Iceland 2024 Antwerp-Belgium

The time has finally come! After over a year of planning, 3 weeks after sending the truck by RORO, I’m finally leaving to Europe. Of course, another curveball was thrown in my face with a few days before the Crowdstrike blackout happened. I had two nervous days hoping the airlines would clear up any backlog of issues before I departed on a Monday. Luckily, IcelandAir and Dulles was pretty much back to normal by the time I left.

My first stop of this journey was to Antwerp. As luck would have it, my layover was actually in Reykjavik. I was a little nervous since I had roughly and hour and a half layover a customs was in between, though in my research I’ve heard the airport was pretty efficient. I was the first one off the bus and into the customs area and it was a breeze. All the kiosks were down (maybe Crowdstrike related) so I went to the customs officer and they actually stamped my passport! A rarity these days.

The connection went by smoothly and I finally landed in Antwerp. One thing I love about Europe is that the public transportation is very easy and efficient. Today, it’s even easier with Google Maps pretty much giving you the step by step and everywhere taking ApplePay. I hopped on to the train to Antwerp where I eventually checked in for the next couple of days. Immediately, I crashed hard for a couple of hours as I did not sleep well on the flight at all. Once I woke up, I still had to work since I was still technically not on vacation yet for another 3 days, so the first day was just a quick dinner and back in the hotel room after a quick run.

The next day was my first full day of exploring Antwerp, which was a new city for me. The largest city of the Antwerp Province, Antwerp is one of the largest ports in the world with its position on the Scheldt River and near the North Sea. Being such a large port, Antwerp has always played an important part in Belgium history. Today, it is the second most populated metropolitan area in Belgium after Brussels.

*Liquid chocolate tasting in Chocolate Nation*

My first stop was to Chocolate National, the biggest chocolate musuem. A relatively new attraction, Chocolate Nation was a great way to learn all about the history of Belgium Chocolate as well as the process of making chocolate. From the beans in Africa all the way to the praline, it was very informative and filled with I retesting fact. The tickets gets you a self-guided audio tour (tip: bring plug in headphones if you want to not hold it against your ear). The first four rooms being an experience where you have to observe the whole thing and wait for the doors to open. Finally, at the end, you get to try multiple different variety of chocolate in the liquid form. It’s about a spoonful per variant, but personally once you get to the end it was more than enough for me.

Next up was just walking the major sites of Antwerp. While making my way to the Grote Markt, I stumbled upon the Handelsbeure. This building served as the city’s stock exchange from 1531 to 1997. It is currently being restored to hold a 5 star hotel among other things. You can walk around and observe the historical painted maps on the wall or just gaze up into the ceiling.

I eventually ended up at the market after wondering a few of the random streets. I’m the morning, the crowd was pretty small. The Grote Market consists of a few things: a Renaissance style City Hall, the guildhalls, the Brabo Fountain, and other beautiful buildings. Right in the center is the bronze fountain, which depicts the story of Silvio’s Brabos, the city founder, throwing the giant’s hand into the river.

After the market it was time for lunch. I decided to go traditional and get the Flemish Stews with fries at De Bomma, which translate to Grandma in English. It immediately reminded me of the Vietnamese version of beef stew, Bo Kho. Once done, I walked across the street to see the oldest building in Antwerp, Het Steen. Built between 1200 and 1225, it was the first stone fortification for the city of Antwerp. Now, it holds an informative visitor center with a nice view from the top of the building.

The last thing I did was visit the outside of the Gothic style Cathedral of Our Lady. “Finished” in 1521, it is the largest Gothic Church in Belgium with a height of 404ft. Outside of one was a unique sculpture of a boy and a dog, Nello and Pastrache. They are the characters from the novel A Dog of Flanders in 1872. The story takes place partly in Antwerp and is about a poor boy and an abandoned dog who become friends and eventually die at the cathedral.

The next day I decided to visit the Antwerp Zoo. The zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the world, built founded in July 1843. Right next to the Central Station, the exhibits were honestly pretty good for a city zoo. They were well laid out with more room for the animals than I expected. The animals were also way more active than in any other zoo I’ve seen. Not sure if it was the rainy morning or what, but nearly all the exhibits had the animals active. It was interesting to see how they fed the lions by stringing up goat meat for them to find in the exhibit. The exhibits also seemed to allow you to view the animals in closer proximity than other zoos I’ve been.

After the zoo I decided to try a local street food called a miiekfriett, which is pretty much a sandwich with French fries and meat. The owner was extremely friendly and I just let him make it the best way possible. Extremely messy to eat and heavy on the carbs, but it was definitely up my alley. That pretty much concluded my first week in Europe, with the next phase picking up Dana in Brussels.

Iceland 2024 Antwerp-Belgium

Brussels, Belgium

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