Pooch on Wheels, Antwerp

A whole day in Antwerp today!

Hubby had agreed to go to a bridge event with W.  W's regular bridge partner is S, who is the husband of B, who is hubby's good friend H's regular bridge partner.  S wasn't interested in the Antwerp gig so W invited hubby.  When H found out, H invited B, who readily agreed, too.  So they became a foursome.  What happened was that M, H's wife, thought she'd like to go to Antwerp, too, with the Ellaphant, to sightsee.  The Ellaphant didn't agree right away because, as you know, there's a load of housework and schoolwork needing to be done, but also it was Open Monument's Day in The Neth and the Ellaphant always ends up missing that because of either tiredness from work or bad weather or both.  I did think about it, though, because it's not always that I get an excuse to visit Antwerp, and in such fabulous weather.  In short, Antwerp it was.

09.00 - we left home for H's house, where I picked up M.  H and hubby drove off to pick up B and W.  They rode in H's car, M rode with me.  We left first.  It was difficult maneuvering in the city centre because there are quite a lot of road works going on but we finally found the free parking area H told us about.  Walking from the car to the city centre, who should we come across in an open terrace but the foursome relaxing with a coffee because it turned out that they were too early -- the bridge drive was going to start at 13.00!

M and I didn't intend to hang around, though, so we went to the Steen (literally means 'stone' but often used to refer to castles because that's what castles are often made of, and the more stones the larger the castle, leading to the expression 'stone rich'), which I'd wanted to see for ages but never had the time.  It's an extra.  After the Steen, we visited the Cathedral, the (world-famous) Central Station, and St. Jacob's Church, where famous painter Peter Paul Rubens is buried.  That meant a lot of walking.  We could tell we were no longer in the bloom of our youth as we had to sit down every once in a while.  M treated to a coffee/tea (with fresh lemon) and dessert.  She talks a bucket a minute ... my ears flapped shut once in a while.

At 18.45, we were back at the bridge club where we had agreed to meet.  We had to wait about 10 minutes before H and B arrived back from their route, and another 20 minutes for hubby and W.  While waiting, I continued reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez' book 'No One Writes to the Colonel', which I'd brought along, for the MOOC.  You see, a bridge drive means you go from pub to pub playing bridge and you have to play a specific number of games in each pub.  Indeed, you don't just stay the whole day in one area.  Makes it all less boring.  Anyway, by the time the last two stragglers had arrived, we were really famished.  Dinner at a very good Italian restaurant nearby -- see second extra.

On the way back home, hubby simply rode with me and the foursome made it back to Breda together.  We arrived home at 22.15.  At 22.30, I was in bed and asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.  Photo count at the end of the day = 250 shots.  I really like this pooch, though.  You don't always get to see a dog in a buggy like this ... what a sweetie!