Belgium has a common theme for having spectacular town centers and Grote Markt is a prime example…read moreof such. While it doesn't quite live up to its neighbor in Brussels, it is still something to see none the less. It is not the largest square, but it boasts plenty to in and around. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, shopping, and a cathedral all nearby, so again plenty to do. During the winter months, it is decked out with Christmas goodies including a full fledged festival, which is oodles of fun. Could you spend a whole day here, possibly, but quite honestly a few hours is all you need before you move onto your next adventure in the beautiful city of Antwerp.

Super great place to visit, eat, stroll and soak-up. Search for the historic alleyway and make…read moreyour way to the canal and visit the historic building and tourist info building.

We had some time to kill before our train and this showed up as an option to explore since it is…read moreright across from the station. It was meh. Small, a few asian stores and restaurants and nothing else to do Well on second thought the gate was a little cool.

Chinatown looks to be about one street with one of those traditional Chinatown gates. There's…read morestores on both sides of the street (supermarket, bakery, restaurants, doctors office.) Not super interesting and I'm not sure if there's anywhere really good to eat, but it did feel like a real Chinatown (though very small.)

This castle is a short walk from the Antwerp train station! We visited on 10/3/24. It's really nice…read morebecause you can walk around the castle and roof for free. It was a little weird because we expected a very old inside and a old time vibe but the biggest area inside of the castle that's open to the public is a gift shop. It was still a blast to see and I'm glad we went!

Seriously, you have to love a good old medieval castle. Okay, maybe it isn't strictly a medieval…read morecastle, but it still looks like one. Actually, the official title is a gate house, namely because it was used to collect tolls from boats that would stop off in Antwerp as they travelled up the Scheld. The castle was also a prison because, well, what better place to put prisoners than in a cold and dank medieval castle. Apparently it is now a museum, but I didn't get to check out the museum because, well, I couldn't find out where the entrance was located. Still, I did get a change to wander around the castle, which is always something that I love doing, especially since there aren't all that many castles in Australia.

The Sint-Annatunnel connects the left bank of the Schelde River with the right. It was built in the…read more1930's around the same time New York was building the Lincoln Tunnel and Detroit was building a tunnel to Canada. Tunnels were a thing. But while those American tunnels were strictly for cars, the Sint-Annatunnel was built for walkers and cyclists. I'm staying at a campground on the left bank. In the morning, I decide to ride my bike into Antwerp. It's rush hour, so the elevator down to the tunnel is crammed with bike commuters: little kids in their school uniforms, business guys in suits with their pant legs rolled up, and tough grandmas wearing their game faces. Everyone watches one another out of the corner of their eyes as the elevator descends. Sizing up the competition. When the door slides open, the crowd crashes into the the tunnel in a crazy confusion of arms and legs and bike parts. The grannies take the lead, elbowing past the school kids and sending them wobbling into the walls. The tunnel echoes with the buzz of freewheels and the clatter of cranks. The riding is so fast and furious that I feel like I've stumbled into a bike race. Everyone is trying to unseat the reigning grand champ of the morning commute-- one of the old ladies who's probably wearing the yellow jersey under her cardigan. I fall in with the stragglers: a guy with a cast on his arm, and a little girl whose rear tire is nearly flat. The peloton bolts through the tunnel and piles into the elevator waiting at the far end. Then everything goes quiet till the next wave of commuters blasts out of the elevator behind me. The tunnel is like some giant cyclist-powered piston. The one-cylinder engine that Antwerp is powered by.

This pedestrian tunnel is located right smack in the middle of Antwerp near the Scheldt river and…read moretakes you over to Linkeroever area of the city. While the tunnel is simply just a tunnel, the architecture and building is quite amazing to check out. The tunnel is mainly used by cyclists making their way across the city, the lifts at both ends usually fill up with bikes. Another reason why I find the tunnel so cool is the old wooden escalators at both ends. Wooden escalators are a big rarity in the world, there isn't many left. The only other places I've seen them was Macy's in NYC and a transit station in Sydney Australia. A lot of people won't really find them impressive like I do, mainly because I worked on escalators for over 14 years as a mechanic, but it was cool to see such an old piece of machinery still moving and working. They're in pretty good shape as well.

What an awe-inspiring church. The altar itself is something to marvel at alone…read more St. Carolus Borromeus kerk (church) seems to have had several incidents with fire and the elements which stole 39 irreplaceable ceiling paintings, however the ceiling painting toward the altar was spared and gives a glimpse of what once was. The altar alone could be studied for hours. It's ornate and finely detailed with baroque artwork and architecture that is common to a lot of Belgium's churches and buildings. The painting at the altar also is capable of being changed using the original mechanism set in place. St. Carolus is hard to miss if you walk up onto it as the outside of the church is very ornate, as well, utilizing the gold embellishments and certainly a nice stop to study art history and architecture. The inside of this church has been one of my more favorite to have visited thus far. When we visited, the church interior was under construction which seems to be a trend for a lot of churches and cathedrals in the area, but it was nice to just get out of the cold rain and look at beautiful architecture.