Antwerp

In Antwerp I stayed with my cousin Kathy's friend Mia and Jos in their apartment on the waterfront. It was very nice since earlier that week I had camped out in Bruges, Minden, and had two nights on the train.

I was excited to see the magnificent cathedral in Antwerp, the Cathedral of Our Lady. I had previously learned about it through the Dutch painter Neeffs paintings of the beautiful interior. Also, inside the cathedral they had some impressive paintings by the famous painter from Antwerp, Pieter Paul Reubens. I also visited Reubens house in Antwerp.

Antwerp had some of the most bizzarre activites going on I had seen yet in any city. There were pub trolleys going through town, where it looked like an actual pub on wheels, and people were all sitting at the bar just enjoying the ride. There were groups of people all dressed up and seemingly trying to accomplish strange tasks; for instance one group of males were trying to get signatures on their friend who was wearing nothing but a diaper. It was quite strange.

There were lots of tempting waffles being sold on nearly every corner in Antwerp, and at first I was reluctant to give in. When I was in London the smell in the air from the waffles was overwhelmingly tempting, so I gave in and had one. The taste of that waffle did not come close to as good as it smelled. Well, completely forgetting the fact that in Antwerp, Belgium a waffle would not just be an ordinary waffle it would be a world-famous Belgain waffle, I gave in once again to the smell and was expecting a similar experience to London's. This time, however, the waffle tasted just as amazing as it smelled. It was a few days later when I was thinking about how good that waffle was that I realized, oh right a Belgain waffle, that's why it was so good.

Thank you to Mia and Jos for letting me stay with you in Antwerp! Thank you, Kathy for contacting them for me!