May 2025

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.

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

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.

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.

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

May 2025

Visiting Ghent was like walking into a museum. The whole city, every corner, was photogenic and whispered a story or two.

It is the third biggest city in Belgium (after Brussels and Antwerp) with a population of 265,000 people & the feel is not a cozy little town. But it still looks like a fairy tale town on steroids.

We checked into a spacious 3 bedroom house (Airbnb) with ample parking, 12 minutes outside of the center. Then we drove to one of the parking structures surrounding the old town center. As soon as we walked out of the concrete structure, the splendor that is Ghent hit us with a bang.

Our eyes were happy to be filled with beautiful sites, but the stomachs were growling since we had not had a real lunch.

Ghent is a major port city – a 58 km canal connects it to the North Sea. Ghent University adds 50,000 students to the city. These factors definitely seem to influence the vibrancy of the town.

Ghent deserved at least a couple of full days. If you want to walk into any of the buildings, you will need even more time. They have plenty of museums, too.

May 2025

I decided to do a mini Benelux excursion. We were already in the “Netherlands”, thus, we just had to add Luxembourg and Belgium. We spent one night in each country.

We drove south from Riel and, in 80 minutes, reached the attractive southern city of Maastricht, still in the Netherlands. We did a quick walk around and had a good lunch.

Luxembourg City is two hours south from there. The mountain scenery on the way was very pleasant.

Luxembourg City (population: 136,000), the capital and the biggest city in the country of Luxembourg, was not on my radar sooner because it was known as a high income expensive city to visit. Recently, though, I kept running into the articles describing the beauty of the place. One night won’t break the bank, I decided.

I chose a clean, functional Ibis Styles Hotel ($130) near the main train station mainly because parking our two cars might be easier in that area, which is a bit off from the center but still close enough.

Luxembourg is doing so well financially that they can afford to provide free public transportation for everyone. We happily took advantage of that service and got to the Cathedral, Notre Dame of Luxembourg, shown above. Close to one half of the people of Luxembourg are Catholics.

Luxembourg first became rich because they found large iron ore deposits in the 1840’s, which got the steel industry going – it’s still active to this day. Then they got into financing and banking, including wealth management. Its 766,000 people live very comfortably with a per capital GDP of over $130,000 – #1 in the world. (This number is so high partly because 46% of the workforce live in France, Germany or Belgium and work in Luxembourg, thus, they contribute to the GDP but not counted for the per capita calculation.)

70% of the people of Luxembourg City are foreign born & 160 counties of origin are represented. It definitely is a multicultural city with plenty of well educated professionals.

We ordered two Mezze towers & had a feast. It wasn’t even a top rated restaurant, but the food was as good as at highly rated Mideastern restaurants in the U.S. I guess multicultural means better ethnic food. The final bill was like 20-25 euros per head including drinks. Thanks to the price hikes in the restaurants in the U.S. during and after the pandemic, Americans can be assured they will not be shocked by restaurant bills outside the U.S.

After a satisfying meal, we were too tired to walk back to the museum.

We covered most of this area in a few hours walking extremely slowly taking too many photos.

The next morning we drove down to the area called the Grund District shown on the right hand side of the map. We had noticed a handsome looking abbey there the previous day & I wanted to check it out.

You got a closer view of the fortresses from there. There were many restaurants and bars along that side of the river.

Luxembourg City was surprisingly friendly and we didn’t experience much sticker shock. Now I know, I will not shy away if an opportunity pops up to go there again. Maybe the stay can be even longer than one night.