Blogs from Lier, Antwerp Province, Belgium, Europe

Our first full biking day - we were pretty excited, but didn't get all our stuff together and ready to head out the door until 10:30am! Is so great to sleep in and not be on a schedule! We picked Lier to bike to - both for the distance (about 15 miles) and for the town's description. Our guide book Lier as a pretty little town, south-east of Antwerp that has a handsome collection of historic buildings and a 14th century watch tower. We found our way on our routed bike routes (04-08-10-80-81-61-63-11 to 89). We were delighted to find that the "hole in the wall" that leads us under the railroad drops us quickly out to bike route 04 and we were off! The first town we biked through was Mortsel - about 25,000 people ... read more

Having mostly just wandered around Antwerp on Thursday, we decided to go on daytrips from Antwerp on Friday and Saturday. Friday we went the 25 minutes by train to the small city of Mechelen (pop. 77,000), located halfway between Antwerp and Brussels. It was a nice city to visit (large Cathedral, several other impressive churches, picteresque Grote Markt (main square). Our day included a nice outdoor lunch on the Grote Markt, and a boat ride along the small river flowing through the city that afforded a close-up of the townscape. We also visited a small Holocaust Museum - Mechelen was the site that Belgian Jews were transported to Auschwitz from. Saturday was similiar, but the visit was to the smaller city of Lier (pop. 33,000) just 15 minutes by train from Antwerp. Being Saturday, much of ... read more