gUnZ reFleCtiOnS: Antwerp 2008

We walked to the Grote Markt (Main Square) and we were impressed by its beauty and the lovely buildings.

Antwerp City Hall

16th-century Guildhouses

Bustling activities at Grote Markt (Antwerp Market Square)

Group photo with Antwerp City Hall

Statue of Brabo and the giant's hand + Antwerp City Hall

Statue of Brabo and the giant's hand + Guildhouses

Horse Carriage

Parisian looking buildings

Bridge

Lion and Cathedral of Our Lady

Antwerp Cityscape

Statue at the bridge

Group photo by the river Scheldt

At Het Steen (The Stone). This is a rather small medieval castle on the banks of the river Schelde. It used to function as a city fortification and now houses a naval museum.

Statue of the water spirit Lange Wappe

Castle Fortifications

Buildings by the river

Riverside walk

Ship on land

Cathedral of Our Lady is very tall

Check out the intricate designs at the main door

Passing by a chuch

The intricate designs on the exterior facade are nice

Walking back to the train station

Hundreds of bicycles parked at the train station

Europeans are generally more environmentally friendly compared to the rest of the world and they like to cycle from one place to another. This saves fuels and does not contribute to air pollution.

Before boarding the train back to Delft

Caught sleeping!

The great thing about EU is that there isn't much border restrictions (no stamping of passports for travel within EU nations, etc) and we comfortably had the smooth train ride from Antwerp (Belgium) to Delft (Netherlands).

End of Krakow and Antwerp 4 day trip.

We woke up at around 1 am to prepare to walk to the bus station to catch our bus to Katowice Airport at 2.30 am. The walk from our hostel to the bus station was a little scary as the streets were empty and there were one or two drunkards hovering around which we kept a distance from. We avoided going through an underpass to the bus station and decided to take a detour via the roads for safety reasons.

The hostel we stayed in Krakow

At the bus station while waiting for the bus

I had booked Wizz Air flight from Katowice to Charleroi Brussels South as it was very cheap and i decided to tour Antwerp along the way from Charleroi back to Delft.

At Charleroi Brussels South Airport

At Charleroi Sud Train Station

A group of European youngsters saw us taking photos and decided to join us for the group photo

Checking the train departure timings to Antwerp

Caught sleeping on the train!

The seats were plush and ride was smooth (and there are toilets in the train cabins)

Inside the elaborately designed Antwerp Train Station

Posing with a lion sculpture

A closer view of the train station interior facade

Antwerp Train Station is a traditional grandiose train station

The exterior facade of the train station

I had planned for a half day walking tour of Antwerp before returning to Delft via train. A short description of Antwerp is as follows. In the 16th century, Antwerp was one of the most important financial centers of the world, where traders from all over Europe and Asia sold and bought their goods. After the siege of Antwerp in 1585 by the Spanish, this role as a financial center was taken over by Amsterdam. Nevertheless, since the 19th century and especially the 20th century, Antwerp has made a serious economic comeback. It is the second largest city in Belgium, after Brussels, and it has a major European port.