Antwerpen, Belgium

 
28 February 2016
Just because today was sunny (that's very rare here), we hurriedly decided we must go somewhere. The choices were between Maastricht and Antwerpen. Since it's already 9 am, and to reach Maastricht we need 3 hours, so the winner was Antwerpen. It took only 1 hour (by Thallys train) or 1 hour 50 minutes by NS train.


The train went from Den Haag Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal, then we must change the train to Antwerpen. The train arrived on time and it was full, but finally we can manage to get seats. It had 2 stops, Dordrecht and Roosendaal, before reaching Antwerpen Station.



We arrived at Antwerpen Centraal Station at 12.15 pm. The building was really amazing, from every perspective. It was really huge, it had 3 stories. It was beautifully decorated with Neo Gothic Style, it had a ornate roof and huge decorated glass windows. It was really convenient, it had everything we need, the tourist information, supermarket, small restaurants with many kinds of food - European, Asian, Middle East food. It has a superb location, we can reach the attractions from here by walking. No wonder, it is one of the city's most famous landmarks.

Stepped out from the Centraal Station, we will find shopping street with lots of people. And we can easily spot that there are a lots of diamond shops. Antwerpen is famous for its diamond craft, since Lodewyk van Berken, one of the jewelers in Belgium, invented a new diamond polishing tool. That's made Antwerpen become a famous place for diamond trade for centuries. Its Diamond District is the biggest in the world.

Just follow the street, then we will arrive at The Meir. It is a pedestrian shopping street. All the major brands are here. The buildings, which were build in the sixteenth century, were still in very good condition. We can see the Royal Palace, the Stadsfeestzaal, the Osterrienth house. The Meir is a must visit place even if we are not buying anything. It is one of the most important shopping street in Antwerpen.



Continue walking, we finally reached the Cathedral of Our Lady. It is one of the finest gothic building in Europe. Both of its exterior and interior are impressive. With the beautiful Last Supper, stained glass by Nicolas Rombouts.


Not far from the Cathedral, there's the Grote Markt. A big square with its famous Brabo Fountain, in the middle. Silvius Brabo is a mythical Roman soldier who is said to have killed a giant who asked money from people who wanted to pass the bridge over the river Scheldt. When they didn't want to or couldn't pay, he cut off their hand and threw it in the river. Because of this Brabo also removed the hand of the giant, and threw it into the river. And this story also used to explain the name Antwerp, which means hand throwing (source: wikipedia).


The Grote Markt is sorrounded with beautiful buildings. One of the most important building is the Stadhuis / City Hall. This 16th century building has Renaissance Style and become an UNESCO's World Heritage. Beside the Stadhuis, we can see the guild houses. The houses were designed to express power and wealth, that's why all the building facade are so beautiful.

We were walking further toward the river. We climbed the bridge and see the view of River Scheldt. Antwerpen is a Belgium's port city. In this area, we can also visit the Steen Castle. It is a medieval fortress and it is the oldest building in Antwerpen. Now it is become a meeting place, where we can have a snack and warm drink. It is good especially after spending some times out in the cold winter weather.



From here, we just went back following the same route to Centraal Station. Had a quick snack at Mc Donald and bought some breads for our dinner in the train.