A message came in late last night indicating that KLM's 6:00 a.m. flight to Amsterdam was delayed until 8:00. Good; two more hours of sleep. The flight actually left closer to 9:00 (1), with arrival in Amsterdam about 11:00. Luckily, there are hourly through trains to Antwerp on the :43. Our train tickets were valid for any train today, but none were shown on the departure board. The helpful man at the ticket counter told us (in English) that they were all cancelled today due to rail construction. He printed out an alternate 3-connection route, which he explained to us in Dutch.
Arriving in the border town of Roosendal after changing trains in Rotterdam, we discovered that the Belgian train from here to Antwerp was cancelled (2). An hour later, a train with a big "B" on the side pulled in. I mustered my best Dutch accent to ask the conductor "Antwerp, ja?" He replied in perfect English: "Yes, sir. This is the train to Antwerp." The train proceeded through the rain to the beautiful art-deco railway station in Antwerp. A short stroll past many diamond shops brought us to the hotel (3).
While my daughter caught up on jet lag, I had coffee with a friend who had come up from Paris to join us at the Nightwish concert. In the tri-level train station, my friend pointed to an old train on the upper track level, which she thought must be a railway museum. No, that was the train from Roosendal.
After dinner at an Argentine steak house, we took the metro to the concert venue (4). During the concert, I said to my daughter that Floor Jansen, Nightwish's lead singer, never sounded so good; "first show of the tour," my daughter replied. Floor seemed to enjoy speaking to the audience in her native Dutch (5).
At the train station the next morning, a railway official approached my daughter. Was there something wrong? (We had valid tickets.) He was simply admiring her denim vest with patches from a wide variety of metal bands. "You should come back for the Grasspop musical festival next summer" he said.
(1) Last night's flight to Leeds has been diverted to Newcastle due to heavy fog in Leeds. The morning flight crew therefore had to get from Leeds to Newcastle overland and then fly the empty plane back to Leeds to pick up the passengers.
(2) My daughter quipped that the delays and cancellations made her feel at home; she lives in New York and travels daily on the subway.
(3) A large percentage of the world's diamonds are cut and/or otherwise processed in Antwerp.
(4) As with concerts in Brussels, the concert tickets in Antwerp includes a free ride on the city's public transit.
(5) Antwerp is in the Dutch-speaking (Flemish) region of Belgium. The other region (Wollonia) is French-speaking. The band's flute and pipe player (Troy) said that, while he spoke some French, he would use English here in Antwerp, to which the crowd cheered.
Antwerp Railway Station
Nightwish (photo by my daughter)
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