Day 3 (August 20, 2026): Antwerp

This was our first day testing out our “hub and spoke” approach to touring Belgium. And it worked beautifully! After a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we left for the nearby station to get our train to Antwerp. We purchased the SNCB Trani+ card, which gives us 40% off fares from 9AM to 4PM and after 6PM. Train+ makes getting around Belgium very inexpensive. Anyway, the trains run like clockwork here. We got the 9:05AM train and pulled into Antwerp at 10:07, on time to the minute!

After exploring the station, which is a destination in itself, we set off for the northern end of the city, working our way southwards through Antwerp’s truly impressive sights. We got the 3:54PM train back to Brussels, feeling so happy that it didn’t rain and that we had enjoyed Antwerp so much.

Back in Brussels, the blue skies continued. So, we decided to head back to Parc de la Cinquantaine to see the sights there without the torrents of rain that marked our passage through the park yesterday.

We had a great Mediterranean dinner to top of the day.

Brussels-Luxembourg Station, around the corner from the hotel, will provide our access to the rest of Belgium this week. It is literally two minutes by foot from our hotel lobby. Notice all the bicycles? Car traffic is noticeably light here. Most people use bicycles and the trains, parking their bikes at the stations.

Antwerp Central Station - a destination in itself!

Built in 1905, with modern construction later added, Antwerp Central has been called Europe’s ‘railway station cathedral’. And you can easily see why it is so called!

This is bicycle territory! This protective casing keeps the elements off the little ones.

Museum aan de Stroom (MAS)

The MAS is a striking red sandstone museum in the Eilandje District of north Antwerp, which is the city’s former docklands area, now being gentrified for modern day use.

From the 10th floor of the MAS, we had an amazing view over Antwerp.

This stunning building in the Eilandje District is called Looswegen. It is currently sitting vacant.

This couple was standing on the extreme edge of the 8th floor of the MAS - with no guardrail!! Ok, they are mannequins. But still, they shouldn’t be so close to the edge! ;-)

The amazing curved glass facade of the MAS.

Loodswegen

Het Steen Fortress

Het Steen is Antwerp’s medieval fortress and is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks.

Cross at Het Steen

The Scheldt is the waterway that flanks Antwerp’s western edge.

Grote Markt Area

City Hall

Brabo Fountain and City Hall

Antwerp’s famous guild houses, with their ornate stepped facades.

Vlaeykensgang is a tiny medieval alleyway that we would have missed, had Chat GBT not told us about it!

Amazing knotted vine in Vlaeykensgang

De Kathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady)

Between 1965 and 2015, the Province of Antwerp has fully restored both the interior and exterior of the Antwerp cathedral, with the support of the Flemish Government.

Corona Chapel (crown of thorns)

Three of the four works by Ruben that are the highlights of the cathedral:

‘Raising of the Cross’ (Rubens)

‘Assumption of the Holy Virgin’ (Rubens)

‘Descent from the Cross’ (Rubens)

Four paintings of Ruben’s predecessors can be found in the cathedral. Clockwise from top left: ‘Wedding at Cana’ (Maarten de Vos), ‘Adoration of the Shephers’ (Frans Floria de Vriendt), ‘Last Supper’ (Otto van Veen), and ‘ Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes’ (Ambrosius Francken).

Once per trip, we do fast food. And KFC was calling us at lunchtime in Antwerp!

Status of Peter Paul Rubens, a true master of the brush. Although originally from Germany, he spent his career in Antwerp.

Meir Street is Antwerp’s bustling retail street.

St. Charles Borromeo Church

St. Charles Borromeo Church is a 17th century church in the Baroque style. Rubens painted works for it, as he did for De Kathedraal, but an 18th century fire destroyed them.

Baroque interior of St. Charles Borromeo.

Henri Conscience (1812 – 1883) was a Belgian author. He is considered the pioneer of Dutch language literature in Flanders, writing at a time when Belgium was dominated by the French language among the upper classes, in literature and government. Conscience fought as a Belgian revolutionary in 1830 and was a notable writer in the Romanticist style popular in the early 19th century.

The train back to Brussels was a double-decker.

The station in Mechelin, halfway between Antwerp and Brussels, is undergoing a modern transformation, as shown by these new wave-like canopies over the track platforms.