Belgium: Antwerp

Since Eli had made a pit-stop in Paris and Efteling is about halfway between Amsterdam and Belgium, we decided to meet up in Antwerp and spend just one day exploring in Belgium. While I tried to mix in a little bit of learning and local culture, much of our day was spent eating. Honestly, this is an excellent Belgian pastime.

We started at the Rubenshuis Museum, which was the home and studio of Belgian painter, Paul Rubens. The sprawling “city palace” as it is called on the website is as interesting as the artwork itself.

Norah got antsy and I left with her to walk around a nearby Sunday flea market but Ben and Eli made it through the full tour.

We also visited the Plantin-Moretus Museum, a 16th century printing-press museum which was a book making hub for many generations. This was also once a regal family home with beautiful furnishings and gardens. Eli put in a heroic effort trying to explain to the kids how significant an invention like the printing press is within society and also how humans, as cultural animals, are unique to the animal kingdom.

Mostly though, we just moved on to the eating part of our trip.

We ate waffles not just once…

But twice.

We also made a lunch stop so I could have mussels and beer and then followed that up by instigating our Belgian Chocolate Challenge. We bought from three different locations and brought our goodies back to Amsterdam.

We were so full though from all the waffles, I threw a mom flag and declared that we could not eat the chocolate yet.

Tonight, we will complete the taste test round and declare a winner.