Beauty and the Beast (On Bells!)

We arrived in Antwerpen and went straight to the hotel to rest.

The next morning I went out for groceries and to check out the rules about our concert. We rested as long as we could in order to be somewhat able to party on with the DJ's. More on that in the next post

After having partied all evening, and still being stuffed up, we slept in on Monday. After noon, we decided to go and explore Antwerp. The train station there is awesome with 4 levels and lots of shops, yet it retains it old trainstation charm. The area near the train station was full of diamond stores and jewish stores. We found this fantastic jewish bakery that made some of the best pastries we have had all trip stuffed with blueberries and apples. Then we went towards the historical center through the large shopping zones. We walked past the pretty catherdral (just another one), and stopped at the city all to check out their flag collection outside. It was great because Canada was right beside Ukraine! We searched for america but it was nowhere to be found... So we kept our distance just in case there was something happening (we dont check the news). The square there was really beautiful with Bruxelles like houses and golden statues on top.

We then strolled towards and the river and walked along the old port turned pedestrian zone and maritme museum. It was very relaxing. We walked back to the Stadhuis square in time for the 8 pm bells. Were we in for a treat of what! The bells rang 8 times then stopped for 10 seconds. Suddenly we found out what a bell ringing concert was! It was so unique and beautiful and we spend lots of time trying to firgue out how they make it so complex. After a half hour and tummy grumblies, we started going back to a restaurant we spotted. Little did we know Quasimodo wasnt done and the tune became awfully familiar. By the second song past the half hour, Dasha and I were signing "Be my Guest!" and they just kept coming. Until 50 past it was Beauty and the Beast songs played in the order in which they appear in the film right up to the theme song. I am not too sure how many others caught on but it kept us totally entertained. We had pizza's that night before going to bed to try to get rid of the final symptoms of our cold. The next day we were off back to Frankweiler.