Belgium - Holland Trip-Day 3

I need to get moving with posting the rest of the days of the trip because I am starting to forget the details.

Day 3, Friday, started with a train trip north to Antwerpen, Belgium. This would be our home base while we went to the races over the weekend. Although it is not on the coast, Antwerpen is an old port city. I guess it served as a trading center to places further up the Scheldt River. You can read more of its history here. It did and still has a huge diamond trade and sales industry.

This is one of our first experiences with Antwerpen.

From B&H Day 3

Beautiful isn't it. This is the train station and it is going through quite the construction and expansion phase. This photo is of the old part of the station looking at the ticket booths. The rail system and public transit is huge in Belgium as with most of the rest of Europe. We would have been able to get everywhere using the transit system, even the tiny town and farm area where the races where (in Holland.) Unfortunately it would have taken almost 2 hours by transit to do what would take us 30 minutes in the car, so with a pregnant women in her 6th month we decided to take the more sensible mode of transit for our situation.

Our hotel was only a 5 minute walk from the train station. We were a little anxious about this hotel because it was dirt cheap. We had booked everything ahead of time online it this was over 50% cheaper that anything else we had booked or had seen available. We had also read that the area close to where the hotel was in Antwerp was the best side of town. To our surprise the hotel was brand new, very comfortable and the neighborhood was great. I didn't get a picture of the room. It was a bit on the smaller side but for what we paid we didn't care, especially since we wouldn't be spending much time it it.

Melissa took a nap while I went and took a short walk to pick up the rental car. The hotel website said that it didn't have off street parking so I was expecting to have to drive all over the city trying to find a place to park. There as an underground parking garage pretty much below the hotel. I guess since it is a public garage, the hotel can't say that they have off street parking. Since I didn't have to drive all around the city looking for a parking spot, I decided to do it anyway. What was going to be a quick drive to scout out the city and to get my bearings ended up with me driving around for about and hour. I knew which direction I need to go to get back to the hotel but with all the one way roads, streetcar tracks and streets that were very un-New York City grid like, it was hard to navigate back to the hotel. I am rather good looking at a map and figuring out where to go when driving but this city really, and I mean really challenged me. I drove around France twice and went through many cities and only got disoriented once. Antwerp had me going around in many many circles, many different times. I always knew which direction I need to go, I just couldn't find the right roads that would take me there. It was the kind of place where you could take 4 consecutive right hand turns and end up now where near where you started.

Our friend Doug who we met up with in Brussels was going to the cross races too so he was also staying in Antwerp, but in a hostel a little further away from the train station. We met up with him in the early afternoon for some sight seeing. After a little more navigation trouble we ended up at the Antwerpen Royal Museum of Fine Arts.

From B&H Day 3

Inside where Many paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (no, no that PeeWee Herman guy) and other classic Flemish artists, as well as a modern art exhibit with many interesting pieces.

From there we headed up to the old city center where the Grote Markt and city hall was.

From B&H Day 3

It was cold, dark, windy and we were hungry so we didn't do a ton of exploring. We found the Irish pub and went in to warm up and get a quick dinner recommendation. They sent us just across the street to a rotisserie chick place where we had a great dinner and snapped this shot.

From B&H Day 3

The people here were super friendly and were really excited to hear that we were in town for the races.

We ended the night early to get plenty of rest for the early rise to get to the races and to have plenty of energy to try to keep warm while standing outside all day long. You can see more photos from Day 3 here.Also you can check out the map view which shows the location each photo was taken.

Belgium Holland Trip - Day 2

Day 2 of the trip started with a later morning than day 1, since we didn't have to get off a plane at 7am. We met up with Doug late morning and decided to explore the a newer part of Brussels, the east side where the European Union is. This part of the city is slightly higher in elevation than the older part where we spent the first day. To us it seemed like two completely different places. There were people around in the older part of the city but not anything like the bustle that was happening around the E.U.

From B&H 2009 Day 2

We saw lots of other amazing sites like this Audi, Church, and Royal Palace, on our way back to the our hotel.

While Melissa stayed at the hotel to get some much needed rest for her and the growing baby, Doug and I did some more exploring. We tried to rent bikes to head back up towards the E.U. and check out the Museum complex. Since we were not able to get bikes at the street kiosks, we hopped aboard the the subway (we think legally, since there was nothing to stop you from just walking right on without paying) and got the the Museums at 5:01. They closed at 5. We were trying to go check out the Autoworld museum. We were able to take some pictures of the amazing architecture at the Museum Park though.

From B&H 2009 Day 2

After returning to our hotel again, I did some scouting for a dinner location. We had found an really nice small and quiet French restaurant when we were in Brussels in 2007. I knew that we would be staying close by, but I did not know exactly where it was. I have a really good sense of direction and almost always can get back somewhere that I have been to once before. I quickly found a building I remembered was close by to the restaurant. I turned around to get Melissa and Doug and we all enjoyed a great dinner and end to day 2 of our trip. You can see more photos from day 2 here.Also you can check out the map view which shows the location each photo was taken.

OOps!

I guess I was supposed to make some entries about our trip to Belgium and Holland last month. Sorry. I guess that is what happens when I am busy planning for the arrival of our baby in May and planning an addition and remodel of half our house.

I guess I was also supposed to post updates about rebuilding the wall under our deck that was all rotted out too. I guess I don't really have an excuse about that one except that I still am not quite finished with the project yet. I will save that for after I get info up about our trip even though that is kind of in reverse order.

Melissa and Dan's trip to Belgium and Holland, Jan 28 - Feb 4, 2009

I promise that I will try to keep these post "light" on all things bicycles, but will try to put some bicycle "heavy" posts up at the teamWLB Blog.

Day -1 and 1

The air flights (from Hartford to Washington Dulles to Brussels) were very uneventful. Melissa got in a few hour long naps and got up and moved around on a regular basis as instructed by the OB. Dan took some Tylenol PM's to try to get some sleep. The first two didn't do to much. The second two brought a period of an hour or so of feelings of borderline claustrophobia and needing to do jumping-jacks at the back of the plane. After another hour of repeatedly feeling like I was going to fall asleep only to jerk myself wake, I finally dozed off for I think an hour. By that time we only had an hour left in the flight and were starting our descent.

Once our plane landed we were quickly (no checked baggage to pick up) aboard the train to Brussels. After finding the lockers to stash our bags for the day we headed out to stroll the streets of Brussels. We soon found the Grote Markt. We then met up with our friend Doug at the Manneken-Pis. Doug is from Easthampton and was here for Cyclocross World Championships too, and had been over to Berlin a few days earlier to watch part of the 6 day track race there. After lunch we napped at the hotel for a few hours and then met up with Doug again at night. After dinner we walked around some more taking in the beauty of the buildings and the city at night.

We didn't do a whole lot that first day as we were both rather wiped from the traveling and the time change. It was great to do a bit of strolling around the city, get a feeling of what the city was like and to get our bearings. It is relatively easy city of navigate and has a extensive public transit system, not to mention all the people that were traveling by bicycle. It was a great first day to the trip and we wanted to make sure not to over do it so that we would have plenty of energy for the rest of the trip. Here are some more photos from Day 1 of the trip, including a map of where the photos were taken. Day 2 to come soon.

We are Home.

We have returned safe and sound from our trip to Belgium and the Netherlands. We had a great time and were very glad that we had extra time there to do some more exploring vs. our last trip that was only 3 days. Melissa did amazing well with all the walking around we did despite having a pretty bad cold that she came down with the first night we were there. Her big belly may have been slowing her down a little but going along at a slower pace allowed us to take in more of the sites. And here is just a quick sampling of some of those. Posts covering each day of our trip will come soon as one of us has time to write them up.

Away we go!