Bill and Jen's Adventures: Amazing Antwerp

Antwerp was a lovely town. We walked and walked and had a great time visiting some of its most interesting and historic sites. We visited the Cathedral of our Lady, which was started in the second half of the 12th century and completed in 1521.

Cathedral of Our Lady tower

Cathedral of our Lady

Inside the Cathedral of Our Lady were the requisite items: candles, statues, stained glass, and famous paintings by the likes of Rubens and Van Dyke.

Lit candles for loved ones

Pretty stained glass

Our Lady's altarpiece, rebuilt in the mid 1800s incorporates alter items dating back to the 14th century. That's an old lady, sitting up in that alter!

Statue of Our Lady, build in the 16th century

After visiting the cathedral, we eventually found a cafe that would seat all 9 of us. (The first cafe took one look at us and said No!) We then walked along the waterfront, and saw lots of boat works and evidence of Antwerp's former sea-faring glory.

Wooden boat works

Old timey sailor / captain lodging

We headed to the tallest building in Antwerp to partake in its free top-floor observation deck. MAS had some very interesting historic exhibits taking place and we were sad we just didn't have enough time to explore them further.

MAS - Royal Museum of Antwerp

View from the top of MAS

Another view from the top of MAS

We then made our way to St. Paul's church, built in the 1500s. I really liked the Cavalry statues out front, which were built in 1734 to evoke the life and times of Jesus.

Cavalry statues, St. Paul's Church

More statuary, St. Paul's Church

Inside there was the usual stuff; candles, altars, stained glass, etc. But you don't always get to see life-sized carved wooden lion heads in church!

Another candle for my mom

Wooden lions, St. Paul's Church

By this time of day it was high time for beer! We made our way to the small, small, small pub Kulminator. This pub gets high praise from the web, the "NYT 36 Hours in Europe" book, etc. We were expecting something a bit more, well, just more. There were about 10 tables that sat about 4-6 people each (if you squeeze in) and is run by a couple who have owned the pub since probably... I don't know, the '60s? They didn't have any other staff, so on this particular Saturday afternoon it took a while to get what you ordered, if you get it at all. (Poor Cindy's cider never did arrive.) That said, they had over 600 beers to choose from and they were fantastic! The pub was almost awkwardly quiet, but we brought a few decks of cards and had ourselves a grand afternoon.

Regine demonstrating the unique pouring contraption for beer at the Kulminator

The 5 gals ordered the large meat and cheese platter to share for dinner. We giggled when it arrived - it was definitely not an American-sized platter, that's for sure! And only two slices of bread to split amongst the 5 of us. But it took so long to arrive, we didn't want to wait for a second order and made do.