, and MUCH drinking of beer!
The Antwerp City Hall was also in this square.
Meanwhile, back in the harbour, this big structure was "tugged" into the spot in front of us. We're told it was part of a tower for a windmill that would be put somewhere in the sea.
That evening after dinner, we were treated to a "crew show" in the lounge. After this skit, Jeremy decided he wouldn't be eating eggs in the morning! It was a very fun evening!
The night watchman had some surprising talents!
Robert (our favorite waiter), and Peter, the hotel manager, did a skit about greeting in various European countries. Here, they are being very proper Brits.
Fittingly, we found these "hands" on our pillows that night. Antwerp - hand throwing. They got thrown....straight into our mouths!
.......until next time.........
At 9 a.m., we began a walking tour of Antwerp, then were later turned loose to be on our own. There was much to see and hear about, and some of it I even remember!
At first I thought this was Brabo, who we will meet later, but apparently, he is just a giant that showed up in a story book at some point. The building behind was built in stages, some of it was "old" and some of it "ancient" - too bad I can't remember the whole story. :-)
This area of the city is just full of beautiful old buildings - well some old, some built to look old. The war destroyed a lot of amazing stuff! So sad!
This is a side of the first building - I THINK the right is the "old", and the left is the "ancient". It was cool to walk through it.
This lovely old train station seems to be used for boat storage and repair, and is going to be restored, I believe.
This obviously used to be a fish market.
This fountain is in the Grote Markt, with the spire of the Cathedral of Our Lady behind it. I'll show more of these later.
This is an amazing cathedral - I am so glad it was not bombed during the wars!
Another shot of the Cathedral of Our Lady.
And here's Brabo - at the top of the fountain.
Antwerp means "hand throwing". The story is that a Mythical Roman soldier called Brabo killed a giant called Druon Antigoon, cut off his hand, and threw it over the city and into the river. Druon was said to have asked for money from everyone who crossed over the bridge over the Scheldt River, and if they couldn't or wouldn't pay him, he cut off their hand. Brabo became a hero.
And here is Druon at the base of the fountain, minus a hand.
This scene depicts some of the workers who were working on the cathedral, which was built from 1351 to 1521 - guess they had a lot of different workers over those years!
There are a great many beautiful stained glass windows in the Cathedral of our Lady!
There are also dozens of huge paintings in the cathedral, all done by the famous painter Peter Paul Rubens, who lived most of his life in Antwerp. This is one of my favorites, depicting Jesus with the children.
I believe this would be the coffin of a priest, but apparently in those early days, if you were very rich, you were able to be buried under the floor of the cathedral. As your body rotted, it became very smelly, and that's where the saying about the "stinking rich" came from. There were a lot of people buried under the floor, but eventually, they decided it would only be priests who were buried there.
This is a model of the cathedral, and you can see that there is a whole lot more to it than in my pictures!
We were taken on a walk through some very narrow streets and alleys where people lived - it was so cool!
Like this one! And of course, always the streets were cobblestones! Why don't we do that? They last forever!
This little narrow alley actually had tables for the restaurant on the left. The lady on the right, Patricia, here with her daughter Brenda, did a part of the Camino de Santiago Trail a few years ago on her own. I was so impressed with this lady! This is her Camino website if you are interested in having a look:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109457418400/
The scallop shell is a symbol and a guide along the many miles of the Camino Trails, and Pat spotted one in Antwerp as we were walking with the guide. Good eye, Pat!
.....until next time....
After spending the day in Brussels, we rejoined the Da Vinci late afternoon and cruised to Antwerp, where we spent the night. We were offered an after-dinner walk, and, tired though we were, we took them up on it. Are we ever glad we did! Heleen and Lena took us to a most incredible building by the harbour, and although it was quite late, and the museums on the 10 floors in the building were closed, we were still able to go into the building and go to the roof, up 10 LONG escalators!
Museum Aan de Stroom is a 60 metre high tower, and 10 gigantic natural stone boxes have been piled up, and are full of historic objects and pictures. As I said, the museums were closed, but we went up to the roof, and saw many pictures along the way. Each floor is twisted a quarter turn, creating a huge spiral staircase, which is bordered by a wall of very thick corrugated glass. We took the escalators! Except we had to climb the last set of stairs to the roof.
The building, made of red sandstone imported from Italy, is covered with hands, which will be explained in the next blog.
This picture shows the exodus from the city in the 2nd war.
Notice the cow and the horse hitched together taking some salvaged goods from the city.
On the roof are very high, very thick walls of glass, but thankfully, they left four openings in the glass for taking pictures. Antwerp straddles the River Scheldt, and there are amazing views of the city from here. This is obviously facing west.
Another view.....
.....and another view.....
......and yet another view.....
As we rode down on the long escalators, we saw various colours reflected off the corrugated glass in this tower, and I found it fascinating!
.....until next time.....
Today at 10a.m., we left the Da Vinci for a scenic coach ride to Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and the "de facto" capital of the European Union, also the headquarters of NATO.
The 338 foot tall Atomium was built for the 1958 World's Fair, and is a model of an iron crystal which is magnified 165 billion times! The top steel sphere houses a restaurant which you can get to by elevator.
This monument, seen from the bus window, I think is a kind of cenotaph, built in 1830.
The king's palace.
Don Quioxote and his faithful squire, Sancho.
Just a cool sculpture in one of the squares.
I really liked this shopping area, had to go back for a second look. There were several chocolate stores there, but oh, so expensive! I did buy my uncle a sugar-free Belgium chocolate bar.
There were several big flower boxes in this shopping area......
....and these as well.
This huge square is called Grand Place, and the whole square is surrounded by amazingly beautiful buildings......
Like this one, which is the City Hall. Victor Hugo once said that it is "the most beautiful square in Europe"!
Another beautiful one!
I think I should know who this is, but I don't remember. He is watching over the Grand Place. I asked someone one time about the gold that we see so much of, and was told that it is gold leaf. I wondered if it was paint, but apparently not! There sure is a lot of it!
I love the horses!
Brussels, home of the Belgium waffle! We had to have one! When on our own for lunch, Van Dykes give us each a generous amount of lunch money, and there were lots of places to spend it! We opted for waffles - can you guess which one is mine? I decided to have a cafe-au-lait as well, and paid 3 euros for this tiny cup! It did taste pretty good with the waffle. :-)
The bronze "Manneken Pis" is a well-known icon in Brussels! In fact, we saw models of it everywhere, even chocolate ones. But this is the real one! And it is only about 2 to 3 feet tall!
Erin and Megan, this is for you! They were no better than the ones we get in Edmonton!
Just a picture I like.
The coaches brought us here to see this, and for the life of me, I cannot remember what it is! I searched for a long time on the internet, and couldn't find it.
I seem to remember that this is General Montgomery with his back to the monument in the previous picture.
.....until next time.....
Want to rent a bike? Just put your credit card in the machine, ride as long as you wish, then put it back into this location or into another one. We noticed that the back wheels are bigger than the front ones. 
