Antwerp station was stunning. Built at the end of the nineteenth century it is well known as one of the world’s most magnificent railway stations. Skateboarders and children on scooters enjoyed the polished floors without apparently upsetting travellers.
What contrast to the Radisson hotel opposite!
The zoo is right next door and there were efforts to green the city with wildflowers right outside.
The area around the station was thronged with people from outside Europe. They looked poor, harassed and tired.
I caught a tram towards my accommodation between the Zuid and Harmonie areas. The main street was being dug up. The Frankrijklei boulevard which becomes Britselei and Amerikalei (and to the north, the Italiëlei) was simply huge. Besides the tram lanes in both directions there was space each side for two lanes of traffic, bike lanes and separate streets for residential access and parking. I wondered where this street could have led that it needed so much space. Now, despite or perhaps because it was Saturday it seemed half deserted.
Antwerp was evidently also a cycling city, with bike lanes though different and not quite as ubiquitous as in the Netherlands. I wished for the umpteenth time I could bike to my host. I had chosen it based on proximity to the evening milonga. Her house was immaculate. She was away and evidently much smaller than me when I tried the bike she had said I could borrow. I went more or less straight out again to find the afternoon practica.
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