Bruges

Our next day trip took us to Bruges - a beautiful city with old houses and canals about 100 km west of Antwerp.

Its pretty touristy but the day we went it was not too crowded

We took a city tour by boat

After the canal cruise it was time to look for a place for lunch

Well - of course in Belgium one can always get french fries and a beer for the adults

 And then for desert some waffles

Back in Antwerp we stopped for some more balanced dinner at a Chinese restaurant near the train station

Everybody was happy

The noodles were handmade as rhiis little video clip by Mia shows

Waterloo and Brussels

After a nice breakfast in our hotel we walked to the central station in Antwerp to catch a train to Waterloo to see a friend of Ji that used to live in Heidelberg but had moved to Belgium a few months ago.
We didn't have to change but it was a slow local train - a stoptrain - that stopped at every station

We got dropped at the main attraction in Waterloo - an interactive museum about the battle  - while Ji's friend had to run some errands. She didn't want to watch the exhibition multiple times.

The exhibition in an underground complex was very well done. It covered the history leading to the battle and it"s aftermath and many details about the soldier's life and experience - including of course the suffering .
We could have spent many hours in the exhibit which had an audio guide with more than 100 stories but had to leave after one hour to meet our friend.
Before we left we climbed an big mound that was build to commemorate the battle

A good opportunity to use our selfie stick for the first tme

Time to rest a litle

After all the exercise  we got invited for coffee and cake
We had a great strawberry cake and Mia played with Ophelia who she knows from Heodelberg

On the way back we stopped in Brussels for some quick sight seeing and a Belgian waffles

The grand place is the center of Brussles

On the way back the central station in Antwerp looked beautiful at night

Antwerp. Belgium

After our stop in Cologne we drove about two hours to Antwerp - the second biggest city in Belgium not too far from the dutch border and the North sea. We had found a nice in walking distance from the Old town which we made the base for our short vacation.
The hotel was right by an older part of the port with yachts, an art museum and fancy restaurants in former warehouses

The old town with the Grote Markt was a 20 minute walk away 

It was windy and cool - so some famous Belgian french fries made a good snack

Then we walked towards the central station to get some tickets for the next day

The station from the late 1800 hundreds was mentioned in the travel guides and was very impressive

The station was expanded 30 years ago so that trains can arrive at four different levels and through trains can continue north in a tunnel towards Amsterdam

Carnival Parade in Wahn

Like in the years before we drove to Cologne to watch a carnival parade - this time only the small one in Wahn. On the drive up north every other car had the yellow Dutch license plate and a box for skies on the roof. Apparently some school vacation just ended and many families were returning to the Netherlands after a ski vacation in Austria or Switzerland

Like in the years before we also stopped halfway in Montabauer at an outlet mall  with many shoes stores - didn't find anything for Mia though

The parade in Wahn was pretty crowded. There were more than 60 floats and it lasted more that two hours

A famous TV show host that lives nearby had is own float

After the parade we went to see cousin Barbara for dinner who moved to Bonn about half a year ago - found a nice place not too far from the Rhine an old town where Barbara now has an apartment