(30 May 2025)
After a few days in Prague, we got the sleeper to Antwerp, and stayed a night there. We had the best part of a day to explore before coming home.
The journey was fine. Yes the train is unpleasantly dirty but you get to see lots of the countryside of Czechia and southern Germany.
We mooched around Antwerp - it’s a large city but the main touristy area is small. Like Prague, my advice is use the trams. Tap to pay, just like using the Tube in London. Easy.
The Grote Markt is as pretty as you might have been told. We had a good meal in Balto’s restaurant. There are pretty streets with cute shops and the usual lanes to wander - but it felt much more touristy than we’d expected. Nice to explore though.
By far the best thing was the Plantin-Moretus Museum of Printing, which is amazing. Not just because of the subject matter - a family dynasty that built a business empire out of the newly invented printing press, and now you can explore the house and the premises and the library and everything - but also because of the way it’s been done. It’s an incredibly well-thought-out museum. Good design everywhere you look. Fabulous.
This printing company invented atlases. You can see some of the earliest atlases ever, up close.
We spent hours in there. Honestly, I’d say it’s so good, that you could go to Antwerp solely to visit this museum, and you’d feel like you’d got your money’s worth. Highly recommended. Oh, and it has a pair of the oldest printing presses in the world, just sitting there at the end of the room. You peer at them and wonder how many millions of words went through each one, and what ideas those words sparked.
Then it was back to Brussels, and back home via the Eurostar.
All good, all good.
Some recommendations:
More stuff:
giles (at) gilest.org
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