Antwerp, land of the Severed Hand and the Cut Diamonds

Wednesday – 12 June 2013 – Antwerp, Belgium

Antwerp is 25 miles from the sea. The arrival up the Schelde River makes approaching Antwerp by ship very much like arriving by riverboat. We docked right downtown where the very impressive cathedral (what, a European city with huge cathedral?) looms over the main town square. A very ornate town hall (what, a European city with a very ornate town hall?) has a curious statue in front. Antwerp's name is derived from a Norse expression meaning, "The City of the Severed Hand", based on a legend about, uh, a severed hand apparently. The one in the town square squirts water, not blood. Just as well.

We walked the extremely lovely business district streets to one of the most impressive rail stations I've ever been to, just to gawk. (what, a European city with....well you get it). I didn't want to go anywhere, but it would have been fun to find out what that lady I had words with in the morning had spent on her tour today--just for my our amusement. 

We then explored the nearby diamond district. Antwerp is diamond central for the world. Many different dialects--of Yiddish--are spoken in the small but very intense few blocks of this district, as the industry is dominated by Orthodox Jews. We visited the Diamondland exhibition to see a few diamond cutters at work and many more retail salesmen at work and returned to Silver Cloud for lunch as the drizzle started. Our only stop on the way back to the ship was to check out an old fort guarding the harbor and its adjacent statue of a man with crotch itch.

Ghent Pictures

From Oostende: A Tale of Two Cities or the Beast and Beauty – Bruges (pictures immediately below) and Ghent

Tuesday - 11 June 2013 – Oostende, Belgium

Oostende is a beach resort, although like many European cities I suppose it has its charms including yet another cathedral, canals with locks, and other features common to the "low countries".  The view of the expansive white sand beach as we sailed into the little but busy harbor was striking. So was the nearby railway station with its gigantic collection of commuters' bicycles. Red sideways mark the bike paths and pedestrians are best advised to avoid venturing into any pavement in Europe that is colored red to avoid the way of bikes.

Barbara and I avoided the $99 per person, "Bruges On Your Own", bus transfer sold by the ship by going directly to the train station and purchasing two four euro train tickets. We were in Bruges in 15 minutes, saving $190 before we were in Oostende a half hour.

Bruges, Belgium

I had visited Bruges in the mid-1990s and found the town very charming if a bit touristy. In the almost 20 years since then Bruges has become very touristy and just a little bit charm remained. That is, the town hall is still pretty, but it's a museum now and the toilets are locked. Just saying. The streets are pretty if you avoid the endless string of overpriced lace shops, tourist souvenir shops, and especially the very overpriced chocolate shops. One shop was selling "fine Belgium chocolates" molded into male and female body parts. (No circumcision jokes please.) A bunch of Japanese tourists were finding this store most amusing. Instead Barbara and fought our way through the throngs of people milling about and worked our way back to the train station via the very lovely canals filled with many dozens of old tourists being hollered at by loud speakers. A few scenes on the walk were quite lovely—as most of Bruges used to be.

Ghent, Belgium

For an additional six euro each we continued on the fast train line to Ghent, avoiding another $129 per person ship's tour. A 1½ mile "less than one mile, the sign at the station said" walk to get to the very nifty main town square was interesting. Ghent is a real city with lots of medieval and typical old European architecture. We enjoyed a few hours strolling about the downtown as well as a nice lunch of smoked salmon with real Stella Artois beer, not the overly sweet imitation sold in the US and then took a modern tram back to the station for the 35 minute ride back to Oostende and Silver Cloud.

The savings of almost $400 by using the very efficient and comfortable local train service was a topic of discussion between me and a fellow passenger who had purchased the ship's tour. She was not amused when I told her what we had done. A matter of fact, she sought me out the next morning to accuse me of "doing the sort of thing that causes ship's tours to be cancelled for lack of interest." I asked her what her point was. Made my morning.