Antwerp

Ride from Dover to Antwerp.

Next leg of the journey was Dover to Antwerp which included crossing the channel by ferry. I was a bit worried the ferry crossing would be a hassle but in the end I was impressed with how seamless and cheap it was. You book online ahead of time, it is about £35 and prior to boarding the ferry on the UK side you already clear French immigration and check-in all from your vehicle with some toll booth kind of queues. Then you are instructed where to drive into the boat and where to park the motorbike at which point you are supposed to secure it with some pulleys. I guess it's hard to mess up when securing the motorbike but if you do and there's bumps on the ferry journey you could say bye to the motorbike. Once I arrived to the French side at Calais it was only a matter of removing the pulleys and driving off onto the French motorway. Whole thing was super easy.

Motorbike securely tied for the crossing.

France is on the horizon.

Next I drove to Antwerp with only a brief stop in Dunkirk to re-fuel the motorbike (14 litres petrol) and myself (1 Big Mac, 1 fries, 1 McWrap, 1 coke).

When arriving to Antwerp I had to drive through the city center to arrive to my host's house where I would stay the next 2 nights. I also connected with Elvira my host in Antwerp through Couchsurfing, she is a really nice ux-designer and self-declared geek with dreams of moving to New Zealand even if it is for only some period in her life. If any reader has work opportunities in New Zealand don't hesitate to get in touch. I would really recommend her although when I first met her in her home I felt quite awkward and vulnerable when she offered to show me her special wand. In the end it turned out to be a collectible Harry Potter wand (yes she is a geek).

The first night in Antwerp I was relly excited that my brother Eguzki, his wife Angi, and her sister Reka all dropped into town from Brussels and Leuven to meet up. We all caught up over sushi, beers, and some great laughs especially about the recent wedding of Angi and Eguzki that was really nice but super crazy. Just imagine that I finished the wedding around 6am karaoking at the top of my lungs with the priest on the bus back to town full of half passed out wedding guests, and yes we selected a repertoire of Queen's songs.

Great meeting up with Reka, Angi and Eguzki!

Next day I rose bright and early to visit town from 7am until 7pm when I met up with Elvira for some dinner and drinks. I was very impressed by Antwerp, it is a gorgeous city very much in the mold of other cities in the region. Many beautiful churches, a cathedral which is now probably my favourite in Europe due to looking like a museum on the inside with impressive fine art paintinfs and also a bar and coffee shop. If all churches were like that I would be very religious. Well probably not, there is no salvation for me (God is probably still rolling eyes at me over the above story with the priest and karaoke).

Façade of the cathedral.

Main hall of the cathedral.

Impressive fine art paintings displayed in the cathedral.

There were many other impressive sights in Antwerp but the central train station and the MAS museum probably stood out the most. I recommend going into the top floor of MAS even if you don't care about museums since it's free abd there is a beautiful panaromic view of the city.

Central train station.

MAS Museum.

Overall Antwerp is a beautiful city and although I can imagine spending much more time than 2 nights I can also say it's manageable and satisfying to see on a quick weekend visit and feel you can cover most of the city. Next on the itinerary is Hamburg but I will definitely remember the days in Antwerp as being a brilliant time to meet close family as well ag new acquaintances in a very nice city.

Total travel for the day: 290kms in 4h

Total travel for the trip: 768kms in 9h30mins

More pictures of Antwerp:

The local beer, it's alright but not a big fan (sorry Antwerp).

View of the city from MAS Museum rooftop.

Cool statues at botanical gardens.

Botanical gardens.

Statue on the Cathedral wall.

The cathedral even has a pub!

According to a plaque this was the National bank of Belgium.