Belgium- Day 6: Antwerpen - July 10, 2018

When I'd picked today for an outing to Antwerp, it had seemed a perfectly reasonable day to do it. By the time I learned about the train strike scheduled for today-seriously, they scheduled it- it was too late to choose another day. The strike is from the first train today to the last train tomorrow.  Seriously, though, a scheduled strike?!
I checked last night on getting a taxi to take me to the train station. However, the desk was not too sure that one would be available-because of the strike- and it sounded like it would also then eat up time to get there. So, I mapped out a route to hoof it.
When I got up at 6:55, it was grey and windy. My husband K got up 5 minutes later. I stretched and made sure I had everything needed for the day. We went to breakfast at 7:50 and I ate well, but fast. I went back up to the room, brushed my teeth, grabbed my stuff and was out at 8:15.
The wind was cold and there were some drops that didn't last long. Even though I cut down a street too soon, I was at the station at 8:38.
The ticket booth I chose had a young man, who, happily, spoke excellent English. It took all of two minutes and 38,20 Euros to buy a round trip train ticket.  Renting a car, had that been possible, would have cost more, I'm sure. Failing to see the sign, I had to double back and ask him where the restroom was. The station is undergoing major renovation and the restrooms were out in a trailer of sorts. But, there was a male attendant who took my 0,50 Cents and obviously kept them clean.
My train soon arrived and I boarded at 8:53. I could now see a part of town that had been hidden from my view in time or on the promenade. I could see that there was a lot of industry over there, as well as tugboats, fire boats, and  such.
We left at 9:10, one minute late, which seemed odd, as we were the terminus for the previous train and the starting point for this one. No matter. I had a window seat and settled in to read my Smithsonian magazine. I did look out at times to appreciate the scenery, such as the large ornate bridge we passed under as we left town. Out of town, I found myself feeling a bit poetic as I noticed the multicolored fields of gold, pale green, dusty green and dark green. There were cows in some fields. Farms were close to the tracks, while towns and houses tended to be a bit further away. The train moved fast through this area. Sometimes, there would be a random cluster of houses near the tracks. We passed irrigation canals, as well. I saw an old farm with an incongruous modern jungle gym. There were not forests, but rather random trees and then lines of trees that seemed to delineate borders between them.
At 9:23, we reached Brugge and the station was rather deserted save for our platform. We were off again at 9:25. We passes a huge train of cars and more houses. Outside of Gent we saw the first highway. There was no ticket check and the train was not packed. I dozed off and on.
We pulled into Antwerpen Centraal at 10:54 and I was now in Belgium's second city and biggest port, although I would not be near the water today. When I got off the train, I discovered that we must have added cars somewhere, because I was farther from the end of the train than when I had gotten on. I took time to admire the wonderful architecture of the station again. Evidently, it is regarded as the finest example of railway architecture in the country, according to Wikipedia, and Newsweek deemed it the fourth greatest in the world, while Mashable named it the most beautiful train station in the world in 2014.

Being practical, I spent 0,50 Euros to use the restroom and also used WiFi I found to send a message through Facebook Messenger to let the family I had arrived safely. I also did a post to Facebook, as well. Before leaving at 11:20, I studied the map to be sure I knew how to get where I was going. I don't think it is safe to stand in the middle of a sidewalk studying a map.
After I figured out which door to exit from the station, I found myself looking at  a busy shopping street. As I walked up the street, I was offered a free energizer drink called Nalu, by a group of rather enthusiastic young people. It was really rather tasty.

I soon discovered the city had free WiFi, which was really nice for posting photos of the cool old buildings I was seeing. I had to work around some major street construction with the rest of the crowd and passed a statue that just managed to be out of the construction. I really enjoyed the architecture of the surrounding buildings, some of which dated to early in the previous century. Further down the street, I saw what passed for a skyscraper, according to the map. It was rather austere, but with a hint of art deco. I soon passed what billed itself as the smallest waffle stand. They also claimed to be so good that they needed no topping.

At the skyscraper, I headed to the right and I soon could see the cathedral towering over the surrounding buildings. When the bells chimed at noon, the wind was quite raw. In less than five minutes, I was outside the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady taking photos of not only its great Gothic exterior, but also the decidedly more modern statues in front of its entrance.

Through the door, I found a rather modern ticket desk, where I paid my 6 Euros before going through the modern glass doors. It was huge inside. After saying my prayers, I started my exploration. Besides the magnificent Rubens that are always there, they had an exhibition of Flemish religious paintings. The Rubens, though, were my favorites. Such wonderful representations of the religious themes! It was also cool, that the triptychs had paintings on the outside portions of the side panels. I was thrilled to find my patron saint, Catherine of Alexandria on a  stained glass window. I also found my confirmation saint, Margaret Mary Alocoque, in a wall painting about the Sacred Heart.
Sparing my knees, I chose not to go down to the crypt. I did roam around everywhere else, as did the not-overwhelming crowd that was also there. The only place you couldn't go in to take photos was the side altar devoted to Our Lady of Antwerp. I must admit that that statue looked better from a distance. In fact, there was another statue of Mary nearby that looked much better. I paid 0,50 to get a prayer card in that chapel and signed the book.

  

 

I hadn't minded paying the entrance fee. It's a big church that must cost a fortune to maintain. Those Rubens attract a lot of art lovers, who are not necessarily Catholic, and that affects upkeep. I've paid to go take photos in churches in England. I didn't have to pay to go in any churches in Italy, not even the one with St. Teresa in Ecstasy, although you do pay, if you want the light turned on on that statue. I don't want to pay for every church I go in, but once in a while isn't so awful.
Through another set of modern glass doors, they have their shop. I bought a postcard set and a few gifts before exiting the warm Cathedral at 1:24. I found that it had rained and was spitty now. I hadn't planned on it, but there were various souvenir shops around the small square in front of the cathedral. I went in several and bought things in a couple.
I then made my way to a very large square with a nice statue of Rubens, complete with palette. I've never seen that detail on a statue before. Due to the crappy weather, the square was rather empty. Based on my research, the Hard Rock Cafe was on this square, but I couldn't see it where I expected it. It turned out to be on the opposite side of the square.

When I went in the Rock Shop at 1:45, there was only one other customer. The clerk asked if I needed help and I said I needed the city guitar pin. She showed me several and I chose the cityscape on the double guitar. I told her this was my fourth one of the summer. After I paid, I asked her where there was a restroom. She pointed upstairs and I said I'd been looking for a public one outside. She said that her home city had them, but Antwerp didn't. Since I'd just bought something, I was a customer, so I could use theirs. That saved me some money. Every waiter and waitress I passed said hello, which is not exactly a European thing, but it is a Hard Rock thing.
On my way up the shopping street, I'd seen the street I needed for my next destination. I now headed there in the rain. The Rubens House was on a wide street that had a terrific fountain at the shopping street and then was pedestrian thereafter. In the middle, I saw a glass building that said Museum Shop. There was another glass building right after it on the same raised platform and I saw something about tickets. I was grateful for a bit of roof as I put down my umbrella and shoved it in a plastic bag before going in the ticket pavilion.

There wasn't much of a line to speak of and I soon paid the 10 Euros for a ticket. I asked where the house was, since I had not seen it yet. Well, I didn't see it because the glass buildings distracted me. It was just across the street from the one I was in. Although the ticket guy didn't tell me, I heard others talking about having to put things in a locker. This struck me as practical. So, I found one, shoved my stuff in it, dropped a coin in the slot, locked it and took the key.
 I did opt to take the umbrella with me, along with its bag. I did not want to get soaked crossing over to the building and I didn't know how much of what I would do there would be outside. A guard nodded at me, when I showed him my ticket at 2:08.
There was a person stationed in each room, just to guard, not really to help. We'd each been given a booklet, which pointed out important art works in each room. The kitchen was an early room and its fireplace was terrific. It may get adapted for my Dutch houses. Rubens didn't have just his work in the house, but pieces by other he admired. There isn't a lot left that was his furniture, but there is a chair he had made and had his initials carved in the back.

They are kind of particular about the order in which you see things. A guard on the second floor stopped me from going into one room, before I 'd gone into one a half a floor up. At one point, it was difficult to tell where to go, but a couple went through a closed door, so I did, too. I found myself on a balcony between two portions of the house. It let me look down into the courtyard, which had cloth up showing what the building would look like on the opposite, if they weren't working on it. It also let me take photos out of the rain. It made me wonder, though, if Rubens' family had had to go outside to get between these parts.

A large studio had the more gigantic pieces in the collection. It was hard to wrangle a seat to get off my feet and to take time to study them, but I did it. I soon wound up in a part of the building outside of the café. There was a sign that mentioned free toilet for museum guests, but it was downstairs. Skipping that, I went into the garden, which was undergoing restoration, but there were some nice plantings.

 At 3:06, I left the house and retrieved my stuff. In the shop, there was no pin, so I was glad that I'd bought a pin at the cathedral with a faceless head reminiscent of a Rubens self-portrait. I only bought a couple of things after waiting for several minutes for the clerk to get off the phone. She apologized and went to give me a city map as thanks for waiting, but I told her I had one. It was 3:25, when I stepped back into the rain.
At one point, I stepped into a dry spot outside of a store to pull on my rain jacket to try to stay dry. It was raining hard and blowing at times.
I had not eaten anything since breakfast. So, I stopped at Panos, a place I recognized from Oostende. I asked the clerk who greeted me, if it was possible to buy something to take on the train. It was and she said to just take something. I chose a sandwich and pointed it out and she told me to take it. Only then did I realize there was no glass between me and it. I got a ham and cheese sandwich, a Coke Zero, and a cake with apple and almond. I was a little concerned about how slowly the line was moving, but I reached the station at 3:50.
Inside, there were young people giving out free cans of Fuze Green Tea Mango and Chamomile. When I got close to their display, they gave me one. I then stopped into that 0,50 Cent restroom again. I hurried off to the train and went very far forward along the outside looking for a 2nd class car with a fair number of empty seats. I got on a car with a lot of empty seats at 3:58. I settled into a seat by a window and put my bag and my plastic bag with my umbrella in it on the seat next to me.
Looking out the window, I noticed that the train across the platform had special cars with symbols on them for wheelchairs and bikes. I even saw people wheeling their bikes up and boarding them.
I was already eating by the time we departed at 4:06. Although there were hooks above for coats, there were no drink holders. I kept putting my soda bottle between my feet, rather than putting the damp bottle on the seat. The sandwich was good and the cake was great.

But, when I happened to shift the umbrella bag on the seat next to me, I noticed it was soaking the seat. Somehow, the bag was leaking. On the floor it went.
I read Smithsonian and looked out the window. We stopped outside Beveren for quite a while. Two trains passed u going the other way. There wasn't much to look at other than the field. We were there a good ten minutes. By the time we started moving again, we were 12 minutes behind schedule.
We reached Sint-Niklaas at 4:46 and a fair number of folks got off and some got on. There was no rain out here. But, when I happened to shift the umbrella bag on the seat next to me, I noticed it was soaking the seat. Somehow, the bag was leaking. On the floor it went.
At 5:40, some folks got off at Gent- Sint Peters, but a surprisingly large number got on. I then noticed I got a text message from K, asking where I was. I wrote back that I was on the train headed to Brugge  and that we were running late and due in Oostende about 5:58, which I realized afterwards was actually later than the display board said. He texted back that he'd meet me at the station, which surprised me.
We pulled in at 5:54 and, once again, there were more cars than we had started with. K did indeed meet me as I got to the door. We ran into another clarinetist J and explained the train info to him. He was to leave very early tomorrow. After he double-checked his info, we all decided to eat together someplace quick. K knew there was a McDonald's nearby. So, off we went.
It was very crowded there and we were trying to figure out what we wanted, when a guy with a computer pad tried to take our order. We weren't quite at that point.  K went down to the restroom, while J and I decided what we wanted. I went down and paid my 0,50, which I've never had to do in any McDonald's anywhere.
We'd managed to secure a table, which was not very clean. In fact, the entire place was not up to McD standards. K had misunderstood me and got more than we'd planned: side salad for 2,50, McChicken for 4,15, mozzarella salad for 4,95 and large Coke Zero to split for 2,65. We had a good chat and the food wasn't bad. We all left at 7:10, walking together as far as the Casino. K went to the concert, while J ducked into a store.

On my way back to the hotel. I found the tram ticket booth that I would need in the morning. I walked along the top part of the park and saw the lovely flower clock.

It was so raw and windy! I was grateful to get into the warm hotel at 7:42. I checked the temperature and it was 61. I checked the phone and it said I walked 5.3 miles today!
I sometimes have to convince myself that an outing like this is possible on my own. Today was more proof that it is indeed. It was a very good day, in spite of the weather.