Antwerp: A port city with beer and pancakes

It was nice to be able to spend pretty much a full evening just relaxing. Carla made us a classic Belgian dinner: beef stew and fries. Perfect. Except Belgians aren’t big water drinkers. Beer, coffee and wine are the staples, I think. Even when you eat out, you only buy water and it’s expensive. But the other three options are good, so we didn’t complain.

Early morning, Carmen and I went for a walk in Wuustwezel. It’s a pretty quiet place although we still could’ve spent a lot of time wandering. Belgium is a lush country. It's green everywhere.

But the day was meant for Antwerp, and that’s where we went. Lots of history. And lots of money. Buildings and churches were more ornate here. And Belgian architecture is different, with lots of pointy roofs.

Carla filled us in with basically a century by century rundown of what happened in this city. In short, it's a port. And it's quite cultured. I suppose every European city is with the amount of history there, but we heard and saw some cool stories. In the Cathedral of our Lady, there was an exhibition of 15th Century paintings from the city. At one point, all the pieces on display were located in this church, but had since been dispersed to museums around Europe. This show was called The Reunion. Each painting told the story of a guild (a trade-specific group that was taken really, really seriously, each of which had it's own massive building in the City Square).

In particular, there was the Butchers' Guild. Besides their building having lookout spots for ships coming in so they could meet them at the port and tax them as they came in, the Butcher's Guild building has a doorway leading to an alley, where they would drain blood into this street. It's still there. Although the blood is gone.

By the way, if you were rich enough when you died, you could pay to be buried underneath the Cathedral floor:

It poured for most of the day, which meant we could spend more time checking out restaurant and pub culture of Belgium. Lunch was in a typical 16th Century building; a restaurant that took up all three tiny floors with creaky, steep staircases and brick walls. This was my first experience with Belgian beer: De Koninck. Straight from Antwerp. No matter what kind of beer you order in Belgium, the bartender must put it in the proper glass. Each brand has it's own glass and if they don't match, most people will send it back (apparently). They also place the glass in front of you so the label faces you. It's kind of a big deal. And it's worth it. The De Koninck was good.

And later we avoided a downpour by sitting in a pub. Every pub in Belgium is the coolest pub I've ever seen. Seriously. This time I had a Tongerlo, a suggestion of the bartender. Once again, it was good. But what might've been even better were the pancakes Carmen ordered (yes, this was a very healthy trip). How do I even describe them? Hot, soft, chewy, a tiny bit greasy, covered in brown sugar. Pure gold.

We also checked out the old port of the city:

And capped the day off with an amazing dinner in a restaurant that was once a farmhouse ... 400 years ago. I had a traditional Belgian favourite: Kangaroo meat.

Our short time in Northern Belgium was so good. And seeing it with locals was fantastic. But Carmen and I are loners, and it was time to move on. The next morning we'd get on the train and head to one of the most bizarre places on Earth: Amsterdam ...