Antwerp – fashionable and artsy

On January 23, 2017March 17, 2017 By ourhoppytravelsIn EuropeLeave a comment

A beautiful city in Belgium with gorgeous medieval buildings, a large port, a great sense of fashion, a diamond market, and an outstanding art scene.

You are hit with the architectural wonder of the city right from the minute you arrive at their central train station. They definitely have one of the prettiest train stations. You can see trains arriving/departing at 3 levels. It’s a beautiful big train station.

The train station is an architectural marvel

As soon as you step outside the central station, you can see several diamond stores. Antwerp is known for its diamond market and apparently more than 70% of the world’s diamonds are traded here!

We had just a few hours in Antwerp and wanted to make the most of our short time and decided to just walk up to the city’s main square. We walked past a whole bunch of cyclists – definitely more of them here compared to Brussels and Bruges. We passed by medieval buildings that were an architectural delight! We walked past numerous stores of the big brands Gucci, Armani, Prada etc. – Antwerp is quite a fashionable city!

In just a few minutes, we were in the centre of the town where they had the Christmas Market – the stalls displayed a great variety of well-crafted artefacts unlike the Brussels market.

At De Veemarkt; used to be a cattle market

Since we got to Antwerp somewhat late and well into the lunch hour, we had to stop for some grub and beer first.

Unfortunately, the Kulminator which is one of the highly recommended beer spots was closed the day we were visiting. We settled for the next best thing. They had a nice selection of restaurants just behind the Christmas market and we found a cosy one with a good selection of beers. The city’s most famous brew is the De Koninck, locally known as ‘bolleke’. While it was not one of our favorite Belgian brews, it quenched our thirst. Their other popular beer is the Seef Bier, a pale ale – liked this one better.

Post lunch, we walked around the city centre just exploring the place. Antwerp is filled with some creative, interesting monuments – you should especially check out Sleeping Nello and Lange Wapper.

Sleeping Nello and Patrasche (Dog of Flanders

), covered by a blanket of cobblestones

a local legend in the Flemish region of Belgium

One of the main attractions of Antwerp is the Cathedral of Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedraal). It is said to be one of the largest gothic cathedrals in Benelux. The cathedral is most renowned for its display of Peter Paul Rubens’ masterpieces. It also includes the works of some other well-known Flemish painters. It is a huge cathedral and a giant, mesmerizing art gallery.

Cathedral of our Lady featuring Ruben’s paintings

One of the first things you notice as you walk in is this amazing 14th century marble sculpture of Madonna and Child (Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus). The gentle gesture of the child and the mother’s smile as she looks upon her child affectionately just warms your heart. There’s no greater bond than the one between a mother and her child!

We continued to be spell-bound as we walked on admiring Ruben’s paintings. Most of his works are altarpieces and a reflection of famous scenes from The Bible. Ruben’s masterpieces ‘The Descent from the Cross’ and ‘The Raising of the Cross’ are simply mind-blowing. You can stare at it for hours.

img_5747-2 — The Rising of the Cross – by Ruben

While the exterior of the church is gothic style, the interiors are filled with Ruben’s baroque art. Although the artwork is definitely the main attraction, the cathedral itself is quite spectacular with its carved woodwork and sculptures.

We were the last ones to leave the church – we had completely lost track of time in here. As we were getting out of the church, we heard beautiful music. Intrigued, we walked out to see a choir full of youngsters. They were such a talented bunch, singing some really high-pitched phenomenal melodies.

It was just a day before Christmas Eve and the place looked so festive!

We strolled around the Grote Markt or Groenplaats, the city’s main square. The square is filled with ornate guildhalls similar to that of the Brussels’ Grote Market (or the Grand Place). Also adorning the Grote Markt is the city’s Stadthuis (town hall) and the Brabo Fountain.

This sculpture of Antwerp’s hero, Brabo, depicts him flinging a severed hand.The legend goes like this – There used to be a giant called Antigoon who used to take a toll from those who crossed the Antwerp river, Schledt. And, he cut off the hands of those who refused to pay. So, Brabo cut off the giant’s own hand and flung it into the river. And, that’s how the city got its name Antwerpen – meaning hand werpen or hand throw or throwing hand(s).

Antwerp definitely had the best Christmas Markets we’d seen in Belgium. It had stalls all around the centre of the city and some near the port as well. There was a huge ferris wheel and ice skating which seemed to be a trend in Belgium and Netherlands. The ferris wheel ride was so much fun. I hadn’t been on one in years and the views from up there was lovely.

Antwerp is also well-known for its jazz clubs and we were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t catch the jazz band in action at De Muze, a hotspot for great jazz music in town. The last train back to Brussels was at 11 ish PM and the band doesn’t start until after 10.

There’s so much to do in this beautiful Belgian city and we know we’ll head back there someday and stay a few nights.

Despite being bigger, fashionable and modern compared to the other medieval cities of Belgium, Antwerp has a charm of its own with its amazing collection of art, cobblestoned lanes, riverside castle and splendid jazz culture.

Brussels – where art and beer flow endlessly

On January 21, 2017March 17, 2017 By ourhoppytravelsIn EuropeLeave a comment

Brussels was our first stop on our Belgium beercation. Steve visited Belgium years ago and we had been looking forward to doing Belgium together for a while now and we were so kicked to finally visit Belgium over the Christmas holidays last year.

My first impression of Brussels, just seeing what was in plain sight, was like.. Whoa, wait, why do some of the buildings look so rundown and covered with soot!? Why do the metros and the metro stations look so ancient? Why is that guy peeing in the street, that too in the centre of the town!? [And, no, I don’t refer to the infamous statue of the little boy peeing]. It took me a while to warm up to Brussels and appreciate the city for what it is. The beer (uh… beers) helped. Brussels has tons of breweries, brew-pubs, bars, beer stores — there’s just loads of good beer everywhere. In Belgium, beer is not just a drink, it is a culture.. and, it has sacred origins!

[More on our beer pilgrimage in Belgium coming soon in a separate post but here’s a peek!]

DSC_0974 (2).JPG — Best place in town to get some of the best Belgian ales on tap

There’s a lot to do in Brussels. A good place to start is definitely the city’s main square – la Grand Place (French) or de Grote Markt (Dutch). Yep, they have two names for everything including street names. And this can get confusing and you’ll wonder if it’s two different places as they are usually totally different. The city is bilingual and both French and Dutch are official languages. French though is the dominant language and you will hear it everywhere. It’s interesting to note that the city’s origins were that of Dutch and it has been more of a French speaking nation only since the 19th century (the French revolution of course).

De Grote Markt / la Grand Place / City Centre

The Grand Place was packed with lots of people, every time we passed thru. This picture was taken at 2 AM. Well, it was Christmas time and there were tons of tourists, like us. And, through the evening, they had this light and music show happening which had the crowd flocked to it like bees. The light show was alright, a bit too bright and way too colorful for our liking. And the music, well, may be some Belgian folk music or Christmas carols or anything other than electronica might have made the whole experience (being in a historic city, watching a light show on historic buildings etc.) more relatable.

The Grand Place is surrounded by ornate guildhalls, the Stadthuis (the Town Hall), and the Broodhuis (Breadhouse or the Museum of the city of Brussels). Most of these buildings including the town hall date back to the 15th century although the Grand Place itself dates back to early 12th century. The buildings here an architectural delight with their gothic and baroque styles. The ornamental guildhalls are especially remarkable and at night, even more so with a beautiful glow. There’s always something or the other happening at the Grand Place. It seems like the bi-annual flower carpet show that takes place in the Grand Place is one of their most popular events.

img_5863-2 — Some of the ornate buildings at the Grand Place

img_5859-2 — The Stadthuis (the town hall)

Just a few blocks away from the Grand Place is the infamous Manneken Pis (translates to Little Man Pee), popularly known as Peeing Boy. This small bronze sculpture of the naked peeing boy is a huge deal in Brussels and is a national symbol.

He is apparently seen in a variety of outfits from Santa suits to Elvis Presley to Tibetan monks to national costumes of other countries. What amused us the most though was that for some special occasions, he would be hooked up to beer kegs and you can have a sip of Belgian’s famous brews from his truly. 😀 There are many stories around the origins of the statue – check these out here. And, the boy has a sister and a dog doing exactly what he seems to enjoy doing. We didn’t check out the Jeanneke Pis and Zinneke Pis – decided to save some of this amusement for another trip to Brussels.

Brussels as well had a Christmas Market, just a few meters away from the Grand Place – nothing nearly as beautiful and festive as the German Christmas Markets but nice nonetheless.

They had a whole bunch of stalls selling handcrafted wares, woolen wear, Glühwein, and local Belgian food (loads of waffles and fries of course). And, surprisingly also had stalls selling other cuisines like Mediterranean, Turkish, and Asian. Definitely catering to the multi-cultural city that Brussels is. What we liked more about the Brussels and the other Belgian Christmas markets we saw were the beer stalls – we were especially thrilled to see a craft beer stall with a great collection of craft beers and some of the traditional Belgian beers.

The best way to discover Brussels is to just walk around the city. You will see sections with historic buildings and sections with high-rise offices. It’s a big city that looks so different at almost every turn in the road. AND, it has some super cool comic strip murals on a lot of its walls. The Comic Strip Route features over 50 paintings and is such a unique, fun way to discover Brussels. Check out this link for a map of the spots to hit.

Belgium is not just known for its beer, chocolates, waffles and fries. It’s also revered around the world for being the pioneers in the world of comics. Some of the world’s most beloved comics Herge’s Tintin and Peyo’s Smurfs have hailed from this beautiful country.

Our next stop was the Comic Book Museum. The museum features a permanent exhibition on the history and the making of comics. And of course there is separate section reserved for Belgium’s much-loved hero Tintin. Not only does the museum feature a whole bunch of Belgian comics but also comics in other languages. You can also read some of these comics in the museum’s reading room. And if you cannot read them all, there are numerous comic book stores throughout Brussels and other parts of Belgium. We bought a bunch in Brussels and a few more in Bruges (the ‘De Striep’ store in Bruges has a great collection of comics including in English).

Brussels has quite a few lovely churches but we had time to visit just the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. This gothic cathedral’s history is believed to date back to as early as the 9th century.

We spent most of our time in Brussels just walking around, enjoying the street art and the wonderful street music, hopping from one beer bar to another, indulging in the local delicacies, and picking a few comic books along the way.

These guys got the crowd grooving to their music instantly – streets in Brussels are such fun!

Brussels is lively, quirky, medieval yet hip, run-down yet rich with history … And, most impressively, standing tall and strong despite all the tough times the city has had to endure in the recent past. In the end, I fell in love with all of its uniqueness and rich culture and will surely go back for more.

Zaanse Schans – a small paradise

On January 18, 2017March 17, 2017 By ourhoppytravelsIn Europe2 Comments

A beautiful little windmill village tucked away in the picturesque Dutch countryside.

You go back in time as you walk into the historic Zaanse Schans, a district in Zaandam, Netherlands. The place is filled with ancient windmills, traditional Dutch wooden houses, and beautiful green fields, all surrounded by the serene waters of the Zaan river.

We visited Zaanse Schans in winter. It was a nippy cloudy day. We walked hand in hand along the lush green fields admiring the stunning landscape.

The Dutch industrial revolution was born right here. There were more than a 1000 windmills in this place several centuries ago, some of which were used to grind spices, produce paint, saw wood and make oil. Today all that remains is 6 of these historic windmills, most of which are still working!

You can go into a few of these working windmills to see them in action. We visited the De Kat (The Cat) windmill, the only windmill in Zaanse Schans that is in its original position. The rest of the windmills here were moved from other places and rebuilt. The De Kat windmill grinds chalk to to produce paint. It is the only working windmill in the world that makes paint!

Inside the De Kat Windmill – granite stones weighing 3000 kilograms grinding limestone

You can also go up to the top of the windmill to see the blades moving to the strong wind. The view from up here is quite pretty as well.

We also visited the De Catharinahoeve, a cheese farm where we went thru a quick run-down of the production process of this creamy yellow gold. If there’s one thing the Dutch is known for as much if not more than their windmills is their cheese and I could see why!

We spent the next hour or so just walking around this little village sipping on some hot chocolate and drifting off into thoughts of what life would have been like a few centuries back. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just turn back time and pop into any era we like, live a few days, make merry and move on to the next.. heh a little wishful thinking never hurt anyone!

Some of these houses are museums and souvenir shops while some of them are still inhabited

When the weather is better, you can actually go on a boat ride exploring this idyllic little village along the Zaan river.

It was time to head back to Amsterdam.

We left Zaanse Schaans with heart-warming memories that will be cherished forever. And, who knows, life might just lead us back here again someday…

Amsterdam – bold, quirky and fun

On January 17, 2017March 17, 2017 By ourhoppytravelsIn Europe2 Comments

A city that never sleeps.

Amsterdam is full of energy, always bustling with activity, and packed with a stream of tourists in all seasons all days. It’s also a beautiful canal city — numerous canals everywhere even in the heart of the city.

It’s also a city with the most number of cycles I have ever seen. 800,000 bicycles — almost as many bikes as people in the city!! It’s such a pleasant sight – to see families riding their bikes together, chatting away and the elderly riding with so much ease and stopping for passersby. They seem to ride their bikes no matter the weather and there are so many parking spots for these bikes (including a floating parking spot bang opposite the train station, next to the ferry point). In some places, there are no footpaths but there is a bike lane! Apparently, bikes go missing quite often. Some stolen and some if you look hard into the canals, you might find a bike or two submerged in the water!

Apart from their bikes and canals, Amsterdam is likely more well-known for its red light district and its “coffeeshops“. There’s plenty of these “feel good” shops all around the central area and this is where the local crowd and the weed-starved citizens of other nations throng to. Cannabis is sold in all forms – of course there’s the traditional by gram and the joints but there’s also the brownies, the cookies, the chocolate bars and the lollipops! It is sold in an insane variety of forms. Although it is illegal to smoke in public, you’ll smell the marijuana everywhere and you’ll see lots of stoned people especially youthful tourists.

The whole culture and legality around this and prostitution in Amsterdam still amazes me. While the rest of the world is only now opening their legal doors to marijuana, this city had been the only paradise on earth for decades for peeps hankering after the green stuff. What I admire the most is – the city has a very open, bold, live and let-live attitude. The Dutch folks are also very warm, friendly people. And, they also seem to have a great tolerance for people from other ethnicities – Amsterdam is swarming with people from all countries.

We visited Amsterdam over our Christmas holidays and spent New Year’s eve here. There were decorations everywhere and the light festival was on — the city looked pretty spectacular.

just a teeny weeny start to the fireworks that would take over the sky

If you do visit the city over New Year’s eve, you should note that the city shuts off its train system, all public transport really from as early as 8 PM on the 31st and it doesn’t kick back in until 6 am. There are a few night buses but I’d say nearly impossible to make these with all the connections and likely all the crowd trying to get on these. So be warned! 🙂

Amsterdam is so so packed, always. Of course, there were a lot more tourists because of the Christmas holidays and New Year’s eve but Amsterdam is one of those big cities that is always brimming with tourists and there’s always long lines everywhere, so planning well in advance saves you wasted time.

If you are in Amsterdam, you should go on a canal ride. They have all types of boats – we opted for the warm, closed one as the temperatures were terribly low during new year’s eve. We did the water colors evening cruise that was part of the Amsterdam Light Festival (usually takes places from Dec to Jan). The queues were long, extending to more than a kilometer.. but the wait wasn’t so dreadful as we had a DJ entertaining us – people were dancing on the streets, kids and old folks alike. The new year cheer was definitely in the air! It was a pleasant ride cruising thru the waters admiring the light artworks along the way. Some were quite impressive but I think I still have a soft spot for the Singapore night festival which is a somewhat similar display of art thru light (the festival includes lots of other fun events and is an amazing experience). What made the canal ride in Amsterdam fun was our boat driver (who was also our tour guide) and who like a lot of Dutch folks, had a great sense of humor. He cracked us up with witty, cheeky and some cheesy jokes about the local folks, culture and customs.

A visit to Amsterdam cannot be complete until you have visited some of the city’s brilliant museums – the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House are a must-visit. The works of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck, and other Dutch artists are not only held in great reverence by the Dutch folks but by folks all around the world. The Dutch have produced more than a few exceptional masterpieces in the art world. We unfortunately were able to visit just the Van Gogh museum — Van Gogh and his works left us feeling pensive and simply awestruck. Visiting the museum gives you a chance not just to see his popular works, but also gives you a glimpse into some of his early, lesser-known but equally powerful works. We would have loved to see the Rijksmuseum that displays the works of Rembrandt and Vermeer and also the Anne Frank House — we now have yet another compelling reason for us to visit the city again.

wonderful bock at the De Bekeerde Suster brewery

We’d also like to visit again to explore the city’s brewing scene. While we visited some fantastic breweries in our short stay there, there was a bunch we couldn’t do. There’s just not enough time to drink all the beer you want to!

We were pleasantly surprised that this land of Heineken could brew some neat craft beers. We visited the De Bekeerde Suster brewery – not only did they have a feisty collection of beers, they also had a great spread for the hungry stomach and a very interesting story behind their name!

We were visiting Amsterdam after a couple of weeks in Belgium and were so glad to see their tourist centre (the I amsterdam centre). No wild goose chase trying to locate it, just visible in plain sight..like you’d expect. The city is well prepared and well set-up for tourists – so not too difficult finding your way around local transport and such. The I amsterdam is not only a tourist centre but possibly more well-known as a catch phrase with both locals and tourists alike. And, you’ll see the I amsterdam letters all around the city. The most popular one is the one right in front of the Rijksmuseum. In front of these letters is usually a small body of water which turns into an ice skating ring come winter. This spot is hugely popular and ridiculously crowded – as you can see in the pic below.. you can barely see the letters!

Rijksmuseum in the background – the most photographed place in Amsterdam

Amsterdam may appear like just another typical big city with throngs of people everywhere, busy streets, bad traffic etc. but it has an undeniable uniqueness to it. It’s a truly remarkable city – its rich culture, bold attitude, quirky traditions and pleasant folks — will leave you desiring for more.