I really should be more careful about planning trips: having our only full day in Antwerp on a Sunday might not have been the smartest thing to do. Still, we found things open (and were surprised that an organ concert would occur at 11:45 in the morning at a cathedral!).
(Side note: I feel rather short here. There are a whole lot of tall women in Antwerp, it seems. Go
And now to our day: We woke (obviously — I wouldn’t be typing this if I never woke up) and I did a search on coffee shops because a number aren’t open on Sunday. I saw absolutely zero that opened before 8:30, and most opened at 10:00. So the 8:30 choice was our first destination. By the time we got there it was after 9:00, but since that was our destination it’s where we went. We of course had our coffees and extremely healthy rolls. I laughed at the note at the bottom of the menu.
Then the church bells went off. For a long time. I only recorded them for a short while, but you get the idea.
Following that we walked toward the water. First on our list was the Het Steen Castle. I had read that it was something to be seen on the outside, but that we could skip the inside tourist bit, so that’s what we did.
Right next to the no-longer-really-a-castle was this area that is being worked on. It’s rather large, and we wondered if it was the area that was bombed during WWII. (Dan had read that they got hit hard near at the river.) I’ll have to read up on it, but I can tell that eventually it’s going to be a huge spot and I think it’ll be quite nice. Odds are we will never see it, though. There is a memorial with a lot of names to those who died in the war (or wars?) And there is a larger memorial with a statue as well. Anyway, I’ll just post all that I took from that area here and from our walk back into the old district.
We walked to St. Paul’s, but there was a mass going on so we couldn’t enter. (We did hear the organ playing for a bit, though.)
Then more walking …
Until we reached a place of utmost importance.
From there we crossed the square and went into De Kathedraal (Church of Our Lady) because I had read there would be an organ recital at 11:45. I wasn’t sure which organ would be playing at first (there is one in the back of the cathedral and one toward the front) but when we figured that out we sat in seats where we could see the organ — but of course we couldn’t see the musician until the end, when he took his bow. Prior to the start someone came and spoke to us. In Dutch. Now maybe he said, “Don’t applaud until the end.” I don’t know, but I sort of hope so since that’s what happened. We heard six works, including one by the organist himself, Wannes Vandrhoeven, but there was absolute silence between the works and I wasn’t going to be the one to break that silence! (I used to have to do that on occasion at concerts at UCSC when I was teaching there: students were too afraid to applaud until someone started it. But that was not my job today.)
After the recital we spent some time inside the cathedral.
Then we walked over to Het Elfde Gebod (The Eleventh Commandment). I had read that it was a very old place, and one should get a drink there. We actually had lunch as well. It is definitely a place with character. Lots and lots of character.
From there we went a direction we hadn’t gone before, just to see what we might find. It included signs that made me smile, so I include them here.
Then, in keeping with our tradition, we went back to our hotel for some blogging and siesta time. Plus coffee and chocolates. When we got to our room we saw that it had been tidied just a wee bit. I thought if we didn’t put the little tassle on the outside of the door it would mean we didn’t need housekeeping, but I might have misunderstood. The room was barely in need of cleaning, but oh well.
While we were in our room I decided to file for our late train money. Heh. Never mind. Renfe says I get no refund and seems to imply the train wasn’t late. That’s so not true, but how can one argue? So much for the train guarantee. But so it goes — I can’t let that ruin a fabulous trip, can I? Nope. That won’t happen! I’ll just have to have an extra piece of chocolate. Chocolate fixes so many things!
We did purchase train tickets for tomorrow from the Antwerp Central Station to … well you know I’m not going to say! You have to wait for that. Besides, maybe something will happen and we won’t get there. You never know!
After hanging out in our room for a bit we decided to go to dinner. We’d looked online for suggestions, and yesterday I’d gotten some from the owner of this place where we are staying, but what he suggested was over what we wanted to pay, and what we saw online didn’t scream “HERE” to us, so we just opted to walk back to the touristy part of the area and see what we found.
We found Italian food.
Yep, we ate pasta in Belgium. But hey, I’ll just bet the Belgians eat pasta as well, so whatever. I ordered the penne arabiata and, indeed it was angry. As in spicy. But good spicy. Dan had something with shrimp that was spicy as well, but I think mine won. At the end of our meal the waiter brought is limoncello for free, so who can turn that down? (And having it again made me wonder what I’m doing wrong with the stuff I made at home, as it isn’t nearly as good.)
Dinner was good, but, well, um … okay, okay, I confess we also had gelato. Because. (That’s the only good reason I can give you but isn’t because enough?)
As we were getting our gelato two men from the area were buying theirs and somehow we ended up chatting. They were quite friendly. One told us he had visited the states when he was younger and enjoyed it but, and he apologized then to me for what he was going to say, he was disappointed because he was at “that age” and he met no girls. It was pretty funny!
Finally back to the hotel we went. I only took this one photo and earlier the statue holding up his fingers was holding something. Something that wasn’t part of the statue — it just looked like some pipes or something to me, but perhaps it meant something to the person who put it there. Who knows? This time that was gone so someone must keep an eye on things and remove any additions! (I think of those orange cones on the statues in Glasgow.)
We don’t have to pack tonight since we don’t have to check out until 11:00. But of course I’m already nearly packed because control freak me does that. When we are on a trip I always set out whatever I’m going to wear the next day after getting in pjs, and then I pack everything but toiletries and pjs. It’s just how I operate. I’m goofy that way.
As I type this final bit I am hearing horrendous pounding, which I am assuming is music of some sort and I’m hearing the bass and/or drums. I can’t tell if it’s above us or somewhere outside, but I am hoping it doesn’t continue for too long. I do have one advantage over some people, though: if it keeps on going I’ll just sleep on the side that means my nearly deaf ear is exposed and I probably won’t hear a thing. It’s that silver lining thing.
Goodnight for now … and see you when we reach our next destination!
PS The pounding has stopped!