Antwerp, Belgium

The next morning we woke up early to catch tram back to Ghent St Pieters station and a train to Antwerp Central. Antwerp was a major power in global trade in the 16th century (roughly 40% passed through its ports) and grew rich on the pepper and textile market. However, it declined in fortune when the Dutch took control and trade moved to Amsterdam in preference to Antwerp.In modern times Antwerp is best-known for the diamond trade with 80% of the world's rough cut diamonds passing through the city's 'diamond district' and many retail shops offering a range of jewellery 

Sightseeing in Antwerp

As we only had hours to spend in Antwerp, we headed down the main pedestrian strip towards the Cathedral and the Christmas Markets.

Outside Antwerp Central Station, voted as one of the most
beautiful train stations in the world

One of the buildings at the beginning
of the shopping strip

Statue of Anthony van Dyck, court painter of England

A pretty pink pigeon

An old statue - unsure of its purpose as the
inscription was in French

Christmas Markets

The Christmas markets at Antwerp were spread across a number of sites from the Cathedral to the Grote Market - the big medieval Town Square.

At the square near the Cathedral

Grote Market

Antwerp Christmas Markets

Antwerp Tourist Trail

To help tourists navigate their way around, the Antwerp Tourism office has divided the city into various tourist areas with signs outlining notable buildings and monuments. Near the port, the facade of a medieval castle - Het Steen is very picturesque and is also Antwerp's oldest building.

Het Steen - medieval castle by the port

Looking towards the old port

Antwerp Butcher's Hall (Vleeshuis)
The Antwerp Butcher's Hall (Vleeshuis) is a striking red and white building that was built that way to replicate fat marbled in meat.

The towers of Vleehuis

Beautiful decorations along the walls

Enjoying the Christmas atmosphere

Back at the Christmas Markets, we ate more potatoes with sour cream and bacon (perfect for a cold day) and a big cup of gluhwein. We noticed that the Christmas trees had been shipped in from Norway - reminding us of our Christmas last year; and a choir of carolers performed for the crowd.

Norwegian pine tree

Christmas carollers

Moules and Frites

In the afternoon we felt the need to revisit one of our favourite aspects of Belgian culture - moules, frites and Belgian beer at a restaurant near the Cathedral. Due to the size of the servings, we struggled to finish our pots of shellfish and in our lethargic state lost track of time. 

A big pot of moules

Celebrating with Belgian beer

Dash back to Antwerp Central Station

We soon realised that we had only 15 minutes to head back to Antwerp Central station to catch the train to Brussels for our connection to London. We put our recent gym training to test, sprinting like mad tourists through the Christmas shopping strip back to the train station where we made it to the platform with just 3 minutes to spare - an exhausting end to trip to Belgium

**Connect With Us**

This post was written by: Culture Stamps
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.
To connect with us and see snippets of our Culture Stamp travel adventures:

• Follow Culture Stamps on Twitter 
• LIKE our Culture Stamps Page on Facebook