Belgian Faces

 

After our magical evening in Brugge and a good night in a beautiful little vacation home in the country (I could have stayed there much longer) where we had a lovely friendly chat with the landlord, we made our way to Antwerpen, but not before some cuddle time with their cats.

Antwerpen - I prefer to keep with the native names - is also in the Flemish Region of Belgium and is the second largest city in the country (with Brussels being the largest). We parked on the outskirts and took the train into the city center which was a good idea since all the roads in the center were a huge construction zone.

We first passed by the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady) where I noticed this beautiful monument, dedicated to Jan and Pieter Appelmans, the architects of this Gothic style cathedral. Look at these stone masons!

In the Handschoenmarkt, once home to a glove market, we saw this beautiful sculpture in white marble of Nello and Patrasche outside the cathedral. It is made by Belgian artist Batist Vermeulen and depicts the characters of the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée. The novel has been a popular children's classic in Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and the Philippines. It is about the boy Nello and his loyal dog Patrasche, partly taking place in Antwerpen and ending in the cathedral (a rather sad ending, actually). Interestinlgy enough it was only translated into Dutch in 1987 and several monuments were created to please tourists. Quite the story, isn't it?

 On our way to Bakkerij Diné we crossed Grote Markt (market square) with its beautiful guildhalls...

... and passed many narrow alleys.

Finally we reached Bakkerij Diné - a very small bakery and coffee shop. The coffee shop was quite packed - there were only a handful of tables - but two guys got up from their bigger table to sit at a smaller one so that we could have the big table. I can't mention the friendliness and consideration of the Belgian people often enough. Everybody we met were just lovely. This was breakfast and dessert (why not have dessert in the morning?):

It was so good! After that the Geek wanted to go to a special frites place (French fries) that Kaefer had visited a few months before. They serve frites with all kinds of interesting mayo sauces, some really unusual flavors. We love to try different food in the countries we visit, no matter how weird they may be. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture - this was quite the spot!

Throughout the city I saw some interesting faces - they and all the other ones in this post are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

How could I not take a picture of this lovely little shop?

A well stocked cheese shop...

... and some delicious dulce.

Finally we took the train back to our car and then it was back on the road, driving home to Germany where we arrived in the early evening. 

Next time we'll go to the North of Germany!