Belgium 2012: Antwerp

Photo: Elle Decor

I could live in Antwerp and would never get tired of it.  It is such a great mix of old and new.

Old:

Perhaps the greatest glove store in the world: Huis A. Boon.

The courtyard at Museum Plantin-Moretus.

The museum houses the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world.

New:

Scene from Flamant, the Belgian equivalent of Restoration.
Possibly more affordable, although that exchange rate plays tricks on me.  Definitely just as awesome.

More Flamant.

New rose at the old museum courtyard.  See what I am doing there...the new within the old???  (Crickets chirping.)  Okay, I'm a dork.  Sorry.

Chocolate sculpture at The Chocolate Line.

As always, wish I took more (and better!) pictures!  Thanks for coming along with me though!

Belgium 2012: Sights!

So this year we got out for excursions to Ghent and Amsterdam.  Ready, steady, go!

Ghent

Cute plaza.  So glad I took this picture because it was a key clue in our 2-hour search to find it again.  Funny story, being lost in Ghent.  In retrospect, that is.

Restored castle.

And inside the keep.

My thighs actually hurt after this tour.  

Me at the top, sans bow and arrow.

And the view from up there.  Love it!

Yep, we actually got our picture with the very nice Dutch knight.  Tourist much?

Amsterdam

Amsterdam tulips for sale at the flower market.

If it's pretty, I take a picture.

Statue of Anne Frank, near her house.  We toured it this year and it was an amazing experience.

Again with the pretty.

Me and Meems.

I *think* this was Amsterdam but it might have been Ghent.  If you know, tell me!

So, that's it for sightseeing, tomorrow I will show you what fun we got up to in Antwerp.  See ya!

Belgium 2012

I've been back for about two weeks and my, how time flies!  Before time completely escapes me, I wanted to pop in and share the highlights of my trip to Antwerp.

View from the plane as we landed...
the sun is rising over Belgium to a beautiful foggy morning.

We went to buy diamonds, which is almost a vacation in and of itself!

That's me in one of our vendor's offices.

And hard at work!

I was so in love with these colored diamonds this year, wished I could bring some home!

Yellow cushion-cuts.  I would LOVE to see these as earrings.

And checking out princess-cut parcels:

BUT it isn't all hard work...we did get some sightseeing in!  Tomorrow I will come back and show you some of the beautiful sights in Ghent and Amsterdam.  And I will also be doing a post on shopping in Antwerp, which I know will be entertaining for some of you shoppy souls out there.  Last year I took you on a culinary tour of everything I ate.  This year my pictures were just so lacking...I think because everything I ate looked like this:

YUM.

See ya tomorrow!