As is our custom upon reaching an oasis of non-campground-itude, we slept soundly until about 0900, waking only to fix ourselves a gargantuan breakfast of müesli and yogourt and cheese and bread. Bart's friend Niels treated us to breakfast and a quick tour of Antwerpen's more historic districts - the train station has recently completed nearly a decade of renovations, and the old part boasts a number of beautiful cathedrals...but you'll want to check our Picasa comments for more details on that!
We spent most of the afternoon walking around Antwerp; it seems the city has become a sort of mecca for the nouveau riche, as evidenced by the preponderance of high-end boutiques in certain parts. At the same time, it is large enough to be far more cosmopolitan than most of the villages and towns we've visited so far; Bart's apartment is situated in a district with large Turkish and Muslim populations.
We still haven't tested the camping stove; several of the campgrounds we've encountered so far have kitchens, and we've been busy enough getting into the whole cycling routine that working out the minutiae of different petrol types and single-burner stove fuel pumps has been shoved way down the priority list. That said, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to use Bart's stove, which we dutifully employed to concoct a delicious repast of pasta with asparagus, lemon, and chèvre - yum! Given Bart's open invitation to use his liquor stash as we saw fit, we generously supplemented this with Guinness and wine. (Eventually, I suppose we'll have to suck it up and try out the stove.)
Later on, we headed over to meet some of Bart's friends at the local bar; we shared some stories from our trip so far over half-pints of De Koninck and other such beer tastiness. (Did we mention that? They don't seem to believe in full pints here - as they put it: Belgians don't drink a lot of beer, but they drink good beer.) We were supposed to meet up with Niels, but just missed him due to the slightly overextended nap we took beforehand.
Not an overly jam-packed day, but we need the rest - it's off to Brugge tomorrow!