Advertisement
Published: April 26th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Day 12 - April 26 Antwerp, Belgium
Was still not feeling well this a.m. So Jim went and got me a pot of chamomile tea with honey and a croissant. It tasted wonderful but I wasn't up to going on the walking tour of Antwerp (pronounced in Belgium as Antwerpen). I sent Jim with Bill, Jane and the group from the ship. Then I went back to bed since I was up most of the night. I woke at 10am and finally felt better. Enjoyed some of the tea and decided to take a shower. By the time they returned from the walking tour I was much better.
I ate a very light lunch and then the 4 of us walked back in to town Since this is Sunday, most stores were closed during the cruise walk as was the church. The Cathedral of Our Lady is a gothic bishops church and displays several century old works of art on exhibit. The collection includes four masterpieces by Baroque, Antwerp painter, Peter Paul Rubens; the Raising of the Cross, the Descent from the Cross, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Resurrection of Christ. Since these are from the very
early 17th century and they are concerned with light damage from flash photography, they request that pictures are taken without a flash to protect the paintings. You can feel the majesty in the cathedral. Between the gigantic pillars, the large stained glass windows, the multiple alters and sculptures, the cathedral is very oppulent. I had to sit down several times and just take it all in. Magnificent.
We left the church, bought some chocolate and started to walk in the rain through town towards the ship. To be honest, we really did not like Antwerp and would not want to return.
Today there was a marathon in town and unfortunately, it was taking place on the street directly in front of where our ship was docked and we were on the wrong side of the street. We found a little cafe and went in for cappuccinos to wait it out. After an hour and no slow up on the race, we asked the owner how many runners and how can we get across the street. She responded that there were 40,000 runners and she told us a way to get across. Thing is she
sent us to a tunnel that went clear across the river to the other side!! We were walking in this tunnel with hundreds of people and we realized we were going further than across the street!! We turned around, returned to the entrance and stood in the rain trying to figure what to do. We saw a policeman so Jim asked him if we could cross the street between runners so we could return to our ship. He said we could try and cross if we needed to do so. We waited for an opening and quickly made a mad dash to the other side of the street. We waited for Bill and Jane to do same and had a good laugh about our misadventure! Had we known the situation on the marathon we would have tried to return to the ship before the race started. We finally made it back to the ship wet but safe.
We packed as tomorrow is our disembarkation. Tonight is final gala dinner and cocktail party. I wanted to enjoy but still be careful what I ate since I don't know exactly what caused my issues yesterday. I went with a simple steak and large prawn with no bearnaise sauce. I skipped the wine and stayed with water. So far so good.
We had a wonderful trip with wonderful stops and really enjoyed our friends company again. This is the 3rd cruise we have enjoyed with Bill and Jane. They live in Tampa FL and I wished they lived closer. Tomorrow we travel back to Colorado. We depart the ship at 7am for the 1 hour ride to Brussels airport. Breakfast at 6:15am so best get some rest.
Where should we go next?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb