A Quick Trip to Antwerp, a Beautiful Belgian City, Antwerp, Belgium

I'd been wanting to visit Antwerp for years and got the chance when I visited the Netherlands. Timing gave me only one day to enjoy this beautiful city, which I quickly learned would not nearly be enough to explore everything it had to offer. So in this post I'll cover the things I did do (all of which are amazing) and the things I didn't quite get to - with lots of reasons to visit in between.

Antwerp's history goes all the way back to the Franks, but its Golden Age came in the 16th century - a little later than the nearby cities of Ghent and Bruges. It opened trading houses, called "bourse," became the area's preferred port and trading center. Soon it became one of the wealthiest and most popular cities in Europe.

Antwerp's economy declined during the 80 Years' War and it didn't recover, so much of the city is beautifully stuck in the 1500s.

Of course the main gem of Antwerp is the Grote Markt. It is absolutely stunning and, dare I say, one of the most gorgeous market squares in Europe. You can spend an hour just looking at all the buildings and their architectural details - some of which are colored gold.??

The central fountain had a unique installation when I was visiting, but the yellow hand does cover up a sculpture of a severed hand. The story is that a giant named Druon Antigoon had a bridge, and if someone wanted to pass and refused to pay a toll, he would cut off the person's hand and throw it into the river. A man named Silvius Brabo was able to defeat the giant and cut off his hand before throwing it into the river, giving him a taste of his own medicine. Apparently in Dutch, "hand werpen" means "hand throw" which is how Antwerpen got its name. Fortunately they don't do that anymore, but it's a great story. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).