Antwerpen, Belgium day 1

Next stop on our train tour of Europe this spring was Antwerp! Now we usually go to Belgium in May for a roller derby tornament, but we hadn't made it to Antwerp yet so why not stop and check it out? We arrived in the afternoon so we headed to our room and dropped our stuff off then headed out to explore!

But first a stop for a treat and a beverage

Then a wander about town

A new statue outside the Cathedral - A boy and his dog paying tribute to the book A Dog of Flanders which is apparently very popular in Japan

Cathedral

Lots of Mary statues on the buildings around town

Dinner at De Rosenobel - another veggie buffet pay by weight place. So tasty!

After dinner we took a walk down to the waterfront and the elevated walkway along the water

Looking back to the city

And across the water

This ship weas docked and we noticed you could board the ship and explore

So we did!

It was fun. We looked it up afterward and it is a Russian ship - Kruzenschrern (used to be German, but then surrendered to the USSR as a war reparation in 1946). Now it is used for training and sails around the world. 

Then a sit by the water to watch the sunset

It was getting cold so we headed back to our room

Across the street from our hotel

And the view from our room!

Perfect for watching the sunset!