Antwerp, Belgium (Part 2), March 22nd

Moving On... Ok, so now we're finally to the doors of the Cathedral of Our Lady. This is the largest Gothic builing in the Low Countries (Holland).

The groups we are divided up in are about 20 people total.  (Still we looked like a herd... very inconspicuous... not!) The sign above the door says something in Dutch about exhibiting the works of Pieter Paul Rubens.

I can't translate the Dutch but apparently I can't follow directions either... I took about 3 pictures with my flash on before my husband hit me and said to turn it off. Which is all his fault because I told him to tell me what the tour guide was saying (my headset is still turned off), but apparently he doesn't fill me in on ANY details!

So I finally muster the energy to turn my headset on and 'pretend' to listen to the tour guide. I have to inform you, as beautiful as these arches are, this building was freezing cold inside! Albiet, beautiful.

The tour guide... I dunno her name, I wasn't listening.

 Whats interesting is that we learned later that in WWII, Hitler bombed the whole port of Antwerp (which was where we were walking when we got off the ship) and this cathedral was still standing after! Its a good thing, since it only took about 300 years to build.

 

Yes, this is one of the famous P.P.R. paintings. If you want a better image of it, look it up. You get the idea...

This was a Protestant Church. I am impressed that although it took 300 years to build, the architecture has the same continuity. (And so glad it didn't all come down in 3 minutes in the war, or any war for that matter.) Apparently Peter Paul Rubens lived just down the street from here, a couple yards away as a matter of fact.

The piece de resistance wasn't just looking at these paintings, but seeing Peter Paul Rubens home after our visit at the Cathedral. It was interesting to hear a little about his life and see some of his collections of art, statues, projects, and walk around his gardens.

One of the best times of our trip was watching this man dressed in gray & black (to the right) walk around the plaza make farting noises at everyone who passed him. (Yes, he was a few cards shy of a full deck...) But we couldn't stop laughing as innocent passers-by would turn with shock at his sound effects. Hilarious!

After our tour we were allowed some time to walk around Antwerp ourselves. (I was afraid we would get lost.) But shocking as it was, in the short time we walked down only ONE street, we passed by 4 McDonald's. Not kidding! The whole time we were looking for ice cream and I REFUSED to buy it from McDonald's. Please!

   

We ate dinner with some people who had toured the diamond district. I kinda wished we had time to see how that was. Another tour group of people went underground through cellars and passages that date back centuries ago. Those in that group said it didn't smell that great. Hey, we didn't see diamonds or smell yuck, but at least we finally found ice cream!

Every night after all our walking we relaxed at a beautiful dinner table and watched the sun go down while we ate a fabulous meal. It doesn't get any better than that! We were seated with different people each night, and we made great friends...that made the tours all the more fun the succeeding days because we had more and more people to laugh with and share our adventures... On to more...