Friday, May 15, 2015

FRIDAY--A TRAVEL DAY. WE'RE IN ANTWERP, BELGIUM


Today was a "traveling day" for us--we took a morning train from Luxembourg to Antwerp, Belgium.  It was about a 3 hour ride, not including a connection in Brussels.  It was about 3:00 when our train pulled in to Antwerp, and we walked to our hotel and were checked in by about 4:00.

We're staying at a newer Ibis Hotel fairly near the Old Town area of Antwerp.  I picked it because of the location even though several reviews mentioned that the rooms were small.  They weren't kidding--we are literally walking sideways around each other!   I'd post a picture, but it's so tiny I'd have to stand out in the hall.  It's clean and the bed is comfy--so it's good enough for us!

The first order of business was to find some food--we'd not had anything to eat since our little breakfast at the Luxembourg station, and we were starving!

Our hotel is on a square not too far from the train station, and we could see some sidewalk cafes from our window.  We walked across the square and checked out some menus--most of them were just bars with some snack food.  We didn't much care--anything would do.  We picked a nice table outside, and looked at the menu.  Hmmmmm--it's all in Dutch, and we have no idea what anything is!  A nice couple next to us helped us translate, and we ordered a couple of snacks and beers.

These are "Bitterballen--deep fried balls of knid of mushy stuff!  They were OK…….



David with his first beer in Belgium--it was great!

After our quick snack we walked a few blocks around the square.  We popped in to a pretty church for a quick look:


We walked around a small area in "Old Town" Antwerp--the architecture is very interesting:

After a few hours of wandering around, we decided it was time for dinner, and we set off to find a restaurant that I'd read about on a travel forum.  It got great reviews, especially for it's lamb dishes.

We found it without too much trouble, and we were very happy with our choice.  It's a small hole-in-the-wall pub with just a few tables. We ate upstairs--a tiny little space with a nice view to the bar below.  Again--the menu was totally in Dutch, but he nice young waitress helped us with some translation.

Lamb on a skewer with salad and couscous.  The lamb was the best I've ever had--tender, juicy and it had a great smoky flavor.

David ordered the ribs--they had a very good dry rub on them.  Each dinner came with fries--they definitely know how to do fries here in Belgium--deeelicious!

We each had a beer--they had a large selection both on tap and bottled.  We tried two different IPAs--both were very good.

It was a nice night for a stroll, and we slowly made our way back to our hotel, where we spent the rest of the evening all cozy in our teeny-tiny room.


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