Many surprises in Antwerpen today! First the castle right near the dock, then the walking tour of this beautiful old city, which was totally unexpected! In my mind Antwerp was visualized as a huge port which we passed by last night on our way to the dock. However, there is much, much more to this Belgian city which makes us consider a second visit in the future. The huge market square, bordered by 16th-17th century buildings which appear to combine architectural styles from Netherlands, Germany, and France, the laid back cafe-goers, the incredible Gothic cathedral with Rubens paintings, the Belgian chocolatiers, and the Plantin-Malteus (sp??) museum of printing and book binding - all combined to make this one of the highlights of our trip.
Our city guide was superb. She had vast knowledge of the cathedral's Rubens collection of paintings, and her presentation was a mini-lesson in Art History. In addition she pointed out good restaurants, the market hall, small exclusive chocolatiers, and even the scarce public toilets! We had time on our own in the afternoon to wander, and Robin and Edla hit paydirt at the printing museum which was in a 1600's elegant home with 19 Rubens sketches and portraits among the collection. Bryant and I got our Chinese fix when I purchased a couple of scarves from a Chinese shopkeeper from Beijing, and shared a few words in Mandarin and French about his brothers who still live in Beijing.
The surprise continued when a couple of passengers were not on the ship when we set sail for Ghent around 8:30 pm.....we hope they are on a bus to that city as I write!
The photos in this post include: castle near the canal, brick market hall, buildings surrounding the market square (2 photos), and a small cafe where B and I had a beer this afternoon.
More photos in a second post.
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