Day 24 - Antwerp

Made it to Antwerp at 8 am.  Got in a minor squabble with the train conductor, but got off easy.  Walked back to the ship in a hurry to catch breakfast.  We were handed free chocolate along the way – it’s going to be a good day!  Got on the ship at 8:31 and all the food was gone.  One of the waiters took pity on us and snuck us some yogurt and cereal from the kitchen.  Jessica and I met up later to enjoy Antwerp at last.

Antwerp is a very pleasant city and had far fewer bicycles than Amsterdam, though still a lot by U.S. standards.  We visited the City Park, a.k.a. Bunny Park, where there were supposed to be hundreds of bunnies running around.  We find the park.  No bunnies.  Anywhere.  We ask someone sitting on a bench, and from his broken English we understood that the bunnies had been overfed and died.

We tried to bury our sorrows in Belgian fries and went off in search of a fritture.  The one we found was closed, so we kept wandering until we happened upon a huge open market.  There was everything from clothing to groceries to flowers to stuffed olives of all varieties.  We walked every aisle and tried samples of olives and fruit.  After about an hour, we reached the edge of the market, which was a famous fry stand!  We jumped on the opportunity and ordered ourselves fries with sauce.  Belgian fries are different in that they are thicker, twice-fried, and usually eaten with mayonnaise (don’t ask).  This was definitely the highlight of the day.

We were sadder to leave than usual; Antwerp has been our “home” for longer than any other port.  A nine-piece band came to play on the platform right next to the ship.  We like to think they came out just to serenade us.  As the ship pulled out, many locals came out to the port and waved us goodbye, one man was shooing us out.  We waved back to total strangers on our way back to the Prime Meridian.