Holland & Belgium Viking River Cruise
Day 5: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - Antwerp, Belgium
The day's statistics:
- Weather: upper 50s, light rain
- Steps: 7,429 Linda; 10,089 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 38
Breakfast, like every breakfast, consist of a standard menu - French toast, pancakes, eggs any style, and some
other choices. The buffet generally includes regular items - scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, a potato, a vegetable,
breads, cold cuts, and more. Linda pretty much always had the egg benedict. I usually had a plate from the buffet
of eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, bacon, and sausage (not as much as it might sound like).
We had a bit of a light breakfast this day because of our first excursion (see below).
Nothing is pictured because I think everyone know what eggs and other breakfast items look like.
I remember our very first cruise back in 2019 where I made the mistake of eating a heavy breakfast the very first day,
not knowing that lunch was going to be what it was. I haven't made that mistake since.
We also had breakfast with Sandy from Arkansas; and Sherry and Jerry, also from Arkansas.
After brushing, we headed to the lounge to play some Pinochle until about 9:45.
We returned to our room to collect our jackets, camera, and excursion tickets.
Today's excursion was "Flavors of Antwerp". Yes, more eating. But also history.
Our tour was on foot. We headed out into the city with our guide Nadine.
This is the route we took, essentially starting at the black dot in the upper right:
- Red line to the belgium waffle tasting
- Yellow line to the liquor tasting
- Blue line to the cathedral
- Purple line to the plaza
- Green line to the chocolate tasting
- Orange line to lunch - though we did have a cookie at the opening of the plaza near the black dot
- Light blue line back to the ship
We first came across the Het Steen Castle. It was partially restored.
This is a giant, seen by those who... drink too much.
We continuted down the sidewalk to cross the street - which had a pride colored crosswalk - near a building
with a number of statues and decorations.
We turned the corner and saw the cathedral - the Cathedral of Our Lady - in the near distance, and continued on.
The first stop was to sample a Belgian waffle at Désiré de Lille.
It was a light tasty treat.
We left and headed toward the cathedral.
We went inside for a tour.
As we heard about vaious aspects of the church, we walked around and saw quite a bit.
Some of the pictures are not presented in the order they were taken as I tried to group some of them together.
The painting at the top of this dome, is actually a canvas. It is the original piece as it was deemed too difficult
to confiscate during the occupation.
There was one chapel that still had its original wall covering imperfectly intact.
The ambo had four goddesses holding it up, one for each known continent. The three in the front represented Europe,
Asia, and America. The fourth, in the back and in the second photo, represented Africa. It is obscured in the back
because it represented what was known about the continent at the time, not much.
There was a piece of art that showed a politician balancing a cross on the palm of his hand. This was supposed to
represent the balancing act that religion plays in our lives.
The church had a couple Ruben's paintings. They used to be hung in cases with the doors closed - and the fronts
of those doors had their own artwork on them - and the doors were opened for special occasions. Now they are
permanently opened and I got pictures of the door fronts too, shown in groups below.
A couple of additional notes about the first, The Elevation of the Cross: the woman on the left and the
horse on the right are looking out at the observer, the men raising the cross are very muscular, and the light
is mostly focused on Jesus.
In this second one, The Descent from the Cross: the men are more clothed; and once again there is a woman on
the left looking out at the observer.
This window, included in the collection above, has three small holes in the glasses, circled here in orange. The sunlight,
at varioous times of the year, shines through the holes and onto the floor. When the sun shines on the line on the floor,
then it is noon. This was used to help people tell the time without needing timepieces.
Lastly, in most churches, the tomb markers on the floor are indicative of tombs underneath. In this church's case, however,
not so much. When the original floor was removed when the Nazi's occupied the church, it was replaced with hay for the
horses. When the floor was restored, the floor from another church that was destroyed was used, but that church's floor
did have tombs.
After an hour, we stepped back outside and continued on to more food tasting.
Right outside and in front the church was this sculpture.
The story, called A Dog of Flanders, by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée ("Ouida"), was that each
day a little orphan boy named Nello, along with his adopted dog Patrasche who pulled his card, would sell milk
in town. One day, after a fire and an incorrect accusation he started it, he wandered about. One day Nello
decided that he wanted to go to the cathedral of Antwerp, to see Rubens' The Elevation of the Cross and
The Descent from the Cross (pictured above), but the exhibition in the cathedral is only for paying
customers, and he had no money. On Christmas Eve, Nello and Patrasche found that the door to the church had been
left unlocked. They went inside, and the next morning were found dead of hypothermia in front of the triptych.
Why this is a "popular children's story", I'm not quite sure...
Our next stop was at Belgian Beers and Brews, a few steps away from the church, where we tried a shot of Elixir d'Anyers.
After our shot, our journey continued up the right side of the church to the plaza behind it.
In the front corner of the church was this collection of statues in dedication to the builders of the church.
This is supposed to mark the end of the original city limits.
We arrived at the plaza and were pointed out a couple landmarks.
The Hilton in the foreground used to be the first self-serve supermarket in the city, introduced from America (I then
yelled out "Sorry"). The KBC building in the background was the first "skyscraper" in Europe and is now privately owned.
This "onion top" is from the church we visited earlier, with the canvas painting. The tiers at the top are also better
visible from this perspective.
We spied a "pilgrimage to Compostela" marker in this area too.
On the corner of one of the buildings was a Madonna.
And our walk continued.
Our next tasting stop was at ChoFleur. We had two samplings that included pistachio, dark chocolate, white chocolate,
maple, and caramel. It was very good.
We walked for a bit and eventually wound up Grand Square (same name, different city).
Before hearing about history and architecture, we had another tasting. This one was a hand cookie. There
bakers must learn how to make these cookies, and the molds are very expensive. But the cookie was yummy.
The palace and the Brabo Monument.
The square was full of interesting architecture.
These three red brick buildings are the only original buildings in the square.
We proceeded diagonally across the square, and headed a little bit down the road on the right.
We chatted for a few minutes, and then the group that was in the restaraunt - De Zeven Schaken - before us left.
We stepped inside and sat at a large table on the right.
Our meal consisted of a drink, salad, and beef stew with frites - served family style. We were also given ketchup and
mayonaise for the frites.
The food was really good. We sat for about an hour and chatted, mostly with Ola (pronounced oh-lay) who was going
to be the next Viking Hotel Manager for this itinerary next year, and he wanted to get a lay of the land.
Eventaully, our time was up and we headed to our next - and last - tasting.
We arrived at Beer Walk and sat in a room in the back.
We were going to be given three different beers to taste.
The first two, boleke beer and la chouffe, were disgusting - to me - but the third, cherry chouffe, a cherry beer,
was actually pretty good.
This was hanging on a post as we headed out.
We finished up our tasting and conversation, and headed back to the ship.
On the way we made a slight detour and came across more of the original city wall with some black tiling
showing where it continued.
A couple last sites before we bid our guide adieu, including an original covering that is scheduled to be converted
to a new pedestrian walkway.
We were on the ship and sitting in the lounge, I was looking out the window.
I happened to notice that the ship had moved forward a little bit. Not that that's bad, but what I thought was unusual
was that the gangplank was partially lifted, but not fully retracted. After a few minutes, another group that was on
a separate excursion came back, and got on the ship. Then we got underway.
We were leaving Antwerp and heading to Nijmegen.
We later learned from Hulgar that that group was stuck in traffic. He talked to the guide about where they were and the
guide told him they were close, they could see the ship. Hulgar asked if it would be faster to just walk? Apparently it
was... The reason this was so important was because the ship was scheduled to enter a lock at a particular time and this
delay could have potentially impacted the schedule. But we made it to the lock on time.
We had our port talk, and all the department heads were introduced to the travelers.
Then we headed to dinner. We sat with Joyce and Tom from Atlanta, and Cindy and Larry from Kansas City (who had previously
done two world cruises).
Linda had the Belgian shrimp on tomato carpaccio, spinach & ricotta ravioli, and walnut caramel cake.
I had the Belgian shrimp on tomato carpaccio, traditional Dutch waterzooi, and walnut caramel cake.
At about 11:00, we were in bed but still awake, but felt a bump. Usually that means we were docking or in a lock.
It turned out to be the latter.