Brasschaat & Antwerp

The last two days we have been parked up in the lovely town of Brasschaat in Belgium. The first thing you notice as you come across the border is the change of colour in the wind turbines. From white to, white with orange bands. Funky and distinct. Fuel is a little more expensive here, also noticable averaging about €1.40 litre. Brasschaat has a free aire besides its sports grounds. A short walk takes you to its Kastel and huge grounds on the edge of town. It is more like a chateau than a castle. The first day we walked through the town, checking out the shops and then on the second day decided to catch the bus to Antwerp. The tourist info wasnt open when I went in the first day so I couldn’t ask about buses. On the second day they informed us the only way to go is to buy a €16 bus pass with ten rides on it. Cheap if you are going in 10x. We decided to use it anyway as it was the only way we were going to get to Antwerp. Brasschaat was preparing for the Brasschaat V8, cycle race that night so a lot of the streets were closing. On the bus I told the driver to take two of the pass. Half an hour later we arrived in Antwerp. What a beautiful city, the old town was amazing and the amount of older buildings was spectacular. The street art again tickling my fancy. Graffiti art and statues of dogs + children lying under the paving. Very cool, chic city with loads to see and do. After a couple of hours we decided to head back, as we knew it would be chaos with the road closures. The bus driver advised us that the centre was closed so I just asked him to let us know where to get off. As we drove around a roundabout twice, I got up to ask the driver if this was our stop. He didn’t really know so we got off and decided to walk. As we reached the next roundabout, traffic at a standstill. The bendy bus we were on stuck, going round the roundabout. The diversion sending him into head on traffic. The poor guy, what a mess, it obviously hadn’t taken into account about bendy buses. Next thing the police arrive as the driver is out shaking his head. As we watched the fiasco of rubbernecking, gridlockers and onlookers. All of a sudden a rubbernecker mounts a large stone out of a side street. His front wheel now, up in the air, he looks over as he tries to go forward obviously in shock. Jason yells no, go back. The guys backs off, his front bummer now hanging off. If he had gone forward he would be stuck with his whole car balancing on this stone. It was crazy and funny at the same time. I walked into town last night with George. We stood and watched a few races, starting at 6.30pm. We could still hear the last race starting at 11.30pm from the aire, who knows what time it finished. The cafes and restaurants packed on the street front. Cyclists whizzing past. A cool event for the town, as long as you don’t want to get anywhere other than on a bike. Talking to our German neighbour this morning he informed us that the amount we had left on our bus ticket is printed on the back. We turn it over €12.80, well that was a surprise it should be €9.60 the bus driver only charging us for one each way, instead of two. We are going to give it away as we had two free nights and we have no need for it in the near future. Today we travel onto Gent and the search of a laundromat… count down is on with less than a week to go……..