April 29, 2023, ANTWERP, Belgium — Following two short train rides from The Hague to Rotterdam, we left behind The Netherlands and rolled into the historic and very busy central train station of Antwerp in the mid-afternoon. We pulled our bags down the cobbled sidewalks and checked in to our hotel, which sits on the edge of a botanical garden, but failed to tip our welcoming hostess, which would later result in an icy glare in the lobby. (Rick later made amends and all is copacetic now.)

We started our exploration of Antwerp with a decadent dessert (one chocolate mousse and one apple/lemon chiffon creation) at a lovely patisserie run by pastry chef Willem Verlooy and his family, and then of course, a trip to the Royal Fine Arts Museum, which has a pretty fabulous collection of Rubens, and many other impressive pieces by some of the artists I have come to recognize and appreciate over the past few days, especially Frans Hals and Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the greatest female painters of the Renaissance.

Antwerp is one of the largest and busiest ports in Europe, and we took an Uber out to the harbor’s edge on the far north of the city, where we had dinner at Het Pomphuis, renovated pump house with soaring ceilings and wonderful seafood. Outside the windows, barges and other ships glided past, and enormous windmills turned slowly in the breeze.

A hot air balloon floated over the center of the port, and across the road from the restaurant, a hundreds of party-goers streamed into a sold-out live electronic dance concert at the astonishing Havenhuis, the old harbor master building topped with a shimmering silver structure designed by Zaha Hadid. The building is hard to describe, but we have pictures. Hadid is the same Iraqi-British architect who designed the fabulous swooping Dongdaemun Design Plaza we visited with Asma this fall. After dinner we walked to the edge of the port and watched the sun setting over the ships and the windmills, and then to the thump of the electronic dance music, walked to catch a tram back to the center of Antwerp.

We finished the night walking through Antwerp’s historic center, which is packed with historic buildings and, on a Saturday night, busy restaurants. The imposing cathedral, which we plan to tour tomorrow, towers over the old town. Our late evening walk through the town center as the clouds colored from pink to blue, was a sweet and pleasant end to a good, good day.