My last day in Belgium turned out to be really cold. Below freezing the whole day actually. I had decided the night before I wasn't into taking long train rides out of country because it would be more than I probably wanted and so had opted for Antwerp as the sight for the day. I got up early but I knew that things don't open before 10 so I took my time having breakfast and getting ready. I had to buy a round trip ticket so I left a bit before the expected 8:38 departure to Brussels-Noord. The train rides to Antwerp are basically the same as I was taking for Vilvoorde only longer so I knew which tracks to take before I was on my way.
I arrived in Antwerpen (as the Centraal Station sign says) about 9:30am. Still a bit early but the town was waking up. Basically if you walk west from the train you will enter all the prominent areas of the city. It is a jewelers' town with a diamond museum I didn't go to as well as a lot of jewelry and diamond sellers near or in the train station. The main route towards the city center and cathedral is pretty much all shops and restaurants. I made it to the cathedral in short order but didn't feel like paying 5 Euros for the visit. It was fairly large but not quite as spectacular as anything I had just seen in Rome. Granted it was frikken freezing out but I figured my best bet was to stay outside and get use to the temperature. I had layered 5 layers and I am not sure that was enough.
I walked further on and saw the city hall which appeared to be close and the gross markt which is the main square that had a few Christmas festival booths opening as it was getting past 10 now. A bit further on and I had reached the river and the waterfront. I walked along that and found the Maritime Museum which appeared to have been an old castle. You could walk around outside it but unfortunately it was closed until May. Near the museum was a bit more of the festival. Some booths were open but a lot still weren't. I walked along the river for some distance then turned back into the city and followed some of the shopping streets around and basically just wandered for a while until I decided I was hungry enough for lunch.
I stopped at an Italian restaurant named Da Giovanni which was huge. It had an upstairs and downstairs on both sides of the street where it was. I had a pizza Bolognese, which is with a meat sauce on it and a De Koenink beer. The pizza was too much to eat so I left the equivalent of one slice behind. It was messy with the meat sauce on it so I ended up eating most of it with knife and fork though I really wanted to be messy about it. I should have just gotten the margherita which is our cheese pizza. Then I could have shocked them with eating it as a finger food. They served some bread and olives as an accompaniment and they weren't even that bad. I finished with an espresso and then walked on.
I was trying to find the local toy store to help a friend find something but was not having an easy time of it. By accident I ran into Danny who is the head of the service group in the Hologic Belgium office. I chatted with him and his wife for a couple minutes and they pointed me on to the toy store, but I had no luck finding what I was looking for. By then it was about 2 o'clock and I was near the train station so I decided it was time to return to the hotel. It was still freezing out and I had to start to pack.
The train rides were painless though I just missed the best exchange train back to the hotel by a minute or so and had to wait an extra 15. At the hotel I started packing then relaxed for a bit. I had gotten there at about 3:30pm or so. After my rest I left for downtown to find dinner at about 6:15 or so. The walk was quick to the center and I wandered around for a couple minutes to find some last minute souvenirs and then decided I wanted to try a restaurant named Falstaff. Unfortunately it was full and people in Belgium do not get on a waiting list so I had to move on. I ended up at Restaurant Olympe which was a Greek place not too far away. It had a fair number of people eating but was not completely full.
I ordered a red wine and the mountain lamb which turned out to be a roasted lamb shank in a brownish sauce that I couldn't place for type. The lamb was good and fairly tender. The fries perhaps needed a new change of oil but weren't really bad. Just about when I was done eating they shut out the lights and two of the girls there did a couple traditional style Greek dances to music blared over the sound system. It was kind of fun. One of the waiters broke few dishes and then handed more out to the patrons near the fireplace and they broke theirs as well. I wasn't expecting it. The girls were probably in their teens and related to the restaurant owners I am sure. That is the way it usually works. As a point I should mention the Italian and Greek restaurants seem to be owned and run by their appropriate citizens rather than some external nationality, so that is nice. When I got the check they gave me an aperitif which I assume was a Metaxa on the house.
On the way out I did some more quick shopping then headed towards the square. It had started snowing again, if only lightly. The square had more than the typical lights on the city hall this time. There was a woman singing opera with some kids in costume dancing around her. I could barely see because I am not that tall and the crowd was fairly thick. I couldn't get my camera up and ready with an actual view before the show was over unfortunately. It was interesting. She looked oddly made up from what I could see. It sounded like she was signing in Italian. It must have been going on while I was eating. It finished within minutes of me getting there.
At that point I was done for the day I was sure and headed back to the hotel to finish the bulk of the packing and get some sleep before the transit on Sunday.
The pictures from day 15 are located here.
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