Delirium and Diamonds

Apart from that being a wittingly clever alliterative title, those are my activities from the past two days. It may still be Saturday in America, but it's a bright and early Sunday morning here in Belgium.

Friday night we stayed in town. There's an incredibly well-known bar downtown called Delirium Café, that we were supposedly not allowed to miss while here. And for good reason. At least 2,000 beers available with over 40 on tap. We're going back, so hopefully I'll be able to take some relatively good pictures in the overcrowded, smoke-infested atmosphere. It's incredible just how many beers they have to choose from. And there's a logbook that lists all of them. It may have taken us a while to find it and a while to get back, but it was definitely worth it. Plus I know my way around downtown a bit better.

We got home around 3am and were completely beat (hence I didn't update to tell you of my Delirium adventures). Plan of action? To leave the next day for Antwerp. My plans included an 8am run to the marché in Place Flagey as well.

The next morning my alarm went off at 7:30 as usual and I ghosted around the apartment for a while not really focusing on anything until 8:00 when I went to wake up Lizzi, who wanted to go with me au marché. It was adorable, too! So many stands selling so much fresh food! Not to mention it was affordable. Lizzi and I stocked up on cheese, bread, eggs, tomatoes, and a splurge buy of papaya because it looked amazing. When we bought that papaya, the vendor threw a couple limes in the bag as well. Apparently you eat papaya with lime? We'll have to try this.

Everyone else rolled out of bed around 9:30 or 10 when we got back. I had hoped to get on the train for Antwerp at 11 to give us time to walk around. Brandon didn't come down until after 11 and we didn't leave our apartment until around 12, so that left us taking the 12:38 train. No problem, though. The entire train ride was only an hour or so. We pulled into quite possibly THE most beautiful train station I've ever been in at around 2 and walked outside to a grand square filled with tourists.


Nicole's guidebook offered a 90 minute walking tour of Antwerp--a fashion and shopping capital--that began with a tour of the diamond museum. The desk attendant found something incredibly funny while he was explaining everything to us in English. Still not sure what that was. The museum was both more and less interesting than I expected. The tour began on the third floor with a history of diamonds and the scientific elements, then went down to the mining and cutting of the stones, and finally down to an interactive game where you are a robber trying to steal the diamond without getting caught (yes, not even Belgium can escape the age of technology). The real diamonds on display, however, were breathtaking. The 2nd floor was a historical collection of tiaras and brooches, etc. The 1st floor (we were walking downstairs) had a much more modern collection of award-winning diamond pieces. My favorite were a pair of humanoid statues about 4 inches tall made of gold and such but decorated with diamonds. I haven't been able to find a picture online yet, and of course we weren't allowed to bring our cameras along with us.


We continued walking through the diamond district, which is essentially a Jewish neighborhood of storefronts that sell nothing but diamonds. Unimpressive, but imagine that for an entire street on both sides. Competition is one thing. I have no idea how they sell their wares, even to tourists.

Next we made our way to the grand shopping center. Not a mall, mind you. But both sides of the street lined with stores, many strictly European ones, but America took its stand every once in a while. The Body Shop and Urban Outfitters both made an appearance. And the street was probably a full kilometer long of nothing but shops.


The guidebook took us through some backstreets that led to churches and away from the tourists. The streets were completely dead, as were the churches...with locked gates. That was a bit of a waste until we came to the Rockoxhuis (Rockox House). The Rockoxhuis is basically a rich family's house that contains expensive artifacts from other rich families' houses. Under 18 have a free tour. We looked uner 18, right?

So since it was now quarter to 5, and everything in Anvers/Antwerpen closes at 5:00, we couldn't do too much else, so we made our way to the Grote Markt, or Grand Square, to see the Antwerpen Cathedral and the famous square.

It took us quite a while to get back to Brussels because two trains were cancelled, but we finally made it on board a very, very crowded train--think Bombay, India...maybe not that crowded, but people did stand in the aisles for the entire hour long train ride back.

We got home close to 9:00 and were all completely exhausted. But it was definitely worth it for a €7,40 round trip! Not to mention I bought the first Harry Potter book in Flemish while I was there!