Roadtrip!!!

We usually meet in the lobby for work at 8am to catch the train.  Last Saturday we met at 7:30am, a little blurry eyed, to take the train to the airport to pick up the rental car.  Schipol airport is less than 10 minutes away by train...hard to comprehend for the Denver crowd reading this.  I was elected to be the first driver, so off we go in our zippy 6 speed manual tranny small car. I still don't read Dutch, so highway signs are a challenge.  The two backseat drivers get me pointed in the right direction and we're off. Destination...Antwerp and then on to Brugge. Thank goodness I know that a 10K = 6.2 miles, so I can do the calculation in my head to figure out about how fast we are going when the sign says 90KM or 120KM.

Last year I visited Brussels, so this was not my first excursion to Belgium.  I really didn't know what to expect in Antwerp, but I did learn there is a legend of how Antwerp received it's name, which literally means 'to throw a hand'.  Back in the Roman days, there was an evil giant named, Druon Antigon, that controlled the river Scheldt.  He forced the people in boats to pay a steep fee to pass by, and if they could not or would not pay it, he cut off their hands. When Antigon tried to collect the toll from Silvius Brabo, a Roman soldier, Brabo drew his sword and chopped off the evil giant's hand and threw it into the river.  Hant = Hand and werpen = throw.  The 'h' dropped off over time and it's now Antwerpen, or Antwerp.

The medieval architecture in Antwerp is amazing. 

Keith and Jennifer in front of the Antwerpen sign.

Amazingly beautiful retail area

Many buildings are dated in the 1400 - 1700's.  The city was quite busy with Saturday shoppers.  We saw a line of local people standing in front of a bakery.  We found the hot spot on a Saturday morning.  Then we wandered down a narrow road trying to get to another area and all of a sudden we hear drums.  We stumbled into a parade that was marching through the city.  It looked like the future olympic gymnastics team was leading along with a small drum line and then several Grand Pu-Bahs and their wives dressed up in capes with long feathers in their head dress.  Come to find out, it was carnival day. 

Grand Pubah...notice the smoke. 

A beautiful face of Antwerp.  This lady was peaking out her window to see what all the commotion was about when she heard the drums of the parade.  I asked if I could take her picture and she obliged.  Love this picture!

Notice the cross between the two buildings.  An old church was located back beteen the two buildings.

Onze Lieve Vrouwe - Gothic Cathedral

This is a shot of Grot Markt. It's the town square where city hall is located.  Notice the red fox on top of the building second from the far right.

Forest Gump quote, 'Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you'll get'. Well Antwerp is all about chocolate and from the number of chocolate stores, it's all good!  Keith was on a mission to find a specific chocolate store, Del Rey Chocolates.  His mother requested some specifically from this store. Del Rey only has one store, and it's in Antwerp.  We found it and it was like an expensive jewelry store.  There are food snobs, wine snobs, shoe snobs, car snobs...well this is the place for chocolate snobs.  I don't mean that in a negative way, they just know high end chocolate (or cars or wine or food or shoes or whatever).

Beautiful desserts....like art work!

Ladies bagging up Keith & Jerome's purchase.

I have never been a big chocolate connasuier, but I did buy a few with caramel in them and some pricey chocolate powder for hot cocoa.  I'm the person guilty of picking up a chocolate from the box and sticking my finger in the bottom to see what oozes out.  If it's not caramel, it goes back into the box.  Some of you can relate, right???  I have always told John, 'do not buy me chocolates. I prefer jewels!'

As we were walking back to the car, we came across a performance by Piano Paul.  He was jamming away on his mobile piano on wheels with a bike attached.  As you can see, there was quite a crowd gathered.  Piano Paul provided a passionate performance for all the people!
We thought Antwerp was awesome and then we drove for about another hour through the Belgium countryside toward our next stop, Brugge.  Don't miss the post on Brugge!  Coming next.

 

50K = ~30mph construction zone.