Belguim and beyond

Hi to everyone from the happy travellers.

On to the last destination for the European leg of our journey.  Belguim.  We left Amsterdam bound for Belguim.  With the train ticket we purchased we could take a stop off in Anwterp near the northern border of Belguim. 

After a change of trains in Rotterdam, we boarded the train that would take us to Antwerp. We hopped off  there and found luggage lockers to use for a few hours.  After storing our luggage, we set off to see a little of Antwerp.  Sadly. the  diamond museum we had hoped to see was closed on that day, so after taking some time to view the very magnificent building which is the railway station in Antwerp. We walked down to the area of the old town and the river.

A beautiful old town with an ancient cathedral and some amazing ancient buildings.

After our look around we made our way back to the station, collected our luggage from the lockers and waited to board our train to Brussels.

Seemed strange knowing this was our last stop on the European part of the trip before heading back to the UK and being able to understand what people were saying to us.

We found our way to our accommodation and were pleased to find beautifully renovated rooms in the guesthouse.  It was a really nice finish to the European leg of the journey.

Having only 3 days in Brussels we spent the days having a wander around seeing the main parts of the city.  During our wanders we happened upon some TV programs being made.

Just near to our accommodation was the first day of filming for Belgium's Got Talent.

 There was the filming of the Top  Chef program.

Just near by to the filming of the Top Chef program was the restaurant which is known as Dinner in the Sky .  The dinners are seated and the chefs prepare the food in the centre of the seating, then the whole restaurant is raised 45 metres in the air for the meal to be served and eaten.

On the middle day of our 3, we took the train to the west to an historic town called Brugge.  There we took a boat ride through the canals and then a walk through the historic centre.

Later in the day of our visit to Brugge, we took another short train trip out to the coast to see the longest tram route in the world.  The tram travels the entire coast of Belgium for almost 70 kms. We had decided to ride the tram for some distance then to take the train back to Brugge before setting off back to Brussels.  It was good to see a little of the coastline and the towns dotted along the section that we rode.

While exploring parts of Brussels we visited the famous Manaquin Pis statue and of course had a sample of the very delightful Belgium waffles.

For our last day in Brussels, being the first Wednesday of the month, some of the public museums have free entry from lunch time on.  We had a quick look around the art museum and the music museum which we enjoyed.  Seemed a bit strange that our 10 weeks of travel through Europe was at an end, but  then the next morning arrived and we headed to the Eurostar train station for our journey back to London.

And so it was off on the Eurostar for the next leg of our planned journey, which is to collect a camper van in London and begin our travels through the UK.

We are moving closer to our return home, so until next time, I will bring you some highlights of life on the road in a campervan.