Antwerp-ish

What a rainy day.

We packed the car up and headed out of Antwerp towards Mechelen to see St. Romboutskathedraal, a massive cathedral that took a really long time to build - so long that by the time the church was finally consecrated, part of the building was unstable. The tower was also never completed because it was thought that it couldn’t take any more weight so there is no spire, which makes it look quite different than most cathedrals. With it being rainy, we didn’t consider heading up the tower but stayed safely on the ground, instead, peaking inside and then touring around the main square in Mechelen for a few minutes.

Then it was on to Lier, to see Zimmertoren and the Begijnhof. It was rainy so we didn’t stay long and I’m not entirely sure we saw the whole Begijnhof? It also wasn’t quite what I expected, I thought it would be similar to the Santa Catalina monastery in Arequipa - but it really was just like most of the streets we’ve seen. We debated about whether or not we should skip the Begijnhof in Turnhout but the guidebook said it was very pretty so we headed off. It was much more in line with what we were expecting so I’m happy we didn’t cut it, though it would have been nice if the rain had gone away.

Then, it was time to head to Bruges. The drive was slow back through Antwerp but even with the slow traffic, it didn’t take long. What did take a while was getting through the throngs of tourists to get to the hotel. So many people, even with it being low tourist season. We splurged on a canal view room for our three nights here and we do have a really great view!

We have a full day tomorrow so since we got here a bit early, we decided to try to get up the belfry today. It was still rainy but it’s just around the corner from the hotel so off we went. We were able to get in before it closed to tickets and headed up the 350+ steps. Happily, there were several rooms to stop in on the way up, learning a bit more about how the belfry works. Once up at the top, we got some pretty good views of Bruges but the rain and wind didn’t encourage a lot of thoughtful gazing out over the city. EDP had seen a waffle truck from the top that he was interested in finding but we couldn’t figure out where it was, each way we went proved to be the wrong way. So we gave up and popped into the House of Waffles to get a Liege waffle (something that eluded me in Brussels) and it was DELICIOUS. As recommended, we got it plain. And as promised, it was slightly chewy and caramelized and wonderful from the first bite to the last. FAR superior to the Brussels waffle (what we know in North America as a Belgian waffle) and perfect in every way.

We ended our day with a little restaurant not far from the hotel for more croquettes, of course. I just can’t get enough of them! I could live on a steady diet of cheese croquettes and Liege waffles. Tomorrow, we’ll explore more of Bruges and the weather is looking a little better!

Antwerp

Antwerp is really not very far from Brussels.

Okay, so I know Belgium is a small country. But I didn’t appreciate how small? We were up and back at the airport by 7:30 this morning, picking up our car and on our way out of Brussels in no time. Even with rush hour traffic, we were only about 45 minutes to get Antwerp. Which was good because Antwerp was the day I worried the most about not having enough time to see everything. But we got the car parked near the hotel and managed to get the train station and entryway to the zoo in before anything really opened. And yes, I wanted to see the train station and the entry to the zoo. The Antwerp train station is pretty consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful train station in the world. It lived up to the expectations. The main part of the station was stunning but even the tracks were nice. The tracks stack on top of each other instead of spreading out - so the bottom level was the metro and then there was floor above that with tracks, then a floor that looked like it was just shopping and then a very top floor, which looked like it had the international trains? Regardless, it was really, really nice. And so was the entry to the zoo.

From there, we went to Rubenhuis, the house of Rubens. You often hear about famous artists dying penniless (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Cezanne…) but Rubens clearly did just fine while he was alive. His house was enormous. It started as just a normal house but then he kept buying the properties around him to expand his house. He was a fan of Italy and created a big Italian-style garden, which was lovely. I think we were through Rembrandt’s house in about 20 minutes when we visited it a few years back but Rubens’ took us much longer.

Then, it was off to Museum Plantin-Moretus, which was freaking awesome. Plantin was a book printer, at one point, the largest in the world - the museum was his family home and printing office. He was wildly successful and the business stayed in the family for 300+ years. We saw some of the oldest printing presses in the world, along with the type cases where all the letters were held (including the font that would eventually become Times New Roman!) plus the most amazing books. We saw a 36-line Gutenberg bible, one of 14 remaining in the world, and the first atlas. It was so incredible, it’s easily been my favourite part of the trip and one of the highlights of all of our travels.

After that, it was on to Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, a cathedral that has nothing to do with St. Catherine, no matter how much EDP tries to insist otherwise. It held some early Rubens and had a small area where you could see the foundation of the first of the churches that were on the spot. After lunch, we headed to St-Jacobskerk, which is mostly closed for renovations & restorations but we were still able to see some it, including Rubens’ tomb with the painting he did specifically for it.

Our final stop for the day was De Ruien, a walking tour in the city’s original sewers. Antwerp, like Bruges, originally had canals, which fed drinking water to the residents. But they also used it to get rid of their waste so after a while, everyone started dying of cholera and they thought maybe they should end the practice. So the canals were covered! And we took a walk in them. The tour was 90 minutes and about 1.5 km long but it really didn’t need to be. When we did the underground in Naples, we saw lots of different types of tunnels and rooms and I had high hopes for something similar here. But it was just all the same. Had we realized, we probably would have passed.

With our sights all seen, we headed to our hotel for a few minutes, where I left EDP to dash over to the Chocolate Line, as recommended by Charlotte. I was fairly restrained, as by now, my suitcase is 90% chocolate. But I am pretty excited for what appears to be the world’s most expensive gourmet Twix bar.

Our final stop for the day was dinner, just steps down the street from the hotel at a charming little place called de Arme Duivel. I had cheese croquettes (duh…) and EDP had boar. Both were incredible. I ended with a dame Blanche, which is basically just an ice cream sundae but it’s on the menu EVERYWHERE so I figured I should have at least one. It was a pretty good ice cream sundae.

Tomorrow, we make our way to Bruges, stopping in a few little towns along the way. It’s supposed to rain all day, so a good day to be in the car.

Brussels

Hello from the land of the praline, my one true love.

We landed in Brussels yesterday, early in the morning, and after dropping our bags off at the hotel, we headed towards Grand-Place to start exploring. Grand-Place was amazing, lined with these beautiful buildings, all decked out in gold, glittering in the sun, which we now know are all the guild halls. The town hall - still used as the town hall today - was on one side with its asymmetrical features while the gothic building with its perfect symmetry mocked it from across the square. We wandered around for a few minutes before deciding to take the Sandeman’s city walking tour with Tom. Despite sounding like he was from a cornfield in Nebraska (his description, not ours) Tom was an excellent guide and took us around the city, telling us some pretty tall tales (and now I understand where my love of making up ridiculous explanations comes from…) We got to see lots of things we hadn’t planned on visiting - like Manneken Pis - and had a delicious hot chocolate halfway through the tour, too!

Then it was on to some museums. We originally planned on doing the Musée Oldmasters yesterday and Musée Magritte today. Turns out, they are in the same building and right by where our tour ended. So we did both of them, along with the Musée Fin-de-Siècle. We saw some amazing works by Rubens and Bruegel - and of course, Magritte. All three museums were a great way to spend a few hours and we were happy we were able to see them, since the Oldmasters isn’t open on Mondays.

Then, it was time for a late lunch - fries! We headed to a place mentioned on the walking tour, Café Georgette, getting two cornets of frites. DELCIOUS! Beef fat really does make the fry. Once full, we headed back to the hotel for a shower, a nap, and a rest before dinner. Dinner wasn’t far from the hotel, EDP got a steak with mushroom sauce and I went for the cheese croquettes. Very cheesy. Followed by a very chocolatey mousse. These Belgians do not mess around when it comes to their chocolate, let me tell you.

Today was one of our most important days in Belgium - chocolate tour day. Because we had already visited the museum that was on the itinerary for this morning, we spent some time finding something else to do before our 3:30 tour. You’d think it wouldn’t be that hard but not much is open on a Monday in Brussels. We finally settled on visiting Mini-Europe, an “amusement park” of Europe’s most famous sites & buildings at 1/25th scale. I was a begrudging participant, at best, particularly since it was outdoors and it was raining. But we really couldn’t find anything else that suited our interest so off to the metro we went, stopping for breakfast on the way. We were soon at Mini-Europe’s door and after forking over what I felt was a completely ridiculous amount of money, we headed in. We saw a rather boring mini-EU parliament building and then the skies opened and it POURED. We took refuge in a gazebo until the worst of it was over before venturing backing out and into the main area. Which I promptly became completely enamoured by, given the cheekiness of the designers. Many of the displays had animations (like a naked woman emerging from a sauna and jumping into the water) or amusing components, like a car crash or a Brexit protest. I found these hilarious and Mini-Europe suddenly became worth every Euro we spent. It was also surprisingly fun to guess what things were before seeing the signs and to add a couple of places to visit to the never-ending list. I will say, though, the gift shop was an incredible disappointment.

Then, we headed back to Grand-Place for a light lunch (wine, cheese and meats) before the chocolate tour - also with Sandemans. Which was fantastic. Our guide, Charlotte, knew a lot about chocolate, telling us about how the Belgian praline was invented - by a guy named Jean Neuhaus who had an ah-ha moment when the medicines he lightly coated in chocolate in his apothecary shop proved a little too popular. He started focusing on chocolates and eventually invented the filled chocolate. His wife invented the box you get chocolates in (the ballotin) when the chocolates were getting crushed in the little bags they came in. Figures a woman had to be the one to say “yo, dude - just put them in a box!” Neuhaus was our first stop where we got to try a vanilla or raspberry praline. Delicious! We also visited Mary’s, the first lady chocolatier, who also was the first to start decorating her ballotin. Her designs are still used today, though are mass-produced instead of hand-painted. All the chocolates are still hand-made, though, which is why you can only get Mary’s chocolates in her shops, not on every corner you see. At Mary’s, we also learned about why white chocolate is still chocolate and got to try a ruby truffle. Our third stop was Corné Port-Royal, started by a fellow whose family thought he was nuts for opening a chocolate shop, until he was wildly successful and then they opened shops with the family name, too, hence the Port-Royal part of the name that Corné tacked on the end to distinguish his shops. There, I had a salted caramel chocolate (delish!) and EDP had a dark chocolate with ganache. Then, it was next door to Galler, where we had a very dark chocolate, which wasn’t as bitter as Charlotte made it sound like it would be. We ended our tour at Frederic Blondeel where EDP had a laurel praline and a rum praline and I had a passion fruit praline and a cinnamon praline. The laurel was a delightful surprise and the cinnamon was wonderful.

When the tour was done, we swung back around to the shops I didn’t get a chance to make a purchase at during the tour - yes, I have now acquired something from every shop. We won’t get into how much - especially since there’s a chocolate shop that Charlotte told us is the best in Belgium that wasn’t on the tour. It has a store in Antwerp so I’m going to try to get it it tomorrow. Anyway. I have a lot of chocolate now. Let’s just say I spent more than I should have but less than you’d expect.

We finished off our day at a little pub around the corner from the hotel with some ciders and a burger for me and meatballs for EDP. Now, we’re packing up for an early start tomorrow. We’re heading to the airport to pick up our car and drive up to Antwerp, where we have a PACKED day ahead of us. Good thing I bought some chocolates to keep us sustained!

The Trip that EDP Built

We have a long-standing tradition in this house of me planning, scheduling, and pre-booking every minute of every trip and EDP wanting to murder me. He is also responsible for choosing restaurants while we’re away and anything to do with a rental car. In my defence, I’ve really mellowed out in the last few years. Case in point - when we did the Amalfi Coast in June, I not only shifted which day we headed to Capri at the last minute but I also said “sounds good, let’s do it” when EDP cautiously showed me a pamphlet for a private ferry trip to the island that he got from our hotel front desk. I think we were both confused when I agreed it was a better idea than trying to get on the regular ferry.

Anyway. That’s not the point. The point is, I do our trip planning and given the seriousness with which I undertake it, you’d think the future of humanity depended on it. But this fall, we’re going to Belgium and Luxembourg. And EDP did all the work. Okay, well, I still colour-coded the itinerary and made not-so-subtle comments about promotional offers to pre-book parking at Pearson but he did like… 98% of it.

We’re headed to Belgium & Luxembourg in a couple of weeks. My mom was born in Belgium, coming to Canada when she was pretty young so still has a lot of extended family over there. She and my dad made it back a few years ago to visit some of that family and now, there’s some kind of party or something that they are headed back for next month and asked my sister & I if we wanted to go, too. I can’t speak to my sister’s motivations, but the chocolate and the waffles were enough to get me signed up. And somehow, I managed to convince EDP that since it was my family trip, he had to plan it.

What ended up on the itinerary?

• A couple of days in Brussels to take in the town hall, the Grand Place, a few museums and a chocolate tour

• A packed day in Antwerp to see Rubenhuis, another museum, a few churches and the underground city

• A day in Lier & Turnhout to see the beginhofs and a very fancy clock

• A day in Bruges for a canal tour, another beginhof, another church, another museum, and another chocolate tour

• A day in Ghent for a bridge, a belfry, a very large church, a castle and a market

• A couple of family days

• A couple of days in Luxembourg for more castles

• A day in the grottos with a castle tacked on, for good measure

It feels weird to have had relatively little to do to prep for the trip so I haven’t even started packing yet. Maybe I’ll do that tonight.

Amalfi

For our last day along the Amalfi coast, we got back on the ol’ SITA bus and headed for Amalfi and Atrani.

Like our last bus ride, we headed into Sorrento to catch the bus early in hopes of getting seats. We did! Yay! This trip into Amalfi was faster than our previous trip, though we did hit a guard rail at one point. Which, btw, I would like points for not being the most panicked person on the bus when that happened. I barely even noticed - ask EDP! Soon, we were in Amalfi and heading up towards Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea. It was easy enough to find and we were soon in the cloisters, heading into the museum. Most cathedrals are just the church - but Cattedrale di Sant’Andrea has transformed itself into a museum, as well. So, we wound our way through the museum, down into the crypt (which was the most elaborate crypt I can remember seeing) and then through the church before heading back out into the sunshine.

The other thing we wanted to do today (okay, the other thing I wanted to do today) was head over to Atrani. It’s only about 500m or so away from Amalfi and you can walk there quite easily. We didn’t have much in the way of a map so we did the best we could with the little map from the guidebook, finding some tiny alleys that led us into the square where there is a tunnel that takes you most of the way. At the end of the tunnel, we went a bit further down the road and then down a number of steps to land on the coast. It took us all of 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other and given that it was still fairly early in the day, EDP declined lunch at a restaurant that came highly recommended (and frankly, was pretty much the main reason to head over to Atrani…) so we wandered into what seemed to be the main square and then heading back to Amalfi, following the signs that wound us through the residential alleys of Atrani, climbing tonnes of stairs but avoiding the bland tunnel and the Amalfi coast road. It took us about 15 minutes and we were soon right back at the Amalfi marina where we were then presented with an incredibly important choice.

Which beach to choose?

I had intended us to head to Duoglio, which is only about one km away but has about 400 steps you need to descend to get to the beach. It’s a bit sandier than most of the rather rocky beaches in the area and given that it’s not in the middle of major tourist towns, I presumed it would be a bit quieter. Well, the existence of the 400 steps was enough for me to be overruled and told we would be spending our beach time in Amalfi with the rocks and the children. So back to Amalfi we went when we then had to decide which of the various beaches we wanted to pick. Well, essentially, we chose based on umbrella. There were several different beaches with blue umbrellas, a beige-y one, a yellow & green striped one and a red & white striped one. We went with red & white and were soon settled in our loungers, sipping Prosecco and enjoying our last bit of downtime. We spent some time in the water, with me being brave and flailing out further than I usually do. There were no jellyfish stings this time around though there were many more potential victims in the water for them to pick on. We enjoyed a tasty lunch up in the restaurant - with one last Aperol spritz for me - and then lounged around on the beach for the afternoon. The sun was warm and the waves were crashing and I didn’t even fall asleep!

Around 5, we called it a day and headed back to Sorrento for one last dinner before packing up for the flight home. With a 2pm flight out of Rome and three trains needed to get there, we figured aiming for an 11am arrival would give us enough of a buffer to miss a quick connection and still make our flight. Early this morning, our cab picked us up for our last trip down into town, we got onto the Circumvesuviana (caught an express one this time, I think!) and soon were in the Naples station, booking tickets for the 2 hour trip into Rome. It was a quiet ride and we were in Rome just a few minutes too late to catch the Leonardo Express that was leaving shortly after our arrival so we got tickets for the next one and waited the half hour for it to arrive. It whisked us away to the airport where we had plenty of time to drop our bags, go through Rome’s incredibly speedy security and then settled ourselves for lunch before the flight. Before we knew it, we were back in Toronto, claiming our bags and heading home.

Now there is laundry to do, photos to sort through, a dog to pick up… Oh, and time to get on booking the next trip - Belgium & Luxembourg in October. It’s pretty much already planned, just gotta get things booked.

Paestum & Ravello

When we started planning this trip, I knew really early on that Paestum was one of the sights I’d want to see the most. And not long after, I realized that Paestum was going to be one of the hardest things to fit in, given that it’s about a 2-3 hour trip from Amalfi and being based in Sorrento would add at least another hour to that. But we eventually decided to rent a car for just one day and Paestum got back in the itinerary

Paestum, or more accurately, the Archeological Park of Paestum has some of the best preserved Greek ruins in the world. It’s not part of the Amalfi coast but part of Cilento on the other side of Salerno. We don’t have plans to come back to Italy in the near future and when we do, it’ll likely be to the north so that EDP can snowboard or somewhere along the east coast. So this seemed like my best chance to see Paestum. Because of it’s location, you can access it via the crazy Amalfi coast road or you can head north and take a major highway. Once we realized that, renting a car became much more feasible and we booked the only automatic car we could find in Sorrento.

This morning, we picked that car up and tried to start heading toward Paestum. Unfortunately, the cell strength isn’t great around here so we couldn’t get directions up on EDP’s phone. I knew we needed to head towards Salerno and the A3 so EDP made his best guess at what direction to go and off we went while I tried to get the directions. We did get them soon enough and after getting a bit turned around as to what way we were supposed to go, we were on our way. We were on a lot of city streets and back roads, though - it didn’t feel like we were quite on the right path. We made it into Pompei (or maybe only near Pompei?) without taking a highway. We then started seeing signs for the A3, but the map wasn’t sending us that way. That’s when EDP pulled over, fiddled with his phone for a few minutes and then handed back saying that we’d be good now because he had turned off the “avoid toll roads” option. Which explained a LOT.

It wasn’t long before we made it to Paestum, got the car parked, lathered on the sunscreen, armed ourselves with tickets & a little guide and headed into the ruins. Wandering through the ruins - the forum, the temples, the amphitheatre - was amazing, I loved every minute of it. The three temples are in amazing condition and with two of them, you could go right into the temple and see things right up close. I’m so happy we were able to fit it into our itinerary and I think EDP enjoyed it much more than he expected.

Then it was back into the car to make our way over to Ravello. Ravello wouldn’t have been overly difficult to reach by bus - it’s just past Amalfi so after the initial bus ride into Amalfi, it would have only been another half hour or so to get to Ravello. But with it being at the very end of the coast, it made sense to combine it with our Paestum day. We did have to drive along some hairpin turn roads but not on the crazy Amalfi coast road - I think I only worried about dying once and I didn’t even need an Ativan. We saw some sheep and some goats and a fair number of horses along the drive but not a lot of other cars or buses. Once in Ravello, we headed into Villa Rufolo, which is renowned for its garden & views out over the waters. The views were quite nice and I even managed to get up to the top of the tower for a very quick look from the highest point. Then it was on to Villa Cimbrone, also known for the gardens & views. Maybe it was just because it was so hot by that point but I wasn’t overly impressed with the garden but the views were quite nice. I certainly preferred Villa Rufolo.

Once we were done at Villa Cimbrone, we looked at the clock and thought it might be possible to get back to Sorrento and return the car before closing so that we didn’t have to find the drop-off location. Stopping for a quick lemon sorbet on the way back to the car - that I ended up drinking more than eating - we were back on the hairpin roads and heading for Sorrento. It was easy enough to start and for a few minutes, we thought we might make it back to the car rental place before it closed. Then we started hitting traffic and our ETA kept creeping up. It would have been faster to walk the last ten km or so - I joked with EDP that I’d get out of the car and start walking and we’d see who got there first. In the end, we didn’t get back anywhere near enough in time to return the car so we dropped it off at the drop-off lot and walked the rest of the way back into the old historic centre where we ended up having one of the best meals of our trip.

We had passed by this little restaurant called O’ Murzill a few times and there was always a crowd out front while the restaurant next door had literally no one in it. That seemed like a pretty good recommendation and we were fairly early in the evening so we figured we’d give it a shot and sure enough, we were able to get a table inside. There were so many things on the menu that looked fantastic so we ended up decided to share two pasta dishes and a chicken dish (along with a bottle of Prosecco.) One of the pasta dishes was oriechette with sausage and artichoke sauce, which was amazing and the other was a tagliatelle with bolognese, which was also fantastic. The chicken was roasted with tomatoes and mushrooms and was SOOOO good.

After the frustration of yesterday, it was nice that things went a bit smoother today. Tomorrow should be another smooth day. We’re heading off to Amalfi for the day, exploring Amalfi and Atrani in the morning and then hanging out on the beach for our last afternoon. The forecast is calling for another hot and sunny day so it sounds like the perfect day for the beach.