One of the places that I said I must go when I started on my trip was Belgium.  I knew a lot of people who had been there before and all had great things to say bout their beer culture and general beauty.  Antwerp was one of the cities on people’s lists and it was the closest one to Rotterdam, so I figured I would start there.

The bus dropped me off in front of Antwerp central station and if first impressions mean anything, I knew I was going to like Belgium.  The station was huge and the facade was impressive.  The inside was equally as massive and beautiful as the outside.

My first order of business upon arriving was to meet up with a friend who I went to University with for lunch.  He was living in Antwerp and so I reached out and arranged to meet for lunch.  We met at a french fry and hot dog place that is apparently one of the Belgium go to meals.  It was alright but honestly nothing special.  They had a ton of different sauces and I tried a bunch of them.  The place was called Frituur Den Hoek and I would recommend it if you are around as a relatively cheap and easy meal.

After lunch I walked around for a bit before heading to my hostel for a rest.

My hostel was a bit empty at the time, and there were only two of us in a 10 bed dorm.  Jade was from New Zealand and was interested in grabbing my first Belgium beer with me.  Antwerp is full of really cool beer joints, so I figured I should probably get started on checking them out.

The first stop was a really strange bar which was full of religious statues.  It was both cool and creepy at the same time but as with most Belgium bars, they had a great selection of local beers.  It was called the KAthedral cafe for a reason.

We had a beverage and then moved on t the next Belgium beer bar called Billie’s Bier Kafétaria which was named after the owners dog Billie.  The beer selection here was also excellent although they had a few more international beers on tap, which is great for locals but not for me.  I want to drink the beer that is made as close as possible to where I am.

Our next stop was the place I have heard of from a few people, seen on some youtube videos as well as read some articles about.  It was rated Rate Beer’s best beer-pub in the world in 2011, so you know i had to go with a reputation like that.

Cafe Kulminator is an unassuming shop just outside of town, that we weren’t even sure were open when we opened the door to enter.  There was an old man at a table with a bunch of newspapers and one gentleman in the corner with a bottle.  I did’t really know what to think but we sat down and grabbed the menu.  This is where things got awesome.  The below video is the menu of all of the bottles they have.  Some of them date back to the 70s.

The cafe has been in the same spot since 1979 and has a massssive beer list of beers.  There seems to be beer piled everywhere and I am sure their cellar downstairs is ridiculous.  The problem with this amount of choice is i had no idea what to get.  The beers were available by the bottle, but you could get one of several that are on tap.  The ambiance, beer list and overall experience made this place one of my favorites on my whole trip.  It would be nice to come here with a few people so you could get a few bottles and try more.

When we first came in, there was only one person in the bar and eventually three more people came in and joined us. It turned into a pretty fun evening.

Here is where things get even more interesting.  Remember the guy I mentioned I was talking to at the brewery in Amsterdam that would eventually pop up again later in my blog?  Well Joey was the guy at the Amsterdam brewery and was now sitting here in Antwerp at the same bar I was at.  There are a few other situations where things like this happened later on in my travels, but this was awesome.  We got to talking a bit more and it turns out he is on a beer tour of Europe and eventually wants to become a brewer.  He was doing his best to learn as much as possible about beer and was hitting up all of the cool spots.  His schedule was a day later than mine, but otherwise pretty much matched up exactly with what I was planning on doing.  Since he booked everything already, I decided to stick around Antwerp one more day to match schedules.

After basking in the awesomeness that is kulminator, we decided to head out to one more stop before calling it for the evening.  We headed back into the main square and stopped at a place with a patio called De Salamander.  It was a great end to my first day in Belgium!!!!

The next morning Jade and I woke up and decided to check out the art museum in town called the Antwerp MAS.  The building was really cool and we were told you could go to the roof to get a great view of the city.  Despite the roof being free, we opted to check out the museum as well since it was only $5.

It was full of different exhibits that combined art and history as well as topics like climate change and inclusion.

The view from the top was pretty good too!

After finishing up at the museum, I met up with Joey and we headed to one of the breweries in town.  De Koninck has been around since 1833 and has recently gone through a major renovation which included a pretty nifty self guided tour which goes through their history as well as the beer brewing process. I learned pretty quickly that this renovation came after the brewery was acquired by the Duvel group which also owns Firestone Walker and Boulevard and has been buying up some iconic breweries over the past 10 years.  Their influence was highlighted a bit in the tour which gave me mixed feelings.

Regardless, the beer was good and the tour was informative.  After finishing up at the brewery, I headed back to my hostel to get in a quick run around Antwerp before heading out for the evening.

There was a really cool building outside of town that I would not have seen if it weren’t for my run (which is why i love going for runs in new places, allows me to get a bit further off the beaten path).  This is called the port house and highlights the worldwide reputation Antwerp has for it’s diamonds.  As the second largest port in Europe, Diamonds were a big part of the Antwerp economy and this building was built to highlight this.  It was cool!

There was also a cool castle along the river as well!

Upon returning to my hostel (which was in a super cool old building right downtown) I met back up with Jade and we met a new friend who was from the UK and also staying in our room.

We went night exploring a bit then headed back for some rest.

The next morning I woke up and went for a run.  I had heard there were some tunnels going under the river that had pedestrian access, so I thought I would try and find them.  They were pretty similar to the Rotterdam tunnel with a separate access for pedestrians and escalators going down, although this one was a single tunnell for both bikes and people.

It was a great run and a perfect way to cap off my time in Antwerp!

It was time to head to the train station in order to head to the next destination.  Ghent!

If this is how Belgium was going to be, I was excited for what was next!!!!