We were up this morning around 6am. I grabbed a quick shower then cooked our breakfast. Just scrambled eggs and strawberries. Steve had read about lots of Belgian specialities he wanted to try during the day! He went to work figuring out yet another coffee pot.
After breakfast we headed to the train station to go to Antwerp. The station was beautiful and the scenery on the 40 minutes train trip was great.
When we arrived at Antwerp, we headed to a coffee shop for pastries and coffee. Steve had to get a picture of me and Maria with our much anticipated treats!
We wanted to see the zoo since it is the oldest in Europe. It was very compact, but you could tell that they have spent time and money on modernizing the exhibits and on the landscaping. Oh my goodness, the landscaping in the zoo was fabulous!
Last week Maria was re-reading Dr. Doolittle and the book mentioned the Okapi, at the Antwerp Zoo. She was determined to find this animal. Of course she did. The whole time I was saying, "it might not even be here anymore, it might not be a real animal". Here it is with it's sign!
We grabbed sandwiches for lunch and then went in search of the guild houses. Each guild, or craft, had it's own house in the square. To show the prestige of their craft they decorated them very fancy.
We took the train back to Brussels and went in search of chocolate and fries. Most people know about Belgian Chocolate so we bought some to try and some for gifts! The fries are in stalls on the street. We had read about how good they were and all the sauces you can get to dip them in. Steve had to try them with the garlic sauce. They were by far the BEST fries I have ever eaten!
We went back to the apartment to rest and end our day with a supper of tortellini, salami, and broccoli sauteed in olive oil, garlic, and basil. It was actually pretty tasty.
