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Antwerpen, Belgium day 2 - Sint-Anna tunnel & walking tour!


Our second morning in Antwerpen after breakfast it was time for Sint-Annatunnel. You go in in this building here

And down the original wooden escalators!


These were clanky and loud, but I have never seen a wooden escalator before so it was fun

Then about a 10 minute walk through the tunnel


To the other side




And up to the surface. I hadn't noticed before, but there are no bridges across the water in Antwerp - just some tunnels! This is the pedestrian one and there are a couple for cars

Views of the city from the left bank


The tide was out so there were lots of mud ducks!





There is not a lot on the left bank (seemed to be mostly residential), but there is a park along the water and this open-air beacon and buoy museum



And a new robot friend!










Open air museum







After hanging out on the left bank for a bit it was back to downtown

I forgot about the Ascension holiday - they started setting up for the celebrations in Grote Markt 


We were still a bit early for lunch so time for a morning tea break!


For lunch we stopped by Bites & Wines and had the lunch special - soup


And vegan quiche - delicious! They had 4 different quiche options, at least one that was gluten-free, and it was super tasty

Then back to Grote Markt for our walking tour!

A statue to Silvius Brabo. Legend has it that there was a giant, Antigoon, who lived in the river here. He made people pay a toll to pass, but for anyone who refused he cut off one of their hands and threw it in the river. Then Silvius Barbo came along, a Roman soldier who killed the giant and cut off the giants own hand and threw it in the river. This is how Antwerpen got its name (it translates to hand throwing).

Het Steen - the oldest building in Antwerp - that started as a fortress, but had many uses throughout the years & is now a museum. It was refurbished in the  beginning of the 16th century which is why you see the two colors

Statue of Lange Wapper - a giant & trickster famous in Antwerp







Rubens House Museum




The boy and his dog again. Our tour guide said it was put there because so many Japanese tourists came looking for things from A Dog of Flanders and there wasn't anything prior to this. 

We walked all over the place (we covered most of the city which is a bit crazy. It was a lot of walking!) so breaktime at Le Pain Quotidien. This was beetroot caviar and guacamole and bread - yum!

And avocado toast - probably too much food for an afternoon snack, but we did walk a billion miles so it was okay. We just hung out here for a while and let our feet rest

For dinner, we went to Little Ethiopia! This was a started they brought out

And the vegan sampler - so good! For some reason when thinking of what to eat for dinner I rarely think of Ethiopian food, but it is so tasty!


And finally we walked over to the MAS building (Museum aan de Stroom) to go to the top observation deck and watch the sunset

The building has lots of little hands on it for Antwerpen

 

The sides of the building are clear and squiggly



Views from the top






















Holes in the plexiglas to spy through















I call this one mannequin Jen


A bug friend









You have to go up a billion escalators to get to the top viewing deck. We were in a hurry to try and catch the sunset so we didn't spy on things as we went up, but we did on the way down





It is hard to see, but there is a Dead Skull mosaic in the courtyard by the museum that you can see from above

We didn't actually go in the museum part, but it looks like they have some fun things



Early the next morning it was time to head on to our next stop - Rotterdam!

The zoo is right next to the train station in Antwerpen

And the main train station is beautiful!

I really enjoyed Antwerpen. I think I liked Brugges better, but I would definitely come back and wander around and eat all the foods. 

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