We tried staying up last night to see our arrival into Antwerp. The first pilot came aboard early and we started our trip in. He was quite chatty and during the trip suggested a trip to Ghent. Since we have 4 days in Antwerp we decided we would go there today. So in our usual confused tourist routine off we went. We had to visit immigration here (so far we’ve been cleared on the ship) so the driver dropped us off at the central station downtown. We had seen a sign for a bus on the way out of the port so we tried to get more information on it at the bus terminal. Well, this didn’t go well. We did manage to buy a 5-day bus pass (from a machine) so it wasn’t a complete loss. In the end we got the best information, and a map, from the information counter in the train station… that didn’t give information on the trains.
Anyway, we did manage to catch the train to Ghent, and find a streetcar to take us closer to the centre of town. (We had 2 stations to choose from in Ghent and we chose the one further out.) Armed with a map we bought at the train station and later a free one from an information kiosk, we spent most of the afternoon just walking around Ghent, eventually walking back to the station we should have originally stopped at. In Antwerp we found the bus stop (well, almost) and waited for the bus. After missing the first one we found out that the bus actually stopped around the corner, not at the gate marked on the electronic sign. (See what I mean about confused.) We found the bus, which took us back to the port, near to our ship. The bus driver gave me directions back to our specific wharf, however, at some point we figured we were going in the wrong direction. Some very nice people at the New Holland tractor plant drew a circle on the map (i.e. where we were). I really didn’t want any more directions at this point. Shortly after this we found our wharf and were home (it really does feel like it now). We had prepared for our late arrival by purchasing some meat, cheese and bread so we had dinner in the cabin with the addition of some fruit and a little Jack Daniels and lemonade.
Tomorrow we’ll start all over again. Although this time we’ll walk out to the bus stop in day so it should be easier getting back. We saw a couple of Internet cafes in Antwerp; however, at the moment the plan isn’t to use one of them until probably Monday. I’m just getting this ready in case our plans change.
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