WORLD TOUR BY SHIP, TRAIN, BUS, FERRY, FEET 2012: DAY 66 WEDNESDAY MAY 30 BELGIUM

Today was a rest day from bike riding and we sailed in the Barge to Antwerp. A lot of chemical companies had positioned their factories near the border and Jan, our dutch guide, said the prevailing winds were towards the Netherlands. He took us into a multipurpose museum and we went up to the eighth floor to get an overall view of the town. Then we walked along the waterfront till we came to a car and trailer where pretty girls were offering large free samples of a new beer. That kept the other cyclists busy for a few minutes. Then we saw a statue representing the good giant who looked for people who got drunk and lectured them. Later we saw the bad giant who stood at the harbour entrance and cut off the hand of people coming in. Hence the name of the city: Hant Werp (hand throw) became Antwerp. We sat in the main square and ate our lunch while a funeral was finishing at the cathedral. There were dozens of flags in the square but we could not find an Australian or American one. We had a quick look in the cathedral but declined to pay the 5 euros for a closer look. We looked for some free wifi and tried to contact rail europe again to secure our reservations to Salzburg but they were not receiving our emails, so gave up on them. Walked up to the station, which was another magnificent building and tried our luck at the ticket office. No queue, a very helpful man, and reservation tickets in our hands in a few minutes. We could have hugged him after the rude woman in Amsterdam who refused to do it. He assured us they should have been able to do it for us in Amsterdam. Wandered back to the barge just using our compass and ended up passing through poorer streets where people seemed to be mostly Turkish. Had to get out the map to locate the Holland in the end. There was a beer tasting night arranged but we stayed with Lee and Nancy and learnt about getting around in Paris. Lee told us he grew up in Woy Woy.