Euro Day 13 - The Twerp

I got up for a morning bike ride and knew I had the chance to get a bit wet - however was a bit unprepared for the sideways rain that moved in.  I did feel like a local - as the rain did not seem to deter anyone else on their way to work or whatever people around here do....Seems odd that we had to liberate them back in WW2.   They seem much tougher...

We were determined to get a bit of an earlier start on the day for our trip to Antwerp (1hr by train).  I originally had thought we would go to the zoo (one of the oldest in the world) but the crowd did not seem overly enthusiastic about that plan and preferred a brewery tour.  We shuffled off the train and were immediately impressed with Antwerp.  The train station is beyond impressive and ranks as one of the top in the world.

What it lacked in the ambiance provided by the canals of the other cities - it had wide open pedestrian malls with fantastic architecture and many different interesting side streets.  Of course they also have an accordion player busking in the street - a staple of any european city.  The average age of these performers is 79.3 years old so I fear for our future.  If the death of the accordion player is not a greater concern for our youth than climate change, it clearly should be a close second.

The only drawback to the city was we decided to sit down and have a famous belgian waffle near a famous church.   We have done extensive research across several cities and the average street waffle is going to set you back 2 euro with chocolate and whipped topping maybe 5 euro.  This place charged 9 euro for a belgian waffle with chocolate syrup ! We will be lodging a formal complaint with the EU when we visit Brussels.

We ended the day with a fantastic tour of the De Koninck brewery in Antwerp.  It is still a working brewery (minus the bottling) and it was a very interesting self paced tour of the history of the company and beer in general.  It was really well done and I highly recommend it.  They have a great tasting room after the tour as well.

As the brewery is a bit on the outskirts of town - we decided to take the Tram back into the train station.  I misread my phone and we ended up blowing by the train station by a few miles and had to double back.   I have really not been at the top of my game in terms of planning and having my logistical act together.  Some of it is a function of just having too much to keep in this addled brain.  The kids are often asking how long a certain train rid is from point A to point B and I will state a number that is not really even close to reality.  So I have earned a new nickname on the trip...."Fake News Dad"...

Overall Antwerp got very favorable reviews from the whole family and I would love to spend a bit more time here in the future.

We decided to grab dinner back in our 'home city" of Ghent and had a nice meal next to one of the canals.  Of course we topped it off with some gelato before rolling home.  Got an early train tomorrow so trying to turn in early