march
24th:
on our first day in antwerp, we woke up early in search of breakfast.
the town was oddly deserted in the morning (apparently they aren't big
on going out for breakfast in this country), but we happened upon a small
place that served coffee and croissants, which was perfect.
we met up with aseem and elke for the group tour that they were giving of antwerp, which is the city that elke is from, and where she was living when she and aseem met. there were about 20 people from the states on the tour with us - mostly their friends from seattle or MIT, and aseem's family. we saw an amazing cathedral that was built in the 1400's, visited Rubens' house (which is now a museum), wandered through some historical areas, saw the outside of elke's old apartment, and stopped for lunch in the main plaza.
since it was my birthday, and also our first real night in europe, conor made us reservations to eat at a super yummy restaurant, called 'gin fish'. more on this soon...
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about
antwerp
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peter paul rubens >> about
rubenshuis
march
26:
we had a few hours the morning of the wedding to spare, in which we could
wander the city or do as we please (many late-night drinkers slept in).
conor and i woke up early and had the mediocre breakfast at the hotel,
then ventured forth into the thick of antwerp. we wanted to check out
'DiamondLand' and the diamond museum, since antwerp is known as one of
the major diamond hubs of the world. 'DiamondLand' was supposed to open
at 9, but by 9:30 there was no sign of life, so we gave up and headed
to the museum. The museum gave a fascinatingly confusing walk through
the diamond mining & processing production. it explained the history
of diamonds as a coveted jewel, and had some amazing examples of diamond
jewelry adornments from the last 200 years.
on our way home we did a little shopping, then found a great chocolate shop near the main plaza, where we loaded up (or so we thought - we finished the box in 3 days!). for lunch we ate some amazing belgian fries (they do mayonnaise right!). while munching away on the potato-y delights, we had the pleasure to witness a very brief easter parade that passed our way. so check out the little movie!
^ megan still in the plaza
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