Belgium, France and Holland

This morning we arrived at Antwerp Belgium where we docked near the old part of the city. After an orientation meeting with our cruise director, Martin, Doug and I signed up for a dart tournament. The game was around the board, so we had to hit a 1, then 2, 3, etc. From the 9 teams that played, we came in second. The game was filled with laughter as most players were not experienced in darts. Luckily there was a backdrop or there would have been dart holes everywhere.
After lunch, we gathered our "whisper" devices, and jackets for our afternoon guided tour of Antwerp. Miek led us away from the dock, through a yellow diamond shaped gangplank, and around the stone castle to the large green statue of a giant, named Lange Wapper, He is a trickster that tormented drunks, stole the baby's milk and generally bullied the townspeople. The people learned that Lange Wapper didn't like the Virgin Mary, so they put up statues of Mary everywhere and Lange Wapper fled the town for good.
As we wound through the old part of Antwerp with its stone buildings and churches, we did indeed see statues of Mary everywhere. The buildings were ornate and the rooftops are decorated with carved figures and gold leaf. The symbols of various guilds, such as the weaving guild, are seen on the fronts of buildings as a way of advertising the trades.
In front of the ornate city hall is a large statue of Silvius Brabo, a soldier , who killed the giant who demanded money from people wanting to cross the river using the bridge. If they couldn't pay, he'd cut off their hand. Brabo fought the giant, killed him and threw his hand away. This is how Antwerp got its name, from a Dutch word meaning hand throwing.
Then I visited a Belgium lace store where the items are handmade using fine thread on individual bobbins that are woven into intricate patterns. The ladies explained that the family had the lace store for 150 years and 4 generations of lady lacemakers. I bought a couple of pieces of lace to take home along with a postcard that showed how they make it.
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