Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, and Ossendrecht
Last Saturday we flew to Amsterdam and began a long weekend of travel hopping through the Netherlands and Belgium. If we’re being honest, this trip was mostly about getting beer in Belgium (for my husband) and visiting some special friends in the Netherlands while Luke is still with us. We did a little bit of sight seeing, a little bit of visiting the cannabis shops, a LOT of eating, and my husband did a LOT of drinking beer.
We got to the Zürich Flughafen early, so I had some cake that apparently warranted a photograph. Our flight was in the evening, so we arrived when it was dark. From my pics, you can see they already have some of the Christmas decorations going up. Or those could be everyday kind of decorations in Amsterdam, who knows. We call Amsterdam the New Orleans of Europe, so they don’t have to have a reason to get the city dressed up. In our tour of the cannabis shops, we discovered that there is LOTS of Dr. Pepper for sale in Amsterdam, so we got some for our hotel room fridge.
The next morning, we did a little sight seeing/walking tour. We went by the Royal Palace, and happened upon the Homomonument. There was a lot of construction, so it was hard to find good canal photo opportunities. The canal photos on the second row are on Prinsengracht, which is the street where the Anne Frank House is located. I think you can see the black door in the second row, second canal photo, just to the left of the tree. I didn’t take any of the front because it feels a little gross to me to pose for Instagram photos right in front of a solemn location like that. We weren’t able to get tickets to go inside for our trip, so maybe next time. That was with about 1 week lead time (no tickets available), so keep that in mind if you’re planning to visit.
Then I just took photos of interesting doors, the hooks on the Dutch buildings that they used to hoist goods up and inside, and other interesting sights. Then we got a message that Cass’s friend would be able to meet us in Antwerp, so we hopped on the train and headed south into Belgium.
The first few pictures are inside the Antwerp Hauptbahnhof, which is a really pretty building. Cass’s friend Harm met us and took us on a walking tour of the city, which took us first to a Baroque church (Saint Charles Borromeo Church). Then we went to the Stadhuis (City Hall) building and the Guild Houses right beside it. The fountain in front of the Stadhuis is said to tell the story of the origin of the name of the city. Here is what the wiki says:
There is a folklore tradition that the name Antwerpen is from Dutch handwerpen ("hand-throwing"). A giant called Antigoon is said to have lived near the Scheldt river. He extracted a toll from passing boatmen, severed the hand of anyone who did not pay, and threw it in the river. Eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. This is unlikely to be the true origin, but it is celebrated by a statue in the city's main market square, the Grote Markt.
If you look at the top of the fountain, the young hero is holding the giant’s severed hand, and there is water spouting from the hand.
We had a nice meal with Harm, and pretty soon we were on the train to spend the night in Brussels. We made it in time to go to Cass’s place, Moder Lambic, where he can get some of his favorite beers on draft. After learning about waffle types from Harm, I was able to find a sweet Belgium waffle that turned out to be delicious (and messy, but totally worth it).
Yet again Harm agreed to be our tour guide in Brussels, so he met us and we did a walking tour of the city. And again, the town hall and the guild houses are some of the prettiest buildings in the city, and the wiki tells me that this town hall is considered a masterpiece of civil Gothic architecture (and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Then we walked through the gardens to the Royal Palace of Brussels and some other sites of interest in that part of the city.
No trip to Brussels would be complete without a visit to Cantillon Brewery and Brussels Museum of the Gueze. This is Cass’s happy place. We brought a small suitcase inside a large suitcase so that we would have plenty of space to pack the beer he planned to purchase. We left with as much as we could carry.
The last photo is of the little metal discs on the ground on the train platforms in Belgium. When people walk over them, it sounds like tap shoes.
After our tour of Brussels, Harm drove us back to the Netherlands to Ossendrecht to visit with our friends/the rest of his family. They are all family members of a long-time work friend of Cass’s, and he likes to get by to visit them when he is “in the neighborhood.” Until now, I hadn’t been on any of the European work trip/vacations with him, so this was my first time to go with him to visit them. It was definitely too brief and we unfortunately didn’t take any photos, but it was nice to see all of them. Ossendrecht is a cute village, from the little bit I saw of it. After our short visit, Harm drove us to the train station in Bergen op Zoom to catch the train back to Amsterdam.
The last day, we had tickets for the Van Gogh Museum. Interesting things: Red Cabbages and Onions is the second painting pictured, the chair is Gaugin’s chair, I had no idea he did Japanese subjects, the blue painting with white flowers is called Almond Blossoms and he did it for the birth of his nephew, a lot of his work (a LOT) is something-something “Of the Asylum”, he must have painted a lot while he was there. His brother Theo was left with all of his work upon Vincent’s death, but Theo died 6 months later, so it was left to Theo’s widow. She did a lot of the work getting attention that made him famous, and she then left the collection to her son/Van Gogh’s nephew Willem who established the Van Gogh Foundation.
The last few pictures are just scenes from Amsterdam as we walked around. Our return flight wasn’t until 9pm that evening, so he had a lot of time to kill. We weren’t able to get in to the Rijksmuseum, so we were kind of out of luck for seeing stuff. It was a little cold and windy and threatening to rain, so it wasn’t the greatest day to be out walking around.
This was a fun trip! We were anxious about flying, mostly because they give you a list of hoops to jump through, then don’t ask for most of those things they required but you can’t not do them and get stuck in the case that they DO ask for it. That’s what’s frustrating. That, and everybody has different rules for what they want. Hopefully, that will just get better with time.