Mom takes on Antwerp

My mom came to visit on Thursday, February 23. I had classes that day and the next day so I felt kind of bad that I couldn’t spend too much time with her but she had a great time wandering the streets of Antwerp and enjoying the European way of life. We were able to get meals together and they were wonderful, a great change from my normal cheap pasta. Friday night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant near the church and town hall. We ate traditional Antwerp meals, my first since I’ve been here.

On Saturday we took the train to Amsterdam and oh boy what a day that was! We bought our train tickets no problem and got on what we thought was the right train. After being on that train for a little while to ticket man came around to check our tickets. Turns out that wasn’t the right train, it was the high speed train which costs quite a bit more. He gave us the option to either pay 70 euro more per person or get off in Rotterdam. My mom was about to pay until the lady sitting behind her offered to help us find the right train in Rotterdam. The lady was so nice and helpful. She was originally from Rotterdam and her husband from Paris so they rode the high speed train pretty often. We got on the right train no problem and then almost missed the Amsterdam stop because I didn’t recognize it… oops!

Thanks for nothing Mr. Train man..

When we finally arrived in Amsterdam we decided to do a canal tour ride that allowed us to hop on and off of the boat all day long. We first went to the Anne Frank museum but the line was really long so we decide to just wander. We went in a few shops and ate authentic hot dogs which tasted so much better than American hot dogs. Then we rode the boat to the Van Gough museum. It was interesting but it was the sort of thing were if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, unless you really love Van Gough I guess. I also was sad when I found out they didn’t have starry night and that it in a museum in New York. We left the museum and ate soft serve ice cream that was so good and then went into a diamond place. We were able to see the Queen of England’s crown that had giant diamonds.

Needless to say I couldn’t afford any of them. Then the second mishap of the day occurred when we were going to get back on the boat. An old lady that worked for the boat company told us the boat left from a different spot in 2 minutes so we ran down the streets of Amsterdam as fast as we could and made the boat but then the boat didn’t even leave till 15 minutes later. We were so out of breathe it was hilarious. Hungry and tired we made our way back towards the train station and decided to have dinner at the largest Chinese food restaurant in Europe called the Sea Palace. It’s a floating restaurant on the canal. The food was good and all of the Chinese business people around us were very drunk so we had a good time laughing at them.

Sunday we went to a flea market and hung out in Amsterdam. I was able to see a lot of the city that I hadn’t yet seen. Tuesday we made a trip to Bruges. I wanted to climb the bell tour and go to a brewery. Turns out the bell tour was closed for construction and we arrived at the brewery too late to go on a tour. I was kind of sad but we made the most of it and saw the city and then ate fish and chips at a little restaurant with a nice view of the bell tour.

It was a good day and I loved having my mom visit me. Remembering our fun times together makes me miss her. I’m glad she was able to come!



Love Her!