Antwerp (Belgium)

~ youkyong

May 2025

Peter Paul Rubens statue

I didn’t know much about Antwerp (population: 562,000 city proper, 1.2 million in metro area) except it’s called the diamond capital of the world and is a major port. The only town in Belgium that we visited before this trip was Bruges (population: 120,000). Thanks to the transatlantic cruises that stop near there, we got to know that pretty little gem of a city rather well. So should we take our travel mates who had never stepped onto Belgium before to the “most beautiful (according to an AI search)” town or Antwerp, which was more on course back to Riel.

I decided on Antwerp because Pat and I had never been there & Antwerp should be interesting enough for all of us, I told myself. Besides, there seemed to be metro stations in the suburbs with huge parking lots off the freeways.

Seoul Club in a major square?

So we parked the cars and hopped on the metro & went into the old town area.

Market Square

I HAVE TO eat 3 things in Belgium: waffles, hot chocolate, and fries. You might get great hot chocolate or fries in Paris or elsewhere, but not the waffles. We were hungry, thus, I didn’t want to shop around. We just went to a famous chain in front of us.

Our travel mates understood my obsession with the waffles as soon as they took a bite. Now you are cursed with happy cravings, friends!
Of course there’s a castle in the old town of Antwerp, too.
And the cathedral
All of the places mentioned above are in the area marked #1.
We took this iconic wooden escalator down to reach the Sint Anna Tunnel, #2 on the map
This underwater tunnel for pedestrians and bicycles connects the left and right banks of Scheldt River. Free to use!
You get this view of the city from the other side.
We got on the metro from that side to go to the Central Station, #3 on the map.
Yes, there’s Chinatown
Meir Street is THE shopping street of Antwerp that links the Central Station area and the old town.

I had a shopping mission: find the best freshly made chocolates for gifts! Surprisingly, there weren’t as many chocolate shops on this stretch. In fact, I had to hunt down hard for it.

So how was Antwerp? It’s a big modern metropolis with a cute, impressive old town. We had no interest in the Diamond District, which supposedly handles close to 80% of the world’s rough diamonds – cutting, polishing, and trading. So we didn’t go there.

Was it the right call to choose it over Bruges? To be honest, Bruges would have been the best showcase for Belgium. Ornate buildings, charming squares, serene canals all in a stroll inducing compact area – and lots of restaurants and street kiosks selling perfect waffles and fries. A ton of chocolate shops, too.

That would have been a detour which might have added two more hours of driving time, though. Well, I will take you there next time, friends, for sure.

On our last day in Riel, we drove to the closest Belgian town that had restaurants to have waffles.

It’s amazing how much difference a 5 mile drive can make in waffle making!