Antwerp

Matt and Denise and I planned a short trip to Bruges, Belgium during their week long visit to the Netherlands. The trip requires a transfer in Antwerp, so we walked around the town for a few hours before resuming the ride to Bruges.

Belgium: where mediocre pizza comes with rucola

I'd had an hour walk around Antwerp when I missed a connection between Gent and Amsterdam in November, but the only notable site I got to see is that train station, which is considered to be one of Europe's most beautiful. We did not have a time limit this time (train tickets on the intercity trains are good for an entire day, and do not have specific reserved seats), so we aimed to visit the main cathedral in town and a famous beer bar.

Antwerp Central Station

Before visiting Gent and Leuven in the past year, Belgium was not high on my list of countries to visit. I'm not sure where my subtle prejudice came from, but it was especially strong toward Antwerp, perhaps because of the city's phonetics (some combination of "ant" and "twerp"). Regardless, these prejudices were deeply misguided. Each visit to Belgian cities has revealed streets, cathedrals, and food that boggle the mind in their beauty. The historic center of Antwerp was as beautiful as Gent and Leuven, but in a slightly more imperial way.

On our way to the historic city center, we saw what we thought might be the main cathedral. Even after realizing that it wasn't the cathedral we were looking for, we stopped inside. It turned out to be Sint Jacobskerek (Saint James's Church), which is the Antwerp starting point for pilgrims traveling to the Santiago de Compostela. It felt like a bit of a beautiful cluttered mess inside, with paintings, furniture and sculptures crammed into small wings of the cathedral, and some rooms sealed off and covered with scaffolding. 

After leaving Sint Jacobskerk and following road signs to the city center, we turned around a corner and were greeted by Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady),one of the largest churches I've ever seen. It has the highest church tower in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (404 feet), and it has 86,000 feet of floor space. Its interior was as impressive as its metrics, with a special feature of a Peter Paul Rubens exhibition.  

After leaving the cathedral, we wandered further around the historic center, had some sandwiches at a small cafe, and (disappointingly) saw that the bar we had hoped to visit was closed (though we decided to return the next day on the way back from Bruges - see the previous post). And, after a few short hours, we hopped on the train for the hour ride to Bruges. 

Architecture in the historic city center