Antwerp

On Sunday David and I decided to go to Antwerp. We had done enough of Brussels for one weekend, and I had been to Bruges, so next on the list was Antwerp. We caught the train (which was surprisingly easy) which deposited us in Antwerp 40 minutes later (a return trip for 7 Euro, rail travel in Europe is a bargain). Antwerp is a nice looking city, much prettier than Brussels. The part around the central station is not so nice (full of awful jewellry shops for one thing!), but the old(er) town near the Cathedral and Grote Markt is very picturesque. We enjoyed a wander around, met up with a friend from work, Luc, who lives in Antwerp and he showed us a nice pub. We looked in the cathedral, which has several works by Rubens. One in particular, showing Christ being carried from the cross, was quite impressive. One other thing that we noticed was that (tourist traps aside) Antwerp did appear to be closed. People used to make that joke about NZ, but they obviously haven't been to Europe on a Sunday. There were thousands of people in the streets, and not a single shop open.

Then it was back to Brussels and sampling more fine Belgian beer, before David had to leave for Leeds. All in all it was a great weekend, and very nice to see him again.