Antwerp with Guy and family.

From Brussels we moved onto Antwerp, the second city of Belgium. Our hosts were Guy van Peel and his family. I have been working with Guy during our four years here, although it has only been four years it has felt like we have worked together for much longer.
Guy’s family live just outside Antwerp in an area called Kolnich. We arrived at their house on Friday evening, sitting in the back yard lit by candles on a warm summery evening, it was a lovely time. Guy and Martine (apologise for the spelling) had prepared a fantastic dinner starting with tasty cheese, salami and olives, an appetizer of tomatoes with prawns and magnificent Paella for the main course. The van Peel family have lived for five years in Spain and Italy and their house, cuisine and amazing of array of languages reflects this. After way too much yummy food, Spanish wine and games of pictionary we eventually made it to bed.


The next day (Saturday) we all (Guy, Martine and Benjamine (spelling?) their middle child) went into Antwerp. The centre of Antwerp is a beautiful city, with it’s crowning glory being the Cathedral of our Lay. This is the largest cathedral in the low countries and truly magnificent. There are a number of works from Peter Paul Rubens and two organs, one from the 17th Century the other more recent. The belfry is an intricately carved masterpiece. The grand place of Antwerp rivals Brussels (Guy, we have learnt some things) it really is beautiful. We had a drink in this restaurant that is made up of a series of cellars connected beneath old houses. The cellars were only discovered in the 1980’s and have been developed into a restaurant/bar lit by candles, a real experience.
Antwerp also boasts a baroque church and a small castle that operated as a toll collector for the harbour entrance
We also managed to take in a few of the shops much to most of the parties delight. The highlight was the puppy shop.
We have now said good bye to our hosts and really big thank you from us all for the evening and day.