Our Belgium Adventure: Day Two (12 April)

We had a perfect start to the day at our B&B. With only the sound of intermittent bells in the air from the nearby Belfort tower, we were treated to a lovely morning view from our room
and from the breakfast area. Breakfast itself was a feast with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, orange juice, pastries, paté, cheese, jam, muesli, bread, buns, yogourt, and chocolate on offer. Of course, we didn't try everything, but it was all very tempting! The occupants of the three rooms (us, an Australian couple, and a French family of three) enjoyed breakfast while quiet classical music played in the background (our hosts thought of everything) before setting off for the day. Our first stop (at which we also ran into the French family) was Markt Square's Belfort. Bob and I like to joke that it's not a visit to Europe without paying for the privilege of climbing numerous tiny, winding, stone steps up something tall to see the view, so 366 steps up the narrowest passage ever and we reached the top of the Belfort. Forty-seven bells play at the top of the tower
and since we happened to reach the top just before noon, we were treated to a very dramatic sounding of bells as we lingered over the view.


From Markt Square, we walked over to the Burg (the adjoining smaller square) to peek inside Heiligbloed Basiliek (Church of the Holy Blood):
Although the vial of holy blood (two drops' worth) is only displayed on Fridays, the highly decorated interior of the church was definitely worth seeing. (I don't have any photos because there was a service going on while we were there and I felt a bit self-conscious about taking out the camera!) By this time, it was around 12:30 P.M. and although we had many other buildings and museums on our wish list of things to do, we were also planning to leave Brugge on the 3:00 P.M. train, so we decided to spend our last few hours doing what Brugge does best: taking in the ambiance of the streets. The windows on this house were lovely, as was the swan gracing this 1671 home.
"Look, another charming view!"
This was the most ornate home we encountered in Brugge;
even its front door was a marvel.
Actually, I took many photos of doors, for various reasons. For example, I liked the yelling face (complete with hands--very unusual!) over this one,
and I thought this doorbell and doorpull were fantastic.
Koningin Astridpark (Queen Astrid Park) was very pretty, with a picture-perfect family,
church, cast-iron bandstand, pond, and sculpture setting the classy tone of the greenspace.
We weren't exactly sure what was going on here, but it was definitely dramatic,
and we enjoyed the lively square over a snack and some cold drinks.
It was almost time to head back to our B&B to pick up our bag, but not before we made one last stop--we couldn't leave Brugge without buying some chocolate and Dumon ended up being a great place to do just that, since I was after artisanal chocolates (i.e. handmade and local) rather than chocolates from the numerous production-line chains all over Brugge. Dumon's exceedingly cute exterior
led the way to a huge selection of very reasonably priced chocolate.While we were choosing our chocolates, an English couple came in and told the woman working at the shop that another chocolate shop recommended that they visit Dumon. We were all stunned. I said that Dumon should put a sign in their window: "Other chocolate shops tell their customers to buy from us!" Anyway, armed with our box of scrummy (SCrumptious + yUMMY = scrummy; a word I often hear in London and which I like very much) chocolates, we took the 3:00 P.M. train to Antwerpen. During the 75-minute journey, we dug into our chocolates and were fully sugared by the time we arrived. Now, before I continue with the Antwerpen part of our day, I should give you a bit of background information, otherwise you might be confused as to why two people named Jan and Vera picked us up at Antwerpen's Berchem station. For this we have to go back to Vancouver in 2004: one very rainy day, I was waiting at a bus stop to go back to our apartment near Stanley Park. I noticed two people, clearly tourists, looking a bit confused over their map and asked if they needed help. It turned out that they wanted to go to Stanley Park and I told them that I lived very close to the park and would be happy to show them the way. We sat together on the bus and talked the whole time; it turned out that Vera and Jan were visiting Canada from Belgium and I quickly learned that they loved travelling and had been to many, many interesting places in their journeys thus far. I got off one stop earlier than I normally would have so that I could show them the entrance to the park, and when I asked if they knew about the free shuttle bus around the park and tried to describe where they could catch it, I decided that it would be far easier just to take them to the stop, so off we went for a bit of a walk, still talking. When we finally said our goodbyes, we exchanged email addresses and said we would keep in touch--and we did, with emails and even photos once in a while. When I emailed Jan and Vera to let them know that we'd be visiting Belgium soon and to ask if maybe they wanted to meet again, this time in their country, their thoughtfulness was endless: they offered to let us stay with them for two nights, wanted to pick us up at the train station, asked what we were interested in seeing in Antwerpen so that they could plan some routes, offered to take us sightseeing or let us go on our own, depending on our preference, recommended Gent as a place worth visiting, and even shared tips on what to see in Brugge. Now, keep in mind that we'd only met once, by accident, and all I did was help them find their way to Stanley Park. Bob and I accepted their generous offer of a place to stay and we called them this morning from Brugge to let them know which train we'd be on this afternoon, so when we arrived at Berchem station, there they were, full of smiles and whisking our bag into their car so the sightseeing could begin. "You don't have much time," Jan said, "so we must begin right away!" Over the next 41 hours in Antwerpen, we did and saw more (with a mountain of insightful anecdotal information and historical perspective) than we ever could have done on our own in a day-and-a-half visit, and we have Jan and Vera to thank for that! We began our tour of Antwerpen by walking around a neighbourhood very close to Berchem station: Zurenborg. The neighbourhood sprung up at the end of the nineteenth century, when the very wealthy began looking for more room in the rapidly growing city, and each landowner built a house with a different architect in a different style, with the definite aim of showing off wealth and taste. The result is a compact district that is a joy to walk, full of an amazing variety of architectural styles in a very small area. Here are Bob, Jan, and Vera talking about Zurenborg and standing in front of a very typical architectural contrast in the neighbourhood:
Zurenborg wasn't protected from redevelopment until 1984, so many new builds are evident throughout the area, and the area itself has dwindled in size from its early twentieth-century heyday. Regardless, seeing such disparate styles side-by-side, for entire blocks, was utterly fascinating (and in this photo, the "Waterloo" building on the left was especially incredible).
In fact, it's difficult to talk about particular buildings "standing out," since they all stood out and I have to resist writing about each and every house we saw! This intersection was the home of four buildings, each named after a season. Here's winter:





This home was one of my favourites:

While we wandered around Zurenborg, we saw people going in and out of houses, loading items into their cars, and generally going about their daily lives. One such resident smiled when he saw me take a photo of his home, which made me happy, since he is very lucky to live in such a neighbourhood and seems to know it. By now it was close to 6:00 P.M., and we headed to Vera and Jan's house, where we settled into our wonderful attic room (so comfortable, so homey) and enjoyed a delicious homemade dinner
before heading out to Antwerpen's old harbour district for an early evening stroll. The beautiful cast-iron storage sheds that line the area were originally used to house goods as they moved through the port, but now lie disused, except for parking.
The Steen ("Stone"), the oldest building in Antwerpen, was originally a fortress, then a prison, and now a maritime museum. The statue just outside the Steen of two little men being terrorized by an ogre added to the drama of the setting:
Near the Steen is the Vleehuis, or "Meat Hall," a 1504 building that originally housed the Butchers' Guild. Does the building (in the centre of the photo) remind you of anything meat-related?
The alternating stone and brick is thought to represent meat itself, with fat amongst the flesh--kind of like a bacon building! After strolling on the promenade and gazing over the Scheldt river, we headed toward the old town, with its dramatic cathedral towering overhead.

Grote Markt was the most beautiful square we saw during our time in Brugge, Antwerpen, and Brussels, with a lovely Stadhuis (town hall),
guildhalls topped with golden statues representing each guild's original focus,
and the gorgeous Brabofontein (Brabo fountain), built in 1887 as a representation of an Antwerpen legend used as one explanation for Antwerpen's name: the city was terrorized by a giant who extorted tolls from passing ships (if they didn't pay, he cut off the sailors' hands). The soldier Silvius Brabo freed the town by cutting off the giant's hand and throwing it into the very river where the giant had terrorized so many, and thus hand throwing("hand werpen") was coined. The beautiful fountain records this legend in the centre of Grote Markt: (The other possible explanation for Antwerpen's name isn't quite as rousing: an ancient settlement was found on a mounded hill ("aanwerp") near the Steen fortress.) Although we wouldn't go into the cathedral until tomorrow, its Gothic exterior was impressive in the evening lights:

Our one regret about visiting Antwerpen (besides not having another week to explore the fascinating city) was this koffiehuis ("coffee house"):
On a beautiful street, with quiet tables gracing the pavement, the coffee and sweets were beautifully presented:
So, why was this a regret, you ask? Because although Jan and Vera had gone to the thoughtful trouble of finding such an amazing coffee shop for us to visit, by now it was quite late in the evening and since it was a true coffee house (i.e. no decaf), we couldn't risk having so much caffeine so late. We hovered over the table belonging to the women in the photo above and Jan talked with them while Bob and I tried to convince ourselves that we wouldn't be awake until 6:00 A.M. if we had so much coffee (never mind the sweets that came along with the caffeine!) at this fairytale place. In the end, we decided that on this visit to Antwerpen, we would have to be satisfied with a photo, but we were grateful to Vera and Jan for showing us some of the coffee possibilities in Antwerpen. I liked some of the stencilling that decorated this street,
and we walked around for a bit longer, taking in the atmosphere of the people, cafés, and winding streets near Grote Markt, before returning to sit right on the square for some refreshment of our own:It was after 11:00 P.M. before we began to make our way home, and although we were both full from dinner, Vera dangled the possibility of a second dessert in front of Bob, who could not resist the temptation of her homemade apple dessert. I had the tiniest sliver and it was delicious--a whole apple, baked in a light pastry . . . mmm!
Vera, Jan, and I watched Bob enjoy his treat and we talked more about our day and what we were going to do tomorrow. By now it really was time for bed, we thanked Jan and Vera for a great start to our time in Antwerpen, and fell asleep looking forward to another round of wandering tomorrow!