Thursday June 5th – Antwerp and Chris

Thursday June 5^th – Antwerp and Chris

What a great day! We had arranged to meet Janice’s Nephew Chris at the dock. He lives in Brussels and came to Antwerp to see us.  We got off the ship hoping we could find him and there he was walking toward the ship.  We wandered through town and found a coffee shop for a croissant and coffee and a good long natter and catch-up.  It was drizzling rain outside, but we decided to walk some more and he showed us the amazing railway station. He wanted to take us to the Diamond Museum in town and after much futile searching, Chris asked at a diamond shop and they said that the museum had closed 2 years ago… shoot! 

We enjoyed taking in the sites and sounds of Antwerp before finding a restaurant for lunch. It was great. Derek and Chris ordered ribs and we have never seen such a huge portion. It was enough that Chris was able to take some home for his boys (Gabriel and Adam) … it was a pity that Maria and the boys couldn’t make it today but it was a Thursday and Maria had a big project on the go and boys were at school. Hopefully it won’t be long before we get to see them again.

Chris had to leave to pick the kids up at school and we continued exploring the town and found a great café with fast internet to allow us to catch up on emails. As the weather had cleared up we wandered around some more and found a commemorative plaque dedicated to the Canadians who fought to liberate Antwerp during WW2.  Of the 13000 Allied troops who died in that battle 6500 were Canadian.

Derek and I sat on our balcony as the ship departed our last port of call and suddenly spotted a few forlorn looking people on the pier who looked like passengers. Turned out they were!!! The ship left 6 passengers in Antwerp who were too late getting back to the ship after they got lost in their rental car.  We had a drink with the cruise director in the bar and he explained that there is a small window of opportunity in the tide to get into Dover, so we couldn’t wait any longer for them… I cannot imagine how they felt helplessly watching the ship with all their possession on board, only feet from the dock, but it might well have been a million miles away!!

We had our last dinner onboard and said our goodbyes to our wait staff, put our bags outside our room and had an early night. Ready and excited to see Janice’s sister and brother-in-law, Sue and John, tomorrow in Dover.