Jeff and Emily's European Adventure: Antwerp, Belgium

THIS is Antwerp!

Before it was too late, we really felt that we should visit our bordering town of Antwerp, Belgium. Living in Eindhoven, we were much closer to Antwerp than we were Amsterdam. Antwerp is a lovely old city that I had visited and had fond memories of from my days at Saturn. Now that we had spent a year traveling all over Europe, Antwerp seemed 'normal' to us :)

So, in addition to a 'bucket list' type approach to traveling, Jeff also found that there was a car show in Antwerp this weekend. Perfect! Since we were basically just going down after work on Friday and returning Sunday, we thought that we should stay in the city center and maximize our time. What is more central than a ship on the water directly in the old port?

Our 'boatel' was fantastic. Paula and I had stayed in something similar back in the day and I wanted to have that experience again. Since staying on the boatel was about the same as a nice hotel, why not?

The Captain was great! He lives and works on board. Most of the customers are what I would call novelty stays. Of course, that includes us!

Silvius Brabo pictured here is a mythical Roman soldier who killed a giant who was known to cut off the hand of people who did not pay the fare to cross a bridge. By killing this giant, Silvius was named Brabant (this is what Wikipedia says). Brabant is the name of the area of Belgium where Antwerp is and North Brabant is the county, basically, where Eindhoven is in the Netherlands. Antwerp owes its own city name to Silvius as well since Antwerp literally means "hand throwing". I would say these people take their myths a little too literally.

Like Brugges, Antwerp's gables are predominantly stepped. I found the gold statues a bit reminiscent of the Charles Bridge in Prague with its pollution blackened statues holding or somehow incorporating golden objects. This night, Jeff and I had one of our most memorable dinners. We walked to a restaurant recommended to us by our boatel captain and it was fabulous. We sat at the last table for two, ordered a Scotch and a Prosecco and just talked. I'm not sure what we talked about, but probably travel, past and future.

The next day we were off to the car show. Of course, Jeff will have a full post dedicated to the many cars that he has taken pictures of from across the street in his kitchen office, but these I will include with Antwerp.