July 6, 2012
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(written on 3 March 2013)
Daniel came home quite late last night (or should I say early this morning) so I did not have high hopes of getting an early train to Belgium. I had hoped for the 9:52 one but that seemed impossible because Daniel was still asleep behind his curtain as I got up. So, instead of rushing to get to the station I just went to the Coffee Company and had my breakfast there. When I got back, Daniel was indeed awake and asked which train we’d be taking. Much to my surprise he then got up quite quickly, got dressed, and before we knew it, we were on our way to the station – getting absolutely soaked walking there. We did manage to still catch the 10:52 train so it wasn’t too bad at all.
We arrived in Antwerp less than two hours later but for Daniel that had seemed like an eternity. He’d been asking “how much longer?” pretty much since The Hague and without a book to read – but with last night’s hangover accompanying him – it was more of a survival train ride for him than I had expected. A big surprise also awaited him as we left Antwerp’s wonderful Central Station and walked towards the hotel. “I’ve stayed here before!” he said with surprise, referring to the one time he’d been in Antwerp before for a t.A.T.u. fan-club meeting, some years ago. By pure coincidence (for there are multiple hotels in Antwerp) I had booked the same hotel.
We checked in, dropped off our luggage and left the hotel again to walk into the city centre and, first of all, have some lunch. Antwerp did not have the nasty weather that Amsterdam was experiencing today. In fact, it was rather pleasant and sunny. So we explored a lot of the city, had some lovely cakes in one of the pedestrianised streets and even walked through the old pedestrian tunnel underneath the Schelde river to the other bank of the river. After having bought some chocolate, we returned to the hotel at the end of the afternoon, to have a bit of a rest, and freshen up. Daniel had a good time, I think, despite his earlier exclamation (“oh no, now I have to spend my time in Antwerp with you!”) as we left the hotel. Such a lovely compliment.
When we left the hotel again in the early evening, we had pizza and pasta in an Italian restaurant in the city centre and then had some real Belgian beers in various bars in the city centre and also in a street close to the station (and our hotel) that used to be well known because of the many gay bars that were there. Not many of those remain and even the one we went to was not very special. So we left after one beer (actually half a beer for Daniel) and returned to the hotel.
