Day 26: A Day in Antwerp

On Tuesday 4th December, Niels' sister Soetkin acted as our tour guide for Antwerp (as she goes to uni there). She took her job very seriously and gave us a wonderful walking tour of the city. The day was very cold (freezing in the words of Sarah and I but Niels said it doesn't count as freezing unless it goes under zero degrees) and the wind was brutal.

 Antwerp Central Station (voted the 4th most beautiful in the world)

Soetkin's University

Soetkin showed us many of the historical buildings in Antwerp including the tallest building in Antwerp, the Cathedral of our Lady, which was supposed to have two spires of equal height, but the second one never got finished. We visited the main squares and the Statue of Barbos who, legend has it, cut of the hand of a giant and threw it into the river, as this is what the giant was doing to the towns people when they wouldn't pay a toll for crossing the river. We walked past Antwerp Castle and made our way to a 572m pedestrian tunnel that goes under the Scheldt River, connecting old Antwerp with new Antwerp.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady)

Statue of Brabo and the giant's hand

 

 Carolus Borromeuske Church

Het Steen Castle (literally means 'The Stone')

 The pedestrian tunnel  under the Scheldt River

 The old wooden escalators that lead you underground so you can walk through the tunnel under the river.

As the light disappeared, we found ourselves in the main shopping strip and I paid a visit to the Disney store (we really need one of those in Perth!). We stopped for coffee at the  'best coffee shop in Antwerp', according to Soetkin. It's a slightly more interesting one, compared with all the run-of-the-mill coffee shops as you get lots more options, Belgian style. I had a hot chocolate with Toblerone which was essentially hot milk with a bar of Toblerone in it. Unfortunately, it melted before I had time to get a photo, but Sarah and Soetkin had latte's with crushed Maltesers on top (which I did have time to get one of).

 Coffee with Maltesers

Back home, Niels decided to make vol au vent and home made frites. Unfortunately, home made frites means hand-drying every single chip, something which was our designated job once Sarah, Soetkin and I returned from Antwerp. It is the kind of job that brings to mind the 'one Powerball and I'm out of here' advertisements.

 Soetkin and Sarah drying frites

 Vol au vent

After a delicious dinner, us three girls had some fun with our hats and my photobooth app and then watched The Cabin in the Woods.

 Photobooth fun :)

Attempting to swap each others hats before the next picture was taken. We could never quite do the 3rd one in time!

Day 25: Celebrity Spotting

We woke first thing Monday morning (3rd December) to a tiny bit of snow. Unfortunately, half an hour later, it stopped, disappeared, and then proceeded to rain for the rest of the day. This was somewhat unfortunate because today was the day we planned to go to Brussels.

 Snow!

We did end up going but we left a little bit later than we originally planned. This kinda worked out ok because while we were wandering through the Christmas Markets (yes finally we found some that were 'open'), I heard a really strong Aussie accent say, "hey babe, that's what I need, one of those penguin things." I found this hilarious because not only was the accent so strong and screamed tourist, but the penguin thing was in reference to the things they have at ice skating rinks to help kids, or in this case, Australians. Oh did I mention there was a giant outdoor ice-skating rink set up at the markets? Anyway, I was laughing and Seh didn't hear the accent originally so she hung back a bit to overhear and the next thing I hear is Seh squeal my name and tell me it was Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. I turned around as Nicole and one of their daughters walked straight past me and then I looked straight at Keith who was trying to cheer up their youngest. He then walked past and caught up to Nicole. We did consider talking to them and asking for a photo but felt it was inappropriate because they had the girls with them and seemed to be having some difficulty with keeping them happy because they left soon after we saw them. They were so easily incognito because the cold means large coats and beanies, etc, so it was really only because I heard Keith's accent that we noticed them at all. Anyway, our celebrity spotting didn't quite end there.

 Brussels Christmas Markets

 Brussels is ready for Christmas :)

The main reason we were in Brussels was because we had concert tickets to see Matt Corby that night. The venue was at The Botanique which I believe has 4 different rooms for shows. There is also a bar and mini restaurant so we grabbed a very yummy dinner (with an impressive vegetarian selection) there before the show started and Matt walked past our table. It was lucky we planned to go in as soon as the doors opened because the show had sold out and the room really was very small. Everyone was packed in there but we managed to get a good little spot that we were happy with. I was really impressed with the show. Matt has come a long way since his days on Australian Idol and his voice is amazing. It's very mature and strong and can reach some amazing notes. There was no support band and he only played for an hour but for 11 Euros, I'm not complaining in the slightest. Quality over quantity won out for sure.

Matt Corby

 Matt and the band

The day also involved eating Belgium waffles with chocolate sauce, checking out an English language bookstore (you will be shocked to learn I didn't buy anything!), and doing a walk-by of the hostel we stayed in five years ago.

Waffles

Day 24: In two places at once

On Sunday we got off to a slow start, but it's Sunday so it's allowed. While eating lunch, Niels spied Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet through the front window. Sinterklaas is the Belgium/Dutch equivalent of Santa arriving on Christmas morning but it happens on 6th December (I'll share more details about it on the 6th). Because the 6th falls on a weekday this year, the are lots of Sinterklaas events happening this weekend. As it turns out, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet were bringing presents to a party across the street from us.

 Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

In the afternoon, we drove to the Netherlands, pretty much for the hell of it. Niels humoured me by taking me to some small towns where the boarder between Belgium and The Netherlands runs right through the middle of the village. We also wandered around a town called Hulst on The Netherlands side.

 Entering The Netherlands

 On the Belgian side

 The trunk of the car is in The Netherlands, the front is in Belgium :)

 In The Netherlands

 Hulst at sunset

 After our adventures in and out of The Netherlands, we went to dinner at Niels' family's house. It was lovely to spend time with his family and his mum made us a yummy dinner and we then hung out in their majorly cozy lounge room with ice-cream, a wood fire, family photo album's and their 6 dogs :)

Niels with Falco

Day 23: Ghent, Take Two

On Saturday 1st December, Sarah and I caught the train to Ghent to do all the stuff we ran out of time to do in the first week. This included walking down one of Ghent's graffiti streets (designated areas where anyone can paint), trying cuberdons (known as Ghent Noses, they are purple candy things that are quite sweet), looking in gift-ware stores and freezing our fingers while eating frites with mayonnaise (the Belgium way) from the only chip vendors left that still cut every chip by hand. We also passed by the Gravensteen, sampled cupcake goodness from Julie's House and returned to Lokeren several shopping bags heavier than before!

 Selling Cuberdons

One of the graffiti streets

 Yummy Frites!
(ok we're over it, give us our gloves back!)

 I heart Ghent

 The Gravensteen

Ghent

 

Sugary goodness at Julie's House

Day 22: Back 'Home' Again

On Friday, we packed up all our stuff and vacated the chalet. We then had a walk around Lesse, where we had been staying, because we still hadn't done that yet, as we had just driven through it each day.

Lesse

We then had another wander through Redu in hope of some of the stores being open, but unfortunately we had no luck. It was however lucky that we hadn't gone far from our accommodation because an hour after our checkout time, we got a call from the owner to ask us where the key was. We were supposed to leave it in the chalet door (which we knew) but without realising we had put the key in the car. So it was lucky that we had taken time to look around again because otherwise we would have had to drive back an hour in the wrong direction and give her the key.

  Redu Church

A house in Redu

 Fruit trees in Redu

Once the key was sorted, we were back on the road and the weather turned from sunshine to impending grey clouds.

Leaving Redu

The grey clouds are a-comin'

Once home in Lokeren, the rain had not set in yet so we decided to ride bikes to the neighbouring town. It is quite unusual to experience piercing cold wind against your face while the rest of you gets boiling hot in all your winter layers!

 On the road to Daknam

 Time for a break

Day 21: Luxembourg Ruins

Thursday, 29th November, we drove to Luxembourg. Before heading to the city, we stopped in a small town in the north-west area of Luxembourg called Esch-sur-Sûre. Here we climbed their ruined castle and took in the view, just in time before the rain started (yes I realise my photo below has blue sky but the weather changes quickly).

The town of Esch-sur-Sûre with the castle ruins behind.

The view down one side of the castle

 The castle ruins and the city behind me

Jumping back in the car out of the rain, we set off for Luxembourg City. Once there, it took us absolutely forever to find parking (just under an hour) and then we set off in search of lunch (it was now 3pm and food was a main priority!). After being surprised by the delicious meal we were given at the first [place we walked past, we headed to the tourist info centre to grab a map since daylight was slowly disappearing. Thankfully we had enough time to wander the streets of Old Town and check out the ruins before heading back into the very centre of the city and wandering the streets.

 Adolphe Bridge

 

 Luxembourg City

 The ruins

 Walking back towards Old Town

 Exploring the city

As the rain picked up again, we found the car and set off for the drive back to our accommodation (which was about an hour and half away, I think).