08.26 It is Saturday. I’ve just woken up, had a shower and read some in my book up on the deck. Our hostess gave me some coffee to go with the book. The Icelandic guest isn't Icelandic, he is an American tourist from Florida. The Finnish guy is from Finland though. We are still on our boat in Belgium and Ghent. Some others staying here are a woman and her son Alex. They are of Portuguese descent but live somewhere in England.

10.08 We had some breakfast and also spoke with our hostess. We talked about our travels, jobs and how the school system works in Sweden and Belgium. Now we are about to go ashore to see more of the surroundings. The man who said hello in Bruges yesterday was our Finnish room mate.

Peter having breakfast on our boat (hostel), Ecohostel Andromeda.

10.58 We are back at the railway station, with newly bought tickets awaiting the train to Antwerp. Will we get to sit down on this trip there?

12.02 After an hour’s (sitting) train riding we´re back at the central station in Antwerp. It is time to find out how we shall walk to get where we want.

This café was closed "due to circumstances". We don´t know which ones?

Keyserlei Street close to Antwerpen Centraal.

Weekend shoppers on the Meir street in Antwerp.

12.49 We left Antwerp Centraal and walked along the densely crowded shopping street Meir towards more central areas. During our search for a café we´ve turned into narrower streets but haven’t found any coffee providers. It seems that half of the country’s population are here for shopping on this July Saturday. There are people everywhere and all cafés and restaurants are filled to the maximum. We just sat down for a short break. Willem Elsschot is sitting in front of us. He doesn’t say much. Partly due to the fact that he died in 1960, partly due to the fact that he is nothing but a statue. We are also seated but are much livelier. We just have to keep looking for a place serving coffee. We are doing our best to find out on the map where we are.

Horse and carriage from Hotel Hilton at Kammenstraat. In the background you can see Antwerp´s own
Notre Dame Cathedral.

13.25 Our stomachs need some working material. To give them what they want we´ve sat down at Pita Palace at Sint-Jansvliet close to the river. We’ve ordered Pita Kip Hawaii and Pita Lambs Reta. I got myself some free chilled Fanta zero orange before we sat down. A young woman handed out samples. We've also seen a horse carriage and a whole street draped in rainbow flags.

14.03 Church bells are tolling, birds are tweeting and some German-speaking tourists just stepped out of a Dutch car. The lunch was tasty and all that is left is to pay for it.

Local beer and tasty pita-dishes for lunch.

14.20 Behind us is the city’s great square Grote Markt. We will soon take some pictures, pictures that later will be shown to those who wish to look at them. The square reminds us of the square we saw in Bruges yesterday. That isn't that strange, both cities are in the part of Belgium known as Flanders.

15.34 We’ve walked down to the banks of the river Schelde. Schelde is as you might have figured out the river that runs through the city. A man is playing on an accordion not far from here. We are sitting down, overlooking the river and are doing nothing. This might be a smart thing to do, the thing of doing nothing. Soon we will need to do something and it will be great to have rested before that.

Grote Markt in Antwerp.

A cathedral with two names, Onze Lieve Vrouw (flemish) och Notre Dame (french).

We walked along the river Schelde.

Christer in front of the castle "Het Steen" in Antwerp.

16.05 We visited the medieval castle "Het Steen" (the stone) before we left the area by the river. It was built in the 13th century and is the city’s oldest building. The reason why it is in such great condition is the fact that it was renovated in the 1950´s. There is a maritime museum inside and outside is a memorial over the Canadian and Polish soldiers who fought here against the Germans during world war two.

17.13 We are benched on Astridplein just by the railway station. We visited an internet café before we got here and also bought some fresh strawberries at DelHaize. I also received and threw away a package of free cat food. Astrid who has given name to the square was born in Sweden and she was for a short while the queen of Belgium. She was mortally wounded in a car accident in 1935. They had decorated for a wedding at the church of Sint-Carolus-Borromeus and an old American school bus was parked in front of the gates. We now and then, for some strange reason, manage to run into some wedding related things on our trips. It has been going on for several years and in many countries.

A strawberry in front of SAS Radisson Hotel at Astridplein.

18.31 We are having some coffee with muffins/danish pastry at the café Panos here at the railway station Antwerp Centraal. All is well. We will soon head home to Ghent.

18.57 We’ve entered the train that will take us home. It is a bit warm in the wagon but everything is alright. A young woman who might be from the Middle East or perhaps North Africa is sitting next to us singing. She seems happy. Is it due to the fact that she got a package of free cat food?

19.31 The singing woman has left the train. I guess she went home to feed her cat. A man opposite of me has two compresses on his left lower arm. The train runs like the wind. Well it is the wind that runs through the train. It does so because the windows are open.

20.06 We’ve left the warm trainwagon and also a slightly cooler station. We are back in Ghent and about to catch a tram back home.

Herenkapper Patrick in Gent. A "herenkapper" (haircutter) is a hairdresser.

20.59 Our cabin on the boat has a new passenger. We don’t know who he or she is. The main reason to this is the fact that the person in question has taken to the streets. All we’ve seen is a made bed.

21.23 We are seated under a huge parasol at Pizza Hut. We made it here before closing time this evening. We are waiting for one in the staff and also for a menu. Hey, I can see one now, from the staff that is.

22.12 It was delicious pasta and pizza. Now we are seated by a canal and are about to read from our books by the Scottish author Ian Rankin, this for sure is life quality. Two ladies just passed us. One of them had a dog on a leach and the other one carried a red rose.

23.13 It got too dark to read. Instead we´ve taken a new road home. On the way we saw some great canal boats and a court building. Now we’ve sat down next to our good old friend, Edguard the boat.

Sunday 5th of July

08.45 I am sitting up on the deck. I am not alone. Together with me is the ship dog with one blue and one brown eye. With us is also a lady who is reading and our nice hostess passes by. She is preparing breakfast for some of the passengers. Yes, it is possible to get some if you are willing to pay for it. Oh, I just got me a cup of freshly brewed coffee. No more analyses and such stuff.

One dog, two eye colours.

10.16 We are back at our regular platform. It is time to visit the Belgian capital, Brussels. It is once again a return for me. I didn’t like the city´s famous square on my visit there.

10.55 We’ve withdrawn money. The minimum amount was 50 euro. I chose to withdraw 60 euro. It went fine and I received three 20 euro bills. I wonder why it was impossible to withdraw 40 euro. We are sitting on the train to Brussels. A young woman here in the wagon seems to be out of breath. Did she run here or what? Well whatever, we are off. It is cloudy today. I wonder if it might come some rain.

11.49 We are trying to make sure to avoid earlier day’s mistakes. We are making sure that we get our coffee at the very first place instead on running around in vain as the thirst for coffee kicks in. The very first was found here at the station and is called Cappuccino & Baguette. We’ve also located where the luggage storage and the offices for international tickets are. This will be good to know tomorrow.

Here you can visit Tintin and Tintin and...

Grand Place, Brussels.

Broodhuis on Grand Place, Brussels.

12.43 We’ve been at Grand Place. It was better than last time but I am still not impressed. It might be due to the fact that I´ve seen so many beautiful squares during the last couple of days. We are on our way towards a small spiller. A man is sitting here playing a, well what is called, is it marimba? Before Grand Place, we also went inside a store totally dedicated to the comic strip character Tintin, one of Belgium’s contributions to humanity.

13.03 There he is, a little bit further away, the little spiller. He is also known as Manneken Pis. It is a small statue of a peeing boy. He is one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions/traps. People from all over the world are standing and looking at the little guy who just goes on with his business. Next to Grand Place we found a statue or whatever I should call it. It was more like a three dimensional painting. It seemed to affect the people passing because they touched it in a certain manor. I think it is called Everardt Serclaes.

Christer with a stone lion near Grand Place.

Tintin, Milou and Captain Haddock on a wall in Brussels.

Manneken Pis.

13.22 We’ve found a brown bench without any backboard. We are in front of the royal theatre, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. The theatre with its pillars is quite amazing. It is much calmer here compared to other places we visited today; it is a good resting place. I am a bit thirsty though. A Carréfour Expres-shop has been spotted. Do they have and sell beverages? The square we are at is called Place de la Monnaie.

13.43 Carréfour Expres had just what we were looking for. With rested legs and cooled throats, we´re ready to see more of the royal capital.

14.12 In the name of equality and justice we´ve just looked at Janneke Pis. She is Manneken´s ”little sister”. She has the same needs as her brother. She is far from as popular and the viewers around her are quite few. She is doing her business in a niche at the end of Impasse de la Fidélité/Getrouwheidsgang.

Manneken Pis more unknown "sister" Janneke.

Christer and "La Cycliste".

King Baudouin in front of Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule in Brussels.

14.26 We are arresting our backs in the little park in front of Brussel´s cathedral, Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule. They are the patriot saints of the city. Here in the cathedral was the wedding of and memorial service for Astrid of Sweden.

14.54 Two young boys are cooling down in a fountain. Grown ups are looking at the two young ones who merrily is bathing. Are the spectators jealous? Do they also want to jump in and have a bath? Would it be so wrong if they did? We are watching this from a shadow bench here in Parc de Bruxelles. Not far from here is the country’s parliament.

15.33 All we found near the park was closed restaurants (it is after all Sunday) so we decided to eat at the railway station. We are at Mezzo di Pasta. Here we will have pasta. Food is always welcome when you are hungry. We need this food before we carry on to explore Brussels.

16.05 We are back in Parc de Bruxelles. A light rain is falling over the city and the air feels cooler and fresher. We are resting a while before, hey a dog just barked and a lady screamed. Well where was I? Yes, we are resting here before heading on.

The Royal Palace in Brussels.

16.54 Behind me is the royal castle. The flag flies above the castle but no royalties have lived here since 1935. Yes, the royal family moved out after the death of Astrid. We are at the end of the park we just sat in. As soon as we are done here we will move from this old power centre to a one of a more modern kind.

17.25 After a long walk we´re seated on the stairs of the heart of Europe. We are at the European parliament. Here are the flags of the 27 member states. At the entrance is the word European parliament written in all the languages of the European Union. Inside the entrance doors is some form of security control similar to the ones at airports. I just realised that I´ve actually been in all the states that have flags here.

The European Parliament

18.05 We walked through the beautiful Leopold Park behind the European parliament and reached the cosy square Place Jourdan. We went on walking heading uphill and reached the pretty ugly building of the European Commission. It is time to head down under ground.

18.14 Ok, here we are riding a tube again. There have been some trips with the metro during the years. I wonder how many countries it is by now. There is a French-speaking guy in green standing up in the wagon. He wants some kind of donation.

18.31 We travel on. It is with another metro train though. We switched train at the station called Beekkant. It is in the part of the city called Molenbeek. The train just got up above ground level.

19.08 We got off at the station Heysel in the northern outskirts of the city. Here we’ve taken pictures of the national arena (former Heysel Stadium) and also of the classic Brussels monument Atomium. In the vicinity are also a miniature Europe and a water park. Atomium was built to the world fair in 1958. It is an iron molecule enlarged 165 billion times. That makes it reach a height of 102 metres.

Atomium

20.27 The Brussels day ended just as it began. We got ourselves something to munch on. We had waffle with coffee/Fanta Lemon. Now as well as then the stuff came from Cappuccino & Baguette. The goodies were consumed at the beginning/end of the stairs close to the memorial plaque over the railway employees who fell during the world wars. After some change of tracks and delays we´re now on our way home.

21.35 We are home in Ghent aghent, no again is the right word. Since we are such ghentlemen we´re waiting for our tram. This will be our last evening in Belgium. Tomorrow is a new travel day with new destinations.

22.03 We are about to be served the final dinner here in this country. It will not be anything from the Belgian kitchen. We’ve decided to get us a pizza at Tony’s not far from our home.

23.10 The pizzas were great and not too expensive. Good night!