Belgium, here I come!

Europe » Belgium » Antwerp Province » Antwerp
May 19th 2006

Published: June 16th 2017

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01 Van Dyck

A statue of a well known painter.

Geo: 51.2439, 4.46397

This morning we checked out of our 19 bed dorm and headed to the train station. We caught the train to Antwerp. It only took and hour and a half. It was raining when we arrived and the thought of having to find our hostel in the rain with our packs didn't appeal, so we got a taxi. He only spoke dutch and expected us to understand, so we just nodded and he laughed (at us I'm sure). This hostel was nice and clean and only 8 of us in the room.

We caught the tram into town and walked around. Antwerp is well known for Peter Paul Rubens having lived and worked here about 500 years ago. We went to buy tickets for his house. The lady told us that there was no charge- great we thought, due to some of the rooms being closed off for renovations!! It was quite an impressive house. His studio was huge.

St Jacob's was next, this is where he is buried in his family's chapel. Also so some of his work here. Mozart also played at this church in 1765.

We continued walking around the quiet town, trying to

02 The courtyard

This is the view of Ruben's house from the courtyard.

make our way to the famous Antwerp Cathedral. We came to Grote Markt and the Town Hall. Where there are nicely decorated buildings. From here we could see the top of the cathedral. We walked around but did not have enough time to go in there today. We stopped at a chocolate shop. I got some mint chocolate- yes, finally I have been able to find something minty after 2 months!!!
Caught the tram back to the hostel and ate minty chocolate.

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