We cruised all afternoon, evening and through the night to get to Belgium’s second largest city, “Antwerpen” in Belgian Dutch. Antwerp is the country’s second largest city and, being located in the northern (i.e. Flemish) half of the country, is mostly Dutch speaking. While Amsterdam and Antwerp share a language, they are quite different cities. Both are major ports but Antwerp is the second largest in Europe, behind only Rotterdam. Antwerp is on the Rhine River, hence higher in elevation than below-sea-level Amsterdam, but this tidal area of the Rhine rises and falls 18 feet with these tides.
Left: We are lifted up by lock to the Rhine River. Right: Our ship docked adjacent to the city center.
The architecture and ambience of the two cities are quite different, as you will notice in the photos I will be sharing. Well, maybe you can’t discern the ambience from the pictures, but trust me on this.
We had a full day in Antwerp. For the morning we toured with a guided group, ending at the city’s magnificent cathedral, with its large Ruben paintings. We returned to the Monarch Empress to warm up (yes, it was cold) then the set out to wander on our own during the afternoon.
Our ship docked next to the Antwerp city castle, the lower sections being 1000 years old. Right: We passed several remnant sections of the old city wall.
For once, I’ll keep my promise to minimize the words and offer more pictures. This way I won’t have to explain much of what we saw. Trust me that the sights were enjoyable viewing.
The main city square, the groenplaats. On the east is the city hall, with other historic buildings on the other three sides. Germans V-1’s caused much destruction during WW II but much was spared and damaged areas rebuilt. American general Armstrong has a statue by the castle in recognition of his brigade’s efforts to protect the city during the attacks.
Top left: The cathedral spire. Top right: Hands are a city theme, based on a legend of a Roman severing the hand (and head) of the local river monster. Bottom left: A “drunkard’s lock”, so designed to aid an intoxicated citizen in getting his key into his dwelling door. Bottom right: Our tour included a walk through a medieval maze of apartments.
Street scenes: Top left: We passed a half dozen Madonnas with street lights beneath. It seems that putting (at one’s own expense) a lamp outside one’s dwelling would indicate enough wealth to invite taxing the occupant. Adding the Madonna made it a religious artifact and, hence, tax exempt. Lower right: A marker for the Way of St James Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, an 1100 mile walk to northwest Spain.
The impressive buildings on street corners.
More street scenes: Antwerp is the world’s largest center of the diamond trade. We passed perhaps thirty diamond and jewelry shops in a three block stretch. There also were scores of restaurants of all types in the area, including six McDonalds on a half mile stretch.
The city’s Cathedral of Our Lady. Ruled by the Spanish for several centuries, the town was almost exclusively Catholic. This history is why the Dutch speaking area of Belgium is separate from the Netherlands, with its Calvinist and republican roots. With the decline of formal religion in Northern Europe and with the on-going incompatibility between Dutch speaking Flanders and French-speaking southern Belgium, one wonders if Flanders and Holland would now be a better fit. It once took over 600 days after an election to assemble a coalition government. The citizens didn’t mind. There could be no tax increases during that stretch.
The pride of the cathedral is its paintings by Ruben. Details we noted included a partial solar eclipse and a scroll in three languages.
Antwerp’s train station is worth a visit by itself.
A few more scenes, from Belgian chocolate to Belgian waffles. We absolutely loved the waffle we purchased during our walk. Bikes are ubiquitous but the riders aren’t as aggressive as in Amsterdam. Back on the boat, we were entertained that evening with a Ditch Dixieland jazz group. A wonderful day ended with an excellent sous vide lamb shank dinner (for me; cod for Frances ) and the Dixieland jazz group as entertainment. Even the contingent from New Orleans found them talented and fun.
We’re off to Ghent tonight although Frances and I opted for the excursion to Bruges. We’ve been to both, but Ghent more recently. This time I doubt I’ll try to climb the Bruges’ bell tower.
