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| Antwerp Travel Guide: Enjoy Antwerp :o)
| | Written by Monk-San on 23 Feb 2006 about a trip in Aug 2004.
Trip was for a group of friends on holiday. Monk-San would definitely visit again.
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Admiring the Laange Waaper |
Brabo Statue |
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Antwerp shopping | | | Diamonds - 80% of the worlds diamonds pass through Antwerp and there are plenty of places for buying your own very special souvenir. |
Antwerp restaurants | | Restaurants - there is a good selection and nice places and not too much of the junk food. Champagne by the glass was widely available, just right for toasting your diamond purchases!
Try Meir - the main pedestrian street, wide and full of shops! |
Antwerp attractions |   7.0 | Our Lady Cathedral (Onze Lieve Vrouw Kathedraal) is lovely to look at from the outside, and very surpisingly bright and airy inside.
Grote Markt - The main square, with the typical northern European "stepped" roof-lines and imposing town hall. In the centre is a large statue of Silvius Brabo throwing a trolls hand (Apparently, the place was named Ant-werp, a corruption of "hand-throw" because Brabo cut the hand off a troll who had been blocking the river and charging extotionate fees to traders. The trade was drying up, so Brabo had saved the city).
Het Steen - there is so much to love about this castle at the waterside! It contains the National Scheepvaartmuseum, which is really interesting. Moving from room to room means going up and down winding stairs, so it's great fun. In the courtyard is a stool and neck stock, ideal for placing any misbehaving children/husbands. The castle itself looks great - all the turrets and towers that you expect in castle. Finally, outside is a statue of die Laange Waaper - a kind of Belgian bogeyman, who could apparently stretch himself and peep in windows.
Rubens house - a lovelt house, with a beatiful garden and, of course, full of fascinating paintings and sculpture |
Antwerp History and Culture | | Antwerp itself is very nice. It's not too big, so you can get about on foot easily enough. It's style is reminiscent of Amsterdam (without the canals) and it has the charm of older European cities, with beautiful buildings and streets and alleys just wiaitng to be explored.
If you've "done" the big cities Paris - Rome - Barcelona - Berlin or maybe you've been to Bruges or Brussels then give Antwerp a go. We had a really lovely weekend. |
Getting to Antwerp | | | We flew to Antwerp from London City airport direct to Antwerp itself. Going to and from such little airports means that check in times are greatly reduced. Plus we flew in this little Fokker 50 that took about 30 people, so that made a jolly change. |
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All Antwerp Travel Guides | The travel guides below were written by diytravel.co.uk members who have visited Antwerp in Belgium. To write your own guide, click the 'Write travel guide' button at the top of the page.
| Antwerp guide | | 7.0 | Enjoy Antwerp :o) | | We flew to Antwerp from London City airport direct to Antwerp itself. Going to and from such little airports means that check in times are greatly reduced. Plus we flew in this little Fokker 50... |
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