Heading to Amsterdam this morning and we'll be here until mid next week.

We spent yesterday in Antwerp but for a while we didn't know if we were going to get there. Unbeknownst to us when we planned our trip, yesterday was the season's first general strike in Belgium. When we found out in Brussels we weren't sure we'd be able to get out of the city at all but it turned out that while the local trains would be out the intercity ones were going business as usual. Since we couldn't get to the required train station easily our host Helen drove us be she had to do so before work. This meant that we arrived in Antwerp at around 8:00am. Not a big deal. It was too early to check into our hotel but we were able to leave our heavier bags and set out for breakfast and a day of exploring.

To start, even before that, we came in to Antwerp Central Station.

It's really amazing. The original station goes back to the mid 19th century with the current one replacing it around 50 years later. The facade and entry are gorgeous but going back to the track area is equally amazing. The Wikipedia page has more and better images so check them out.

There was also this elevator status wall noting the levels:

Gotta love the zero indexing of the floors.

After breakfast we wandered around

and among other things found this, the Brabo Fountain in front of city hall.

Very cool. We also passed the cathedral seen in the background.

On the side, we saw these builders

and realized why cathedrals, including our local St. John's the Unfinished take so long - the builders are made of bronze and don't move!!!!!

This was on our way to Het Steen castle.

It had an old school instagram frame:

Inside was "The Antwerp Story" which had a nice overview of the city and you could climb to the top as well.

From there we tried to go to the Plantin Moretus museum but were thwarted - it was closed due to the strike.

From there it was to the Antwerp Zoo - the oldest zoo in the country. It was right next to the train station and just 10 minutes from our hotel.

We saw lots of animals including this meerkat just standing there.

He was just standing there on his hind too legs you know, like that guy - you know the one who stands - Rory Calhoun.

And also elephants:

And many more. There was also a nice little aquarium building where we found Dory:

After all of that we went back to the Hotel but they still didn't have our room so we wandered some more - by the Ruben's house which is closed for renovations and over to a local park. Then back to the Hotel where they screwed up our room but we did finally get it partially resolved - at least so that we had a roof over our head for the night.

We finished off the day with a pretty awesome Ethiopian meal.

This morning we got some more chocolate for the road and are now on the train to Amsterdam where we'll spend the next five days.