Antwerp

Day trip from Brussels to Diamond city. They even sell diamonds at the train station. Feeling a little churched-out at this point, so I decided to visit a quaint little museum called Museum Plantin-Moretus. It chronicles the rise of Antwerp’s biggest and most important printing press and publishing house over a few hundred years. Everything is remarkably well-preserved in this house - The printing press machinery, type-setting equipment, library archives, and books on display. the first ever 5-language bible (16th century) (see pic below) and other liturgical works, world atlases, musical scores, etc. The bonus for me was coming across a 16th century town map of Lancaster!

Blast into the past – I love the smell of old books – maybe that’s why I’m still resisting e-books, reading just doesn’t feel the same when you’re holding a computer in your hand.

Brussels

Say Belgium and the following comes to mind: Jean-Claude Van Damme, beers, moules, frites, waffles with ice-cream and of course chocolates! Frites to belgians is like rice to chinese. Everywhere i go, there's a fries shop! I wonder how Belgians survive on these unhealthy foods!

Beautiful market square in Brussels

The zwanzeur spirit, or local unique humour- quirky comic strip frescos adorn the walls and even the electricity boxes along the street are decorated!

Bruges

Beau is in Brussels for the ASEM and I conveniently tag along to see the country. More accurately, it was my excuse for the whole Europe vacation, and not only do I arrive before him (to visit Paris with Shaheen), I also extend my vacation to visit more pals in London – ha!

Beau had only one free day and we took a train to Bruges, a picturesque UNESCO world heritage site with canals and several well-preserved historical monuments.

After walking through the entire town, we took a welcome respite in the form of a fun boat ride that winded through the canals and under a number of old bridges– it’s the closest we got to a guided tour of the buildings.