Euro Trip 2010: Road Trip to Antwerp

On my first day in Belgium, I had gone with the rest of my colleagues on a road trip around Brussels and we first traveled into the nearby city of Leuven.  And after that short visit as the rain started to fall down, we have thought of extending our road trip to Antwerp to the north of Brussels and near the border of Netherlands.

From Leuven, we took a long turn going east on E314 and connecting on E313 going northward into Antwerp. Going into Antwerp was quite a challenge as there were a lot of roads to pass through to actually get into the center.  Entering the city, we pass by its streets where its trams pass through. As we made our way into the city, I have noticed that it seemed that Antwerp residents are of different cultures, many of which are of middle eastern origin.

 

We have set our GPS to take us to Antwerp's Central Train Station and we parked ourselves nearby.  The Train station definitely defines the city with cobbled streets heading towards it while trees line up both sides of the street.  The central train station had a huge bricked facade and an arched entry way.

Inside the station, it was beautifully crafted as it was outside but then at one side of the station is the modern section of the station with its arched steel and glass structure. The station is huge that it had multiple levels where on ground level seems to be for the intercity trains and on lower levels is the concourse levels for a number of metro lines.

 

After a short stay in the Central Station, we decided on walking around through the city's main shopping street of the Meir.  It was about 1 kilometer long of beautiful buildings that houses different branded shops of clothes, shoes, and the countries famous Belgian waffles.  It is in one of it's where I've tasted my very first Belgian waffle for 2 Euros.  Along this shopping street, we have noticed this stone sculpture of a hand.  Apparently, Antwerp's name meant "hand thrown".

Then we went forward past the shopping street into the city's old town center where we are guided by the sight of this distinctive clock tower.  As we near the town center, we reached this plaza where a statue stands in the center.  It was the statue of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Antwerp's son and a prolific Flemish Baroque painter.  And from here as we took our photos, some other tourists requested our group to join them in their photo with the statue.

The clock tower that marks the town center is the tower of the Church of Our Lady.  The church had this very artistic facade with a lot of statuettes on its main archway.  A statue of the Lady carrying the little Child Jesus stand by the doors of the Church along with our saints that guard the archway. While at the plaza in front of the church lie a granite tablet dedicated to the famous characters of Nello and his dog Patrasche from an 1872 novel by Marie Louise de la Ramée, 'A Dog of Flanders'.

 

 

A few steps away from The Church of Our Lady is the town's old market known as its Grote Markt.  The Grote Markt is surrounded by these narrow buildings with tall windows and pointed rooftops and cobbled grounds.

Walking further to the riverside, we reached this castle structure by the riverbanks, the Het Steen Castle (The Stone Castle).  And by the entry way of the castle stood this statue of a giant with two men.  At first we thought that it looks to depict the story of Gulliver's Travel, but then we later learned that it depicts the story of the giant Antigoon who guarded the river and tolled anyone who want to cross the river.  Anyone who refused will have their hands cut off an thrown to the river and eventually the giant wall slain by Brabo and his hands cut off and also thrown to the river.  And so Antwerp got his name as it literally meant 'hands thrown' in Dutch.

It was quite a long day of walking long around this beautiful city and very much worth it.