Day 23: Antwerp

Today we took a train to Antwerp, the major port of Belgium. It was also raining really hard today! NOOO. :(

Our first stop was the Antwerp carillon, an immense tower built by the city. This was also a carillon that had been burned during the wars. Fires and carillons, man…

The upper part of the tower was renewed completely and used to be open to the public! However, a Romeo and Juliet-esque situation occurred, and a young couple flung themselves off the tower to their deaths. Young love makes you stupid, you guys. Wasn’t that the lesson of the book? Because that’s what I got out of it.

I will say, though. There is nothing more terrifying than accidentally tripping and falling into this fence.

There is a wooden tower used for storing the counterweights. It is run by machinery now, but it was a manual process up to 1994. They are considering returning it to manual, and there are apparently a lot of volunteers, which is exciting!

The music box used for the time melodies was installed in 1660 and is one of the oldest originals in the world. The melody is changed once a year during Easter.

We then visited Our Lady’s Cathedral, a breathtaking cathedral with many paintings by Rubens. It was very fascinating and astounding to see these paintings in person.

Our last event of the trip was to take a boat tour around Antwerp’s port. The guide was giving a tour in three languages: Dutch, English, and German. However, he stopped speaking English at some point, so I’ll write down what I do have from his guide.

Antwerp’s port two oldest docks date back to 1811. King William I opened these, and one of these is now a museum. We also passed by some ports that Napoleon had decided to dig out in order to facilitate quick ship movement and transport, as well as to keep the water at the same level. There is a canal connecting Antwerp’s port to the industrial port of Liege, known as the Albert Canal. Some docks have a roof above the water to handle ships even when it rains (like today).

And that’s all I have! Seriously, boat driver? This was a three-hour boat tour! -___-

Anyway, today was our last day of class! I’ll have to put up my closing remarks soon!