Back in Belgium for the day

Geel en wit, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Four countries in five days this week, so after Spain on Monday and Tuesday and England yesterday, I find myself in Belgium today, visiting my colleagues in the Antwerp office for the first time. We had a very pleasant meeting, a club sandwich and a couple of cups of very nice tasty coffee, served very politely before it was time to go and I was brought to Borchem Station, ready to go home. There is a train to Amsterdam every hour at 26 past the hour, except the 14.00 hour... meaning I have an hour a a half to kill... how typical. It took over 3 hours to travel the 160 kms (100 miles) here this morning, I wonder how long it will take to get back... Going back to the Michael Palin discussion, travelling by train can be great, but sometimes it can be unbelievably slow.

Not much to do in Borchem so I took the first train back to Antwerpen Centraal, which has just been renovated... a very beautiful Victorian station building, with tracks coming in now on four levels. Local train at ground level, the international trains four levels below.

Having taken my camera with me to Spain and England and not having taken a single photo, I left it behind today when I had teh chance to take some nice photos of this historical city, although being cold and grey, it cannot really be seen at its best today.

Being in Belgium today reminds me of my last trip here with my friend G when we went to see Marc Almond together in Blankenberge on the coast, on this beautiful summer's day. A lot has happened since then and I am looking forward to seeing G and C again this weekend when we go to see our hero Marc Almond again, this time in Paradiso in Amsterdam.