Guus Bosman

We spent this weekend in Antwerp, Belgium.

Friday afternoon I left Chess at lunchtime, and we took the train to the south. It was a very quick connection: at 15:30 o'clock we had checked in already. We stayed in a small hotel, Hotel Eden (click on 'Virtual Visit' for some nice surround pictures), located in the Diamond District. I've been in Antwerp twice before, but it was long ago so I didn't remember the city well. Once I was there with Joost, to visit the Vogeltjes markt. This Sunday we saw it again, quite interesting all these little birds and animals for sale.

The weather was marvellous! It was very sunny all weekend but never too hot. It's great that it stays nice outside till late -- at midnight it was still very busy in the city.

We had very enjoyable hours at the terrasses in the center. There is a surprising amount of squares. We thought we had found the Grote Markt, so we sat for a beer. When we left we saw another square, and said: "oh, that must be it!". A few minutes later we reached a third square, even bigger, and saw the street sign "Grote Markt".

Every restaurant had mussels on the menu; there was even an ice-cream place where they had them. Saw the big cathedral inside, as well as a diamond museum. It said that 85% of all global rough diamond trade goes through Antwerp, and diamonds account for 6% of Belgium exports... a huge industry. A funny place was the Frietkot museum.

One evening we had dinner at the only restaurant at the river Scheldt, het Zuider Terras.