Some of the photo's in this post are large, if it looks like they are cut off on one side, just click on them to see them full screen.

So! We've done everything there is to do in Utrecht, plus a little more:

Audrey, presenting to her peers!! She did great!

Took a canal tour - beautiful! Some of the canals used to be moats for defence, the nice hill to the left use to hold all the cannons... A lot of history here - an intimidating amount!

We had a dinner at the conference - when we got there we were told "You haven't specified, so you are getting the vegetarian option". We were a bit sad, until it turned out the other option was vegan... I kept my past animal-experimentation very, very quiet...

Antwerp!! A stunning 2 hour train ride later, this is the most amazing train station. It has 4 levels that trains can arrive on, incredible.

This is the view from outside the train station - there was a carnival on? Great mix of old and new we reckon.

At this point we trammed to our tiny hostel. It's a great place, a tiny, extremely hospitable place. Met some of the other people staying - very nice! Pretty sure that's Bill f***ing Murray to the right there.

HOLY CRAP

There's a centuries-old church on every corner of the main city, why do they need so many!?

This guy stands there and turns a wheel, and his machine plays music. It's wonderful.

What a beautiful water feature...

Hold on, he holding a severed hand!?

IS THAT A HEAD???

WTF!! There's the rest of him!!!!

Turns out this is the tale of how Antwerp (Hand Wearpan - to throw a hand) got it's name! This dude severed the hand and head of a giant who wanted to raise taxes!

I think when stuff is old enough, it starts getting real weird... 

This is the best bit so far, for a bit of a strange reason.

This is a picture from - "leeuw van vlaanderen" - a pub Audrey and I dropped in to for a drink before we went back to the hostel. It was a bit strange... There were two old guys drinking in one corner, the bartender, and two other guys clapping each other on the back every ten seconds at the bar (one pictured!). We came in, sat down - and the bar tender came and put both hands on the table, widespread, and, well, glared at us. Audrey and I are not good at reading faces - we ordered our beer! Things got weirder... The music was some marching tune that everyone occasionally sang to, think what the Germans sing in ever WW2 movie ever made... Then a guy came right up to us, and extended his hand and smiled (warmly?), he shook my hand first, then Audrey's, said something not in English and went back to his table. Did I mention every old man there was the severely intoxicated of a career drinker? They were thoroughly drunk. Then I noticed that arch - to the right of the woman in the picture? - was covered in anti-immigration, anti-islam, anti-everyonebutwhitepeople stickers. The kind usually reserved for the back of large trucks in the deep, deep south.We'd show you, but that would've attracted attention (more attention than bringing Audrey to a pub like this?) - and we were finally picking up a bit of a strange vibe.

Turns out - Leeuw van Vlaanderen is a very well known white nationalist, white power pub and meeting place, seriously, it's nickname is de Beast! Google it! I literally brought Audrey to a white power club. We finished our beers (quickly) and fled (keep the change!). A thrilling (chilling!) experience!

About to do another post about what we did today as well...