Me and...a church? I dunno.
We took the metro pretty much directly to the Cathedral and holy cow! That is one seriously big church! I’ve seen pictures, but unlike, say, the Mona Lisa, the cathedral is much more impressive in real life. I stood around and gawked at all the detail on the front of the church then, and I didn’t know we’d be able to do this, went inside!
That's one big church.
The old layout is, essentially, big church hall in the middle and a lot of ‘shrines’ around the outside. So the tour led us around the outside where I got to see a lot of old caskets, detailed woodwork, and old art up on the walls. Very pretty. It was also pretty neat because, as it turned out, we were touring around during mass. (Yep, they let you do that.) So we got to hear the organ kick in and then the soloist join. Wow! What fantastic acoustics! The whole space just filled up with sound.
After touring around the inside and taking some pictures, we actually got to climb to the top. we went up a big spiral staircase and came across the ‘mid-level’ where all the cool gargoyles are. And then we got to go up to the very tippy-top for a fantastic view of the city, including the Eifel Tower that we had been at the day before. I really liked getting those high-up views. Really helps to put the area in perspective.
Hideous old stone monsters.
We would be heading off to see An in Antwerp later that day, and we had our train schedule all figured out, so we didn’t want to dawdle too much. So instead of the historic walk, we just sort of wandered and saw a few more cool things:
-A flower market that smelled FANTASTIC. and
-An old gothic jail where they kept french nobles for a while before lopping their heads off. Lots of historic interest and detail there.
The other church we were going to see had a line, so instead we got lunch, wandering through the streets of Paris and crossing the picturesque (if a little silty) Seine river. We got a ‘hot dogue’ and a Croque Monsieur, and then a couple of ice cream cones. We sat on a bridge on the Seine river and listened to a band play brass music while we ate lunch and relaxed. That, my friends, is a definite Paris highlight.
Lunch on the Seine.
After that came a flurry of train rides. First back to the hotel to get our backpacks, then back to Gare du Nord, the big train hub, to catch our train (via several transfers) to Antwerp. It took a little figuring out, but eventually we discovered 1) how to read a departure board 2) how to use our Eurail Pass 3) that we didn’t need to make reservations everywhere. Trial by fire of the european train system. Passed, too!
So then we met An! We were all excited to see her and she was so helpful and nice to let us stay with her and show us around. First, though, we met her BOYFRIEND. OOOOOH. He was really nice, too. He actually drove us because An’s parents’ car was having trouble. She brought us back to the house and then we met (almost) her whole family. She has two older sisters, and the middle one was there. The oldest we met later. Along with mom and dad and sister and sister-husband and boyfriend, we had dinner!
We had ‘traditional’ Belgian food, which is tomato soup with tiny meatballs (you’re supposed to count how many you have to see who your parents like more. Jess was a sweetie and let me have some of hers. ) Then lamb and Belgian fries! They’re not french fries! The Belgians invented them. We had them several times, over there, and eventually I developed a taste for eating them european-style. With Mayo. (Helps to have good mayo). Jess liked them with russian sauce. (Mayo and Katsup). Then strawberries and ice cream for dessert. Strawberry season, yum. Such nice hosts!
Us and clan Nagles at the Dock.
After dinner they took us out for a quick look at the second-biggest dock in Europe. We also saw the nearby village with a population of just 10 or 20 people who refused to move and were, effectively, blocking expansion of the dock. Yes, the bar was open.
Well fed, we hit the hay and got all excited to see Antwerp in the morning.
-N
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