My last day in Bruges I did some laundry and then set off up the coast towards Amsterdam. Rather than go all the way and it being the weekend, I decided to make a stop on the way. Since I don’t really research much, I just decided to go with Antwerp. So I spent Saturday night in Antwerp, Belgium.

I got off the train, and the train station itself is pretty cool looking.  It looks like this.

From there I just checked in to my hostel, then went on a walk through their old area and shopping center, which were a bit intertwined.   So I saw Cathedral of Our Lady or whatever old church they have and some other old stuff.

They had a lot of statues there.  I didn’t take pictures or really recognize the people, but they really like to make statues of things.  I got a box of Asian food and sat by the Scheldt river on their pier and ate it.  Later that night I went to an Irish pub and drank a beer while listening to some horrible live music, so I went home and went to bed.

In the morning (Sunday, when nothing happens here), I decided that the one thing I was going to do was go to the Plantin-Moretus Museum.  It’s the former 16th century house and printing business of that family turned into a museum.

It’s pretty awesome.  I would like to live there.  Plus I like old books, globes, maps, Spanish leather wallpaper, and ornate furniture.  Here are a few pictures of it, and I was glad I made time to do it.

The most famous things in there were polyglot bibles which were really old and printed in several different languages.  I guess those were cool too.

They had a lot of well-preserved printing blocks, ink, and areas too.  It all looked rather tedious, so I’m glad I don’t have to do that.

And then I got a train from Antwerp to Amsterdam.  I successfully arrived here around 4pm and found the hostel pretty easily.  It’s self-described as a “boutique hostel” and it’s quite classy.  Small but nice, self-service kitchen, lounge area, free stuff, fridge, nice people, etc.  Should be a good place to stay for the week.