Antwerp and Ghent

Antwerp is a port city in the Northern region of Belgium best know for producing diamonds. We decided to visit Antwerp on January 2nd, coincidentally, the same day used by the museums and attractions as an extended holiday. With nothing to visit, we spent the day outside following a self-guided walking tour of the city that turned out much better than expected.

This statue shows the origin of the word Antwerp. There is a tale that tells how a giant was ravaging the city and a young man, named Brabo, cut off its hand and threw it away. 'Ant' means hand and 'werpen' means throw, giving the Dutch name of Antwerpen.




This building is one of the cities many cathedrals.

This statue shows 4 of builders of the cathedral.

the front door of the cathedral

and the interior

This building is the town hall.

Antwerp is full of cute streets with even cuter buildings.

This is a statue of Henrick Conscience. He is a famous writer who was so loved that all of the Belgians learned to read so that they could enjoy his work.

Charles the 5th, the renovator of...

The steen, now the Maritime museum of Belgium

which has a statue of this 'devil' who creates havoc for the drunks of the city as they return home from the pubs. I think it looks like he's trying to pee on them.

As we strolled through Antwerp's famous red light district, we discovered (amoung many other things) an outdoor urinal. Oh the joys of being a man. The red light district was also interesting because it is the first I've ever seen where women rent chairs in front of windows to entice the window shopping men who fill the streets. Nothing is shown, except a lot of skin, but it is quite shocking when you first see the mass amounts of windowns.

After our visit to Antwerp we experienced the first snow of the year (and of the season for Belgium). It was just a light dusting, but enough.

The following day we travelled to Ghent with Ineke and her father (he was born and raised in this ancient textile city)

Ghent is symbolized by 'the three towers'

This tower belongs to the St Nicholas's Churchcathedral, and is the first of the 3 towers

The 2nd tower is St. Bavo's Cathedral

This houses the original copy of 'Adoration of the Mystic Lamb' an alter painting that has 1 missing piece---and makes up Ghent's biggest (and longest) mystery. It has been missing for over 70 years.

The Belfry (the town bell tower) displays an interesting (and crude) carving. This picture tells the story of a man who was sentenced to strave to death in the prison (though he claimed to be innocent and many of the townspeople also thought him innocent). His daughter, who had recently given birth, visited him every day and fed him from her breast.

Since he was 'miraculously' surviving his starvation, he was then beleived to be innocent and was set free.

Another statue (known commonly as the 5 pissers)

We also visited the Castle of the Counts. Here are some pictures:

Outside of the castle we were back to the beauty of Ghent.

This statue is pointing the way to England (not heiling Hitler)

After marvelling in the beauty that is Ghent, we decided we wanted a picture taken. Easier said than done. Here is the saga...

First we had to figure out where to stand ('I'll come down' 'no. I'll go up')

Then we get rid of the ridiculous hats and fix our hair...

Then the picture. But of course we need just one more...

But then we get annoyed.

That's why you usually only see pictures of the places...not the people.

This inside of St. Peter's Cathedral

So the consensous is that Ghent makes it into the top 3 most beautiful Eurpoean cities we've seen so far. It might even been number 1, but then again, we've still got Rome on the way.

A Belgian New Year

New Year's Eve Belgian style began with a wonderful meal that basically consisted of meat on a grill....Canadian heaven!!

Mat and Ineke are eager to start chewing




The meat comes in a pack and you put it on the grill. Each person gets to cook theirs exactly as they wish. It's a little like a hotpot.







Ineke, showing us how it's done.

Yum


Dessert was a wonderful fondue with marshmallows, toffee and fudge. I love chocolate, but I'd never thought of dipping sugar into sugar. It was good, but for the first time in a while---wait for it----I was sugared out.

That could be because we began our New year celebrations by consuming a large portion of this 2009 chocolate basket (all made out of chocolate) that was our Christmas present from Ineke. Belgians really do like their chocolate---and they do it well.

The drinking began at a bar for Youth in the small village of Arschot. There weren't many people there, but we hung out with Ineke's brother Stajn and his girlfriend Natalie.

Mat continued his quest to try as many Belgian beers as he could.

Our first picture of 2009. And our first New Year as a married couple.

Mat was just a little excited

We watched fireworks outside

Thank goodness it was beautiful, because it was minus 5 degrees.

Though she doesn't drink, Ineke bought sparkling wine for our consumption (mostly Stajn's because we kept pouring it into his glass)

Here is Stajn with Mat, after a few glasses of bubbly. Romance was in the air.

JANUARY 1st: THE RACE OF THE YEAR!!

We began 2009 by partaking in some very serious Belgian traditions. Each year there is a cycling race on an outdoor field track. When they were describing it to us it sounded like a bunch of drunk old farmers riding around their fields. It is not. It's a hugely important race, almost Olympic. The pride of Belgium is in Sven Nys, who had won 7 out of the last 9 races. Wearing the Belgian colours as the previous champion, Sven was clearly the crowd favourtie....but would he win??

At minus 5 degrees, the most important thing was the consumption of the traditional New Year's alcohol (Geneva). It is like drinking rubbing alcohol, but it does keep you warm.

This is a very bad picture taken of the ticket for the race. It is a race named after Sven Nys (who graces the ticket). Eventhough he is not dead, or even retired, he has his own race. I suppose this speaks to his talent, and the love felt for him by the Belgian people.

A photo of Sven leading the way. He lead for the majority of the 1 hour race, but also briefly fell back. Mat and I think it was all for the suspense, because the lead he won with was HUGE!!! And Belgium rejoyced!!

After the race, we visited Ineke's grandmother for their traditional New Year gathering.

This is Ineke and her youngest brother Bart.

As a New Year gift from Grandma, we were given a bottle of wine (see how amazingly welcoming and hospitable this family is). The shocking and amazing thing was that the wine was actually La Croix wine. This was a complete coincidence. How bizarre...and hopefully tasty.