Antwerp, Belgium

Never Regret Anything That Made You Smile

 

 Central Station. As you are heading up the 3 flights of escalators your eyes open to more and more of the beautiful inside of Antwerp's Grand Central Station.

Antwerp is the center for diamonds. The city is located at the right bank river of the Scheldt.

Jiemin and I at the beginning of the shopping street.  Antwerp is not just known for diamonds but also FASHION.  We spent a lot of our time shopping.

 Fun Fact: Antwerp is Antwerpen in Flemish.


History of Name:

In the middle ages a mean and nasty giant controlled the river traffic on the Schelde. Sometimes he demanded tolls otherwise he just refused to allow passage. 

Something had to be done about it so a man named Brabo slew the giant, cut off the
giant's hands, and threw them across the river, which is where Antwerp was established.



"Hand" (pronounced like "haunt") is the Flemish word for hand.  "Werpen means "to throw".  Thusthe city came to be known as "handwerpen" in ancient times. Some times the Flemish did not pronounce the "H" and the work evolved into "Antwerpen".


Above picture: the "hand" of the giant and I.

Right: Statue of Brabo throwing the hand and me at the bottome.  This is in the center of grote market, part of the center of the city; a gorgeous square. In the background is part of the town hall.

I'm standing next to the statue of the giant looking down at two drunken men trying to pass the bridge.  In the back is Het Steen, also known as Antwerp Castle. Which has been refurbished many times and now includes a museum inside which was not open when we went.  Het Steen is Antwerp's oldest building build in the early 1200s.

The Scheldt River.

Janice and I next to some frites!  Frites are everywhere, anywhere you go in Belgium.

Next is the fashion museum.  They had a hat exhibit by Stephen Jones.

There were four sections, each introduced with a GIGANTIC size hat relating to that section's theme.  To the left is the first section called adventure - you can see the giant hat in the background.

 Above to the right - creative hat, which, like many in the exhibit, you wouldn't see out in public.

To the left is the group - Me, Jiemin, Allison, Janice, and Alanna.  We're sitting in front of the second section's hat.

It was dimly lit in the exhibit and we weren't allowed to have a flash on our cameras so most pictures are not well lit!

Below is one of the many hats which we were 'wowed' by - many of the hats were quite extravagant, others were super creative, and the one below I would describe as slightly disturbing.

Back at the train station we discovered a little bit of America within Antwerp.  Although we did not purchase a hot dog it was fun to see the giant statue which reminded us of home!