Antwerp

Before going to Antwerp, I checked weather.com and it appeared it was going to be a warm 40 degrees. Because that's the warmest its been since I arrived, I thought it was actually going to feel warmer. Turns out it has been one of the coldest!



The name Antwerp comes from a mythical legend. Apparently a giant named Anitgoon charged a toll to cross the river into Antwerp. Anyone who didn't want to pay the toll would have his or her hand chopped off. So one day, Brabo fought Antigoon and defeated him, throwing the giant's own hand into the river. So the word Antwerp comes from the Dutch word for throw (wearpan) and the old English of hand, but Antwerpen was later shortened to Antwerp.

Antwerp is the second largest city in Belgium and is one of the largest ports in Europe as well as a large business in selling diamonds. It is the capitol of the Flemish speaking country. From the train station, our walking tour took us around the diamond district past many beautiful sparking diamond rings. From there we walked down the very large Meir Straat which is the shopping street. I counted at least three H and Ms and some very expensive stores. By chance, we walked into Urban Outfitters and came across a very beautiful mall. Walking through some stores was nice because it was warm, but we didn't come there to shop.



We continued on the walking tour until we reached Rubenshuis or Pieter Paul Rubens House. Rubens was a painter and architect from Italy who came to Antwerp in 1610. His house was typical of a house around this time and throughout the house there were both paintings he had done and ones he admired. It was absolutely beautiful and had just the right amount of art and rooms to showcase to keep my entertained and engaged. We ended the tour in his garden which had a huge statue of Hercules.



Next we set out for lunch. We found this hippie-esque place and thought it looked good so we went in. While it was probably a little too expensive for lunch, it was a unique place with toasted sandwiches, good soup, and a huge selection of tea. I got Bruschetta with some cheese, tomatoes, and a little salad. It was pretty good and filling.




After refueling ourselves, we set off on our journey towards the Grote Market. Before we got there, we visited a few churches.




Sint-Carolus Borromeo Church:




The Sint-Carolus Borromeo Church was my favorite church on this trip! It was beautiful inside with lots of light being let through from the windows. I much prefer churches with lots of light rather than dark that are gloomy and drafty. I don't know much about this church so I'll just let the pictures above give you a snippet of what it was like.




After looking at churches, we went though the Grote Plaza and headed towards the river. Once we got there we saw there was a huge ferris wheel with almost no one on it. We checked out the prices and it was 5.50 each so we decided to skip the ferris wheel. We checked out the Castle Steen which was probably the most unimpressive castle I've seen.

Next to the Steen though, they were advertising a movie by lifting people in a sports car and then dropping it. There was a bungee of course.









The Antwerp Cathedral (aka Cathedral of our Lady) is the largest Gothic church in the Low Countries. Unlike a lot of the churches we have visited so far, this one was bright and uplifting. We actually went to mass in support of Emily and her coworker Olivia (from England) and even though it was entirely in Dutch, we still enjoyed the experience. One thing I noticed however was that the congregation was old. We were the youngest attendants by 40 years. It will be interested to see what happens to old churches like the Antwerp Cathedral when all their members literally die out. Young people don't tend to go to church and I think people are becoming less reliant on the church.




My favorite part of the day was eating CHOCOLATE!! People keep going on and on about Beglian chocolate, but you can't really explain it! I'll instead let the pictures do the explaining.


The place we went to specialized in chocolate so we all got hot chocolate or milkshakes and Lindsay and I split a fondue plate with fruits, nuts, and some very very good milk chocolate. I strongly believe chocolate can cure almost anything.



We ended the trip was having some "Chinese" food in "China Town". We're not sure where China Town was but we found a place that was alright. My hot and sour soup kinda tasted like BBQ but I liked their fried rice and Chinese Tea. It was also freezing in the building so that wasn't very comfortable.

We ended up getting home at around 8:30 so we went out to a couple bars and then walked home at 1:30 and arrived home at 2:30. I def got my exercise that day!