Diamond and Dim Sum

Day 4 – Tuesday - Antwerp

Staying at the Diamond Hotel in Antwerp. Straight out the window, a hodge-podge of residential windows and curtains and buildings and rooftops in dull browns. Passers-by across the street six floors below are men with long, uncut sideburns, dressed in black trousers, white shirts and top hats; and modestly-dressed women wearing wigs, pushing baby strollers and holding hands of even more children. Leaning further out the window, directly below, every five minutes a subway train appears briefly, then disappears down a tunnel. A macabre discovery on the ledge outside the window: a hundred years of cigarette butts (including an overflowing ashtray) slowly decomposing, all turned the same brown color as a smoker’s lungs.


We are in Antwerp to visit my companion’s son Nathan and his long-time girlfriend Goshia, and hopefully see their new apartment they are in the process of remodeling. Joining us is Goshia’s cousin Roman [say: ROW-man] who lives near The Haag, but is here working on the new apartment. We enjoy the evening and dim sum at an outside table at Lucy Chang’s, across from a statue of Neptune.

Traffic and driving is crazy in Antwerp, even for a native-born son. I would never have found my way back to the hotel.