Au Revoir Antwerp!

Wednesday was pretty bittersweet. 

I was excited to get home but I'm going to miss Antwerp.

We left the hotel at 7:00 but my morning had started at 5:00 because of my last minute packing. Getting the tickets the day before was a good idea. We opted against getting a taxi because we were only about a mile away but by the time we finally got to the train station my arms were jelly. 

Waiting at the intersection of the Meir.

We made it to the trains in good time with about 30 minutes to spare before it was to take off. That's actually our train in the background of the photo.

I had packed a sandwich from the Ibis breakfast. That had been my daily breakfast that I would carry onto the bus for our trips. I'm going to miss the fresh brie, ham and baguettes every morning.

We spent the whole train ride talking about the most memorable parts of the trip. It's hard to believe we're already reminiscing. We've had such a blast.

The train and airport were all a breeze. The flight was also a lot easier than the one entering Belgium. I moved my seat to the window the night before and it was such a good move. I ended up getting over 4 hours of sleep on the 9.5 plane ride. 

I sat next to a San Francisco native who has been living in Antwerp for the last 10 years. Pretty neat to talk to. We'd talk during meals otherwise it was all movies and sleep.

I also watch Monument's Men which was a great one to see after the visit. We had seen so many things that were in the film including the mines!

Waiting on the ground in Brussels.

Till next time, Europe.

Emily

Last Day Abroad

Our final site visit of the trip was Wednesday morning. We walked a little over a mile to get to the Diamond District of Antwerp. Unfortunately, because of the recent shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels security was extra tight in the district and we were not allowed to take our tour that had been planned. We ended up only having an hour lecture before we were free to spend the last bit of our day on our own. 

The Diamond district is only a block away from the train station so we walked over there to purchase our tickets for the morning early. Our flight home is was out of Brussels at 11:40 and that's about an hour train ride from Antwerp. Just to be safe!

The train station is absolutely gorgeous.

From the panorama picture you can see three vending machines pushed together to the right of Braxton's head. They had a set of bleachers on wheels that they had pushed close to them and a group of decked out Belgian national fans cheering. We walked over to investigate.

Classic John.

They had a Belgian National soccer player in the vending machines playing against fans on a miniature field. Super cool.

From there the group set out on some errands. A few guys were looking for a post office so that they could get packing materials to bring back glasses and bottles, some people were looking for touristy souvenirs, I was looking for specific truffles and all of us were searching for lunch.

To our disadvantage it was the first day that it was truly raining. Honestly it was a blessing, for the first day of rain to be the last day we were there. We were so lucky. That meant all of us cowering under the three (personal) umbrellas total for our group of 5. All of us ended up pretty wet. 

Here's a picture of the grocery store that I had gone to throughout the week. 

With the rain storm our group dwindled as people ducked inside of restaurants to get out of the pouring rain. It ended up just being Wells and I that went into a chocolate shop to get some last gifts for family.

We walked from there to the hotel to put on actual rain gear (the first time I wore my rain boots!) and headed back out into the rain to grab a sandwich. We went to Perruche. It was a place that our professor's husband had introduced to us and it was both our third time visiting.

Stuck to the Kip I had gotten the last three times and it didn't disappoint.

I spent the last two hours of the afternoon packing a few of my things and turning in a paper. That night we had the final reception at the University Club. We first had to fill out a survey of the program and all of the specific site visits we took. It ended up taking over half an hour to fill out and by the time we finished it was three of us walking to the University Club. It is a sprawling urban campus but I was completely confident that I knew how to get there from the classroom we were in. HA! Psych!

I had no idea and we ended up at the dinner after the first course was served. Whoops!

The first part of the dinner was a little sketchy. It included a lot of raw (I think) fish and asparagus. I downed the constant bread and champagne and enjoyed the veal and dessert. I'm going to miss these casual 5 course meals.

The only picture I have from dinner was this one of Mary Anne and Braxton. 

From there we headed back to the University. A lot of people wanted to go out to celebrate the last night but I still had my bags to pack so I turned towards the Ibis. Such a good move on my part because I ended up falling asleep mid-packing anyways and had to wake up at 5:00 to pack my bags. 

Gonna miss this place.

Off to Aachen, Germany!

First trip on Tuesday morning was a visit to Concentra printing. It essentially was a follow-up after our visit to the historical Plantin Moretus House. They do printing for major magazines and newspapers in Europe. Seeing as all of us raised our hands for "getting our news from an electronic source" it will be interesting to see if the Maymester will go on this visit after 5 years.

Once again, at this point Dave got bored and asked for the camera. 

These are the results:

This is another example of how all of our attention spans were at their end.

The tour got a lot more interesting once the machines were fired up.

Von Hoof! What a woman.

What a great photographer. 

From Concentra we took off towards Aachen, Germany.

The name of the town sounds like someone clearing their throat, especially after hearing Van Hoof pronounce it. 

Once in Aachen, we had a few hours to waste before we had a tour of the Town Hall, treasury and Church of Charlemagne.

Walking around Aachen.

This is where we met back up.

We found a little pizza place for lunch that was SO GOOD.

Later we walked back to one of the main streets to find a gelato store that we had passed on our way from the bus. Finally, gelato. And it was just as good as it looked. 

Heaven on earth.

We walked around for another two hours, stopping for a few minutes to sit down in the park, in the square, at a few restaurants. We split off for the last 30 minutes. I went through a few of the shops and found a really neat purse and the guys came back with Cuban cigars. 

As of now I still favor Belgium over Germany.

Our tour of the town hall ended up getting cancelled and the treasury closed earlier than the church so to the treasury it was!

It was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. The treasury held all of the treasures of Charlemagne. 

All are reliquaries.

This is 16,000,000 euro to insure.

From there it was off to the Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne. 

There were all different types of architecture. 

I was excited to see the inside of this because we had studied the architecture in my art history class.

Absolutely gorgeous.

The pictures really don't do it justice.

Photo bombed.

After the chapel we went to a German restaurant and had wienerschnitzel. I honestly have no idea what it is but it was actually pretty good. The house beer was great as well.

That night we went back to Antwerp and once again I fell asleep trying to pack on top of my bed..

Only one more day left in Antwerp :(