Antwerp

It’s sad to say, but I know of this city because of a Spence Diamond radio commercial. I’m sure I have heard of it before, but that’s what I can relate it to. Julie had never heard of it. If you don’t know, Antwerp is famous for its diamonds and its fashion. Two things we don’t care at all for. We were planning on going to Antwerp because of its cheap campsite rates, it was recommended in our books as a place to go visit and the campsite was a 15 minute walk from the downtown square, where the nightlife is apparently the best in Belgium. Being the tourist season we were turned away from our destination campsite, Camp De Molean, and directed to another site north of the city centre. The price was right, but the showers were cold (our first ones), unlike the ones we were supposed to have at De Molaen. Once we got settled, we decided to go find a grocery store, as we already had nothing to eat. We went to an Esso and asked for directions and probably drove for about 20 minutes before we figured out what the guy had meant. There were two things we wanted to do in Antwerp, party and find the very cheap internet café mentioned in our book. We had 1 ½ hrs and it costs us 5.60 euros. Since our new campsite was 20 minutes from the downtown core we needed to use the tram and could not do the party thing. The next morning we headed into town in search for the Zoo. It was next to central station, and we managed to miss it because we walked out the wrong door of the building and ended up in China town (also next to central station). We spent most of the day at the zoo. The tram costs us nothing, as we couldn’t figure out how to buy tickets from the automated machine. We don’t speak Dutch. We both have to say that Antwerp’s central station is amazing. The next day we headed back into town, this time having tickets purchased at Central station (a lady showed us). After buying the tickets though, we felt stupid as we didn’t need them the day before, but better safe than sorry and they were only 1.20 euros. It was 10:30 when we arrived at the city center and it was extremely busy. It turns out a festival of mussels was happening that Saturday. We got our bearings and made our way to the internet café. It was supposed to be open at 11, but I guess the guy was like me and was running late. So we took a stroll through streets making our way back to the center and taking many photos. In one of the markets, right in front of the churches main door stood 4 musicians playing classics, 3 were on violins, and the other was on a cello. I took some video, as it was pretty amazing to see. We wanted to pick up their CD, but at 15 euros, we just couldn’t do it. When we were done at the café we headed down to the canal to go view a castle, it was pretty decent, but they turned the inside into a boat museum (we didn’t know it was a boat museum, I was happy with it and Julie was happy that I was happy).