21 May ’04, Friday. A great morning to sleep in after yesterday’s busy day. We finally pulled the side door of the van open just after 9am and stumbled out toward the toilet and douche (shower). After I made our coffee and had our breakfast of a energy bar we pack-up and moved onto Antwerp. There were 3 different routes that we could take and you would think that finding anyone of them would be a snap…..well not exactly!!! I really don’t understand it, but we are having a heck of a time in some of these cities getting out and around in them. After circling Ghent, and going I don’t know where, we finally found one of the routes that we were looking for. It happened to be the route that went through every little and big “burg” possible. Overall, it was well worth it. A couple of days back we found a new grocery outlet that really is quite a bargain house. The only problem is, they don’t carry a lot of items and the items they do carry are no doubt off brand. The flavor and the quality are still very good and the price is really unbelievable. A couple of examples… Piato Ribble Potato Chips, standard medium bag is $0.39 and a box of really good coffee 500g is $2.15. Good Premium Pilsnier 6 pack @ $2.10 for longneck tall bottles. Well anyway, on our way to Antwerp we came across this store again and had to make a special stop and stock our refrigerator and shelves once more. Our trip today was about 60 km. With all of our stops (the grocery store, a beautiful castle, lunch in a parking lot of a park, feeding a flock of chickens and roosters and getting lost) we still got into our campground and were heading out on a walk into town by 4pm. Antwerp is basically across the Sheldt river from the campground we are staying. We were told it was just a 15 minute walk into town but it really turned out to be just over 35 and we weren’t just taking our time. The route takes us through a really nice park, over looks a boat marina, and takes a turn at the tunnel that is a pedestrian only tunnel under the river. There are 2 escalators, each about 3 to 4 stories long (high) that take you down to the tunnel and then it is a straight shot of about 7-800 miters (it took us 13 minutes to walk). They have a very large elevator that you can take to the bottom as well. This is used primarily by the bikers (bicycles). When you arrive outside on the other side you are right in the city. We were looking for that “Internet Café”…. And we found one !!! Well, tomorrow…. Antwerp (Antwerpen, Belgique).
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