After a small but nice breakfast, most of us (in other words, the ones without hangovers) trundled off to explore Antwerp. We passed through a "graffiti park" with a quite accurate depiction of one of our cats:
Accurate that is aside from the flora growing on its head. And the pyjamas. And the rainbow shining out of its arse.
From there, on to the riverside to investigate Antwerp's foot tunnel built in the 30's. The escalators are, look and smell original but do still work. Here's a view of Hennie and Anny about to embark on the walk through the tunnel.
The tunnel is about half a kilometre long, with next to nothing the other side except for a nice view of the city:
Back to the main side of the tunnel, we spied a car sporting a DdV advert. It doesn't quite match up to the Vienna trams but at least it's something :-). It's one of the cars owned by the theatre company who had all of their cars stickered specially for the show!
A short walk along the riverside brought us to Het Steen which, at 800 years, is Antwerp's oldest building.
Standing near to the entrance of the castle is a statue of the giant Druon Antigoon looking down on 2 men. Evil Will felt instantly at home in Antwerp, declaring that any city that immortalizes the tall in bronze is OK in his book.
The story goes that Druon charged a toll on boats that passed on the river, and removed the hands of those that refused to pay. This gave Antwerp its name (Antwerpen means "to throw a hand") and inspired this statue:
in the main square
Shortly after, the group split up. Julie and I visited this church
and the old Slaughterhouse
and then dined on Belgian's finest (fries and mayo)
before going back to the hotel for a quick rest before the evening's entertainment.
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