Antwerp and Paris

The mood was almost sombre as our cruise ended and all 162 passengers disembarked. Well not all as some were staying on for a few hours until it was time for their transfer to the airport.

Forty of us boarded two buses for our drive to Paris via Antwerp in Belgium; twenty per bus. Our bus had sixty seats and was brand new and we were congratulating ourselves on our luck until we discovered it was too long for several tunnels and bridges and we therefore had to make several detours leaving the Netherlands and entering Belgium.

As a consequence we were taken on a roundabout route to enter Antwerp and received the least attractive introduction to a city imaginable. For over thirty minutes we circled refineries giving us splendid views such as these...

When eventually we made it to the town square we found there is more to Antwerp than dreary industry...

No, I don't know what he is up to, either

We finally made it to our Paris hotel around 5.45pm. This is where we are staying...

We found a nearby Brasserie for dinner and afterwards wandered across to the courtyard of the Louvre Museum next door where it was still light at 9.40pm and the sun was getting low in the sky creating further photo opportunities...