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Antwerp sightseeing

A lot of people including myself prefer Antwerp over Brussels for many different reasons. Antwerp has diamonds, fashion, Rubens, shopping, food and many more. As well as I can speak Dutch here! Now, that doesn’t mean Brussels is not the place to go, it still is. I love the Grote Markt of Brussels, it’s one of a kind, it’s just that Antwerp is livelier and there are many things to see and do here.

For example, Blondine and I are planning to have ‘high tea’ in Antwerp—Hilton has nice high tea arrangements and we are thinking of visiting the Mode Museum (MoMu, fashion museum) and Diamond Museum as well. Now this is what I mean. Need to schedule this soon!

The triangular square with many cafe terraces in front of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal.

The Steen Castle along the Schelde River. The Maritime Museum is housed here as well.

A statue of Rubens on the Groeneplaats. If the Netherlands has Van Gogh and Rembrandt, Belgium has Rubens. Rubens was born in Antwerp and he lived here too.

This is the Grote Markt, officially the Centrum of Antwerp.

In the Grote Markt you will see many ‘guild houses’, they are typically Belgian with a touch of Dutch in it with the trapgevels (step gable) facade design. The Belgian version are prettier though because the facade has more fancy details.

The Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady) on the left, as well as on the right foto you can see the tower. The cathedral dates back to the 14th century.

In Antwerp you will see a lot of these corner building statues, most of them are religious statues of Mother Mary with Baby Jesus.

Lots of cozy cafe terraces in Antwerp!

Antwerp is quite famous for Hen Party and Night outs hence the girl dressed up as a super girl.

The Antwerp Train Station designed by architecht Van Bogaert.

I also noticed a number of girl groups out for Hens Party/Night in Antwerp and most of them are Dutch—oh yes, I can tell very much from the accent.

Anyway, Dutchman and I enjoyed our time in Antwerp. We walked around the old part of town, checked out the Steen Castle, the Groeneplaats, the Grote Markt and to end our day we had dinner in the Oude Koornmarkt.

I’ll be back soon!

Travel Period: May 2010
Destination: Antwerp, Belgium

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