Tripmates - Karthik, Prashaanth, Narasimman, Janoo
One country visited in a day of weekend. Antwerp is a very popular port city in Belgium, next to Brussels. Antwerp is also known as the Diamond industry of the planet. Being an ancient port city, Antwerp has prominent landmarks and monuments to see. We planned a day long walk tour at Antwerp.
Diamond market - just get out on the left side of Antwerp Central station and you are in Diamond district. Lots of shops selling ornaments with diamonds. We spent few mins clicking photos and moving on ... :)
Marvelous collection of paintings at Antwerp. We paid 8 Euros per person for entrance and they have lockers for us to put our bags. This is a massive collection of amazing painting by Rubens in his house. it takes more than 1 hour to enjoy the paintings. You don't have to be an art lover to appreciate the works of Rubens and to visit his house is a must. There is a visitor center where tickets are purchased and entrance to the house is just across the street. Photography is allowed. We thoroughly enjoyed each of the paintings along with the guide book they give to us in entrance.
River Scheldt - Steenplein
Steen Castle
Once we came out of Rubens House, we jumped into The Chocolate Line - Dominique Persoone. Very costly .. but WOW.... WOW ... .WOW. Great collection of chocolates and they are just amazing. The collection includes and not limited to simple and exotic fruits, chillies and much more! We tried few and it was not at all disappointing. Must visit in Antwerp for chocs !
Cathedral of Our Lady, Groenplaats - One of the important landmarks in Antwerpen. We did a walk tour and reached here from Ruebenshius. The church has a very tall tower, which you can site from most of the places in Antwerp. We did not enter it as it was Sunday morning and the services were on.
We then entered a pastry shop, so well decorated to attract people to eat ! It would have been a sin to walk by without entering the place. Delicious cookies, pastries, cakes and what not !! Yummmmmmyyyyy to the core !
Meir - Heart of Antwerp. We did a walking day tour and this is the place and landmark for all shopping - all brands of the world. The two identical towers are the landmark for this place.
Steen Castle is at Steenplein by the river Scheldt. Nice castle on the river front. A very good place to take photographs and enjoy the river front. This is very close to Steenplein. We spent close to 30mins here. The last remaining part of Antwerp's old fort. Beautiful outside but nothing really to see on the inside. Then, we took boating from there to the other side of the river Scheldt.
As we took the free ride across river Scheldt, the skyline of Antwerp was visible. It was amazing to see among dark clouds, partial sunshine. There are quite a bit of monuments and museums to see by the river front; MAS - Museum aan de Stroom,
Grote Markt - The old architectural beauty at Grote Markt van Antwerpen is a WoW !! The square infront of this building gives a great space to view this building. The place has lot of small eateries and restaurants around to spend time. MUST VISIT in Antwerp !
Brabo - An important landmark in Antwerp - Grote Markt van Antwerpen. The Brabo statue with the giant's hand. Do not miss this when you visit Grote Markt van Antwerpen.
It was almost evening and time for us to catch the bus back to Amsterdam. We had some Belgian Fries and local flavours, walked back briskly on time to catch the bus.
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