Hotel Florida Antwerp

Less then 1 month and it's time to start planning. The only thing done before now was the planeticket. Yesterday I sended out all my couchsurfing requests. I got already a decent amount of answers. And they are all positive! In Seattle I booked a hotel, Then we'll drive north over Vancouver to Scotts' Hutton House. He'll entertain us for 4 days. Then it's time for Luke ...

... a grand corridor cluttered with Tintin's rocket, a smiling Asterix and a very blue Smurf. Here one is treated to not only a testament to the many characters and creators of this literary culture, but also to an interesting insight into the art of the comic. Being a comic book museum, the displays tend to show instead of tell. Thus, the process of creating a comic book, from drafting text to filling in the ink to creative mass ...

... side serve of frittes as everything in Erope/UK comes with chips - or so it seems sometimes after you've had so much of them!). Oh and I tried Cherry beer - which was interesting. Not sure if I liked it but we drank it in a cafe which looked more like a chursh - religious icons everywhere. Once I remember the name I will post it as it was really quite unreal. If only I'd gotten to Brussels...but it's better than nothing. It was actually so worth it.

Pleqse excuse the a's being q's and other assorted nonsense, the keyboqrds here are ****ing crazy. I'm not even going to bother so I qpologise, I tried for the first pqrqgrqph but it just is not zorth it. Oh yes qnd the z's will be w's. If I remember then I might fix it... Anyway, so I qm in Brussels qnd it's rqining zhich is just qs zell becquse ...

... garden with its audio guide to hear about the highlights among 300 works arranged by date, starting with Rodin. (museum.antwerpen.be/middelheimopenluch tmuseum) Slightly further afield, near Berchem Station - calling for a tram ride on the # 8 or #11 -- is the Zurenborg Quarter. In the early 20thC, Antwerp's upper and middle classes lived in this chic village. Today this residential district remains a wonder of art-nouveau architecture, with more than 170 houses now ...

... girl and they arrived at the metro station hand in hand. Anyhow, Achim was making a taxi stop to bring us downtown and he even paid for it! The party went on, it was wild and great still. I got some Wittekerke beer glasses that are at Martin, Jenny and Dylan stuck me into a hot lapdance... I didnt really know what to think about (right right I'm conservative! naaahh!) And the icelandic girl got her mood broken after our weird talk continue (meaning that I'm useless ...

... to get some night shots because I've seen some postcards of lthe guildhouses all lit up and pretty - but it doesn't get dark until almost 10pm and I couldn't be bothered going back out at that time of night. I'm settling down by then, ready to play some cards, have a shower and then go to bed. The weather here in Belgium hasn't been kind to us. It hasn't been cold but it's been raining on and off a lot. Wheneverf we head outside it starts to rain so I get my umbrella ...

... expect to see anywhere from Morocco to Turkey to Afghanistan, from rugs to hookahs to Qu’rans. Next day I’ve still got to kill time until my night ride, so take a day trip out to Bruges on the recommendation of a friend. It has the distinction of being intact after WWII, so plenty of nice architecture, but nothing you couldn’t see somewhere else

... much to Stephan and Julie's relief - and still made it to Antwerp in time for lunch. Once in Antwerp, the next task was to find our B&B. Chris had printed out a map, but had used draft quality, so we couldn't read the names of the streets. Stephan and Julie must think we're idiots because exactly the same thing happened when they came to Brussels with us. But, this time we were in luck because the GPS was loaded with Antwerp details ...

... There are signs starting 5 km before the border warning of the advancing border. 2 km, 1 km, 800 meters, 500 meters, 100 meters. At the border itself we had to slow down to go through what looked like a toll gate without a toll. Guards stood at the border crossing, but didn't seem to do anything. We're not sure what the purpose of all this fuss was, but it was definitely different than other border crossings. The roads in France are also ...