Europe Trip- Day 5- Antwerp, Belgium

Day 5

In the early morning of this day, we hopped on a train to Antwerp, Belgium. It was a little over two hour train ride from Haarlem, Netherlands to Antwerp.

I really enjoyed visiting Antwerp. 

We arrived in Antwerp, Belgium! The train station in Antwerp was pretty!

It was too early to check into the hotel, but we dropped our bags off at the hotel luggage storage and went on our way to the museums/sites we wanted to see.

Our first stop was Chocolate Nation!

One of the things I think of when I think of Belgium is Belgian chocolate. Of course I had to visit the chocolate museum while in Belgium.

In the museum, we moved from room to room while videos and sometimes just audio described the process of making Belgian chocolate from (cacao) bean to (chocolate) bar.

A castle made of chocolate!

Of course I had to get a picture here!

Towards the end of the tour they had a place where we could taste different kinds of chocolate. They went from lightest chocolate to darkest chocolate. There were like ten different flavors to try. I loved it!

They had disposable spoons for each of us and we could take a sample from each flavor that we wanted. 

They had a little spigot for each of the chocolate samples. We would place a spoon underneath the spigot (without touching it) and pull the handle and a little chocolate would come out.

At the chocolate tasting center. I might have gone back to a couple of the flavors that I really liked. My two favorites were Ruby and Gold. 

I had to buy some chocolate from the gift shop at the end of the museum. I believe these bars were made from bean to bar at the museum. I got some Ruby, Gold and Java chocolate and they were all soooooo good!

I enjoyed visiting Chocolate Nation!

I liked just walking around Antwerp! There were some pretty cool sites.

I like streets that are pedestrian/bicycles streets only. This was one of those streets!

Some sites in Antwerp.

I had done a bit of research about what to eat in Belgium and frites was one of the things that came up. 

I found this frites place with good reviews near where we would be and we had lunch there.

Tim’s frites is the top picture and mine is the bottom picture. 

I really enjoyed my frites. The frites had good flavor and were crunchy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. 

Some more sites of Antwerp.

After we ate, we headed toward our next stop, the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

This museum was the original residence and workshop of the Plantin and Moretus publishing family. It is on the UNESCO world heritage site list. 

A harpsichord in the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

The museum had such a pretty courtyard!

This room was where there was supposed to be someone showing us how one of the old printing presses worked, but no one was there. Oh well. 

I pretended I knew what I was doing. 🤣

The house was just so pretty!

The main printing office when the publishing company was still in use. 

This workshop was first used in 1580.

The two printing presses behind me are the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world. Both of them dating from around 1600. They have some missing parts so are not in working order, but were still so cool to see!

I loved this library in the house. There were so many books and bookshelves. 

Notice how there are bookshelves between the windows and above the door frame. Basically anywhere there was wall space, bookshelves were built. 

So many books!

Visiting the Plantin-Moretus Museum was really cool. I enjoyed seeing the residence of the Plantin Moretus family as well as how a publishing company would operate back in the 1500s and 1600s. So interesting!

I needed a little rest after the museum and so we sat here on this plaza near the museum for a few minutes. This was our view!

If you look closely you can see a man standing near the open window of the middle house on the third floor smoking a cigarette. It just gives a little glimpse of someone who lives in Antwerp.

Outside the Plantin-Moretus museum!

Our next stop was the Grote Markt of Antwerp. What a cool place! Look at those pretty buildings!

Stadhuis or City Hall of Antwerp on the Grote Markt. We couldn’t go inside but it was cool to see from the outside.

This statue was in front of The Cathedral of Our Lady on the Grote Markt. I liked this statue. 

At the time I did not know its significance. But I just looked up what it is and the statue is based off of a sad novella called A Dog of Flanders written in 1872. 

The Cathedral of Our Lady

A video I took at The Cathedral of Our Lady to show the plaza as well as to record the bells ringing at that moment. 

Tim and I went inside The Cathedral of Our Lady. It was beautiful inside. 

There were four Peter Paul Rubens paintings in the cathedral. Two of them were commissioned for the cathedral and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. 

We did not know about the paintings before we went inside but it was a cool surprise to see them while we were there. 

I didn’t take many pictures inside the cathedral but it was beautiful with many intricate details.

A prayer space for Ukraine in the cathedral.

Near the cathedral was a Belgian waffle restaurant. Of course we had to eat Belgian waffles while in Belgium.

Since my throat was hurting, I got some peppermint tea to go with my waffle.

The place where we ate Belgian waffles.

My waffle is the top picture and Tim’s is the bottom picture. 

My waffle was delicious! I later learned that I should have gotten the liege style waffle and not the Brussels style. Oh well. 

I still enjoyed the waffle so I don’t feel bad about it. If I ever visit Belgium again (which I think I will someday), I’ll make sure to get the liege style waffle.

After we were done eating, we headed back to the hotel to check in. We ran into this shop along the way. We didn’t go inside but it was fun peeking in the window. I liked the clever name of the shop.

Side note: I woke up coughing in the middle of the night. The cough was better during the day but I could barely speak above a whisper this whole day and my throat hurt. I did take Advil but it didn’t really help with my throat.

It was late enough in the day and since my throat was still hurting, we hung out at the hotel for the rest of the evening. Overall this was a good day and I really enjoyed Antwerp!