Simply Sofie

It was April 17, 2007 when we went to Antwerp, Belgium. Travel time by train from Dordrecht, Netherlands to Antwerp, Belgium was less than 2 hours. If I remember it right, we probably arrived in Antwerp at past 10:30am. Atinna, Thess and I spent the whole day touring the city of Antwerp.

Before telling you about our trip in Antwerp, I would like to mention that on April 16, 2007 after Beng showed us around the city of Dusseldorf, Atinna and I also left Nettetal, Germany on that same day. Beng brought us to Venlo (already part of the Netherlands), and we took the train from there at past 6:00pm going to Dordrecht. Travel time from Venlo to Dordrecht was less than 2 hours.

We started our tour by walking along De Keyserlei (street), Leysstraat (street), the Meir (street) going to “Rubenshuis” or Rubens’ House along the Wapper (street). “Rubenshuis” is now a museum. Shops are along the streets that I mentioned. I was actually admiring the shops while we were walking. The 18th and 19th century buildings were simply amazing.

Antwerp is the place where Rubens lived and worked for more than 20 years. Rubens’ House is the house where Peter Paul Rubens spent a great deal of his time beginning in 1615.

Peter Paul Rubens was one of the most important artists, a painter at that, during the seventeeth century. He was born on June 28, 1577 in Siegen, Westphalia, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, about 300 km from Antwerp. He died on May 30, 1640.

After seeing Rubens’ House, we roamed around the city. We definitely didn’t forget to visit some churches. We went inside the St. Charles Borromeus Church (St. Carolus Borromeus), and the Cathedral (De Kathedraal), the Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal).

St. Charles Borromeus Church was formerly the St. Ignatius Church, also called The Jesuit Church. It was built between 1615 and 1621 by the Jesuits. Rubens was commissioned to decorate the church. As a painter, he had a hand in the tower, the facade, the high altar, the ceiling ornamented with stucco, and the Houtappel Chapel or Mary Chapel. He was assisted by Anthony van Dyck, another famous Flemish painter of the seventeeth century.

In the 17th century, people could barely find the words to express their admiration for this church. They considered this “marble temple” as the “eight wonder of the world”, a “heaven on earth”.

On July 18, 1718, a fire destroyed the church’s 39 ceiling paintings but it is still the baroque and Rubens’ Church in the former Low Countries.

The Cathedral of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) is the largest Gothic church in the former Low Countries. It took some 170 years to build this church and was completed in 1521. Described as “stone lacework”, its 123 meters tall northern tower still dominates the skyline.

Today, it is partly seventeeth-century baroque, and partly nineteeth-century neo-Gothic. It houses many works of arts including world class paintings by Rubens, The Raising of the Cross and The Descent from the Cross among others.

After we left the Cathedral, we went to the Market Square (Grote Markt) to see the City Hall (Stadthuis) and the Brabo Fountain, then we followed the Suikerrui (street) which led us to the Zuiderwandelterras, the elevated walkway along the Scheldt river near the Steenplein area.

As it was already past 4:00pm, we decided to walk back to the Central Station following the streets of the Meir, Leysstraat and De Keyserlei. Of course, we didn’t forget to eat the famous Belgian waffles. We even met the Filipino guy below selling Belgian waffles.

Please read Thess’s blog entry, vacation adventure: part 1 In holland. She wrote something about our trip in Antwerp too.

Antwerp is known as the diamond center of the world. It is the second largest city of Belgium.

We were supposed to take the train leaving Antwerp few minutes after 5:00pm going to Dordrecht but there was a bomb threat near the Central Station so train schedules changed. The train was delayed and we were only able to leave Antwerp at past 6:00pm. We arrived safely in Dordrecht.

The next day, we went to Kinderdijk and Madurodam, and the day after that to Amsterdam.

Note: This is a follow-up to my blog entry, European Destination 1: Germany, last June 15, 2007.

Update: Edited some links on August 10, 2007 at 4:21pm.