Visit the photo set Antwerp on Flickr.
Robin and I decided that we needed a weekend away so I took Friday off and we took a quick three-day trip to Antwerp. We took the international train from Amsterdam to Antwerp, a leisurely two-hour ride on Friday afternoon. Once in Antwerp, we walked from Antwerp’s impressive train station to our hotel, the Hotel Rubens, located just to the north of the cathedral and Grote Markt. Unfortunately the rain started when we arrived and got progressively worse throughout the afternoon. We took shelter in the Kathedraalcafé, also known as “Het Elfde Gebod” (“The Eleventh Commandment”). This bar is decorated with almost 400 religious statues and paintings, making it an interesting place to drink a trappist beer or two.
For dinner, we sneaked into “De Peerdestal“, one of the more atmospheric restaurants close to our hotel. We had the monthly dinner meal, which included an appetizer, entree and dessert as well as wine. Robin and I both avoided the house specialty, horse, but had a nice meal.
Saturday morning the weather had improved considerably so after breakfast we set off with cameras in hand. We visited the river bank along with the small castle there, ‘t Steen and took a number of photographs. The highlight of the day was the visit to the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a 300 year old family home combined with the family business, book printing. Like the Telyers Museum in Haarlem NL, this was a gem of a museum, created by the vision of a single family over 150 years. Dinner that evening was not particularly memorable.
Sunday the weather continued to be nice. After breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we walked back through the old city to Rubenshuis, another very nice museum detailed the life and time of Peter Paul Rubens. It was a nice complement to the Museum Plantin-Moretus. By the early afternoon, we were back on the train to Amsterdam, for dinner out at our favourite place, Seasons. A nice and needed break.
