Our Big Adventure

ANTWERPEN (Antwerp)

Even the cold and windy weather didn’t spoil our visit to Antwerp. It’s a picturesque city, home famous artists, Rubens, Brueghel and Van Dyck and also the second largest sea port in the world. It also has a beautiful Groenplaats or town square with a massive statue of Brabo, a Roman soldier that legend has it slayed the giant Antigoon, a nasty guy that would chop off the hands of the ships captains that refused to pay his toll to pass. Anyway Brabo slayed the giant, chopped off his hand and threw it into the river “Handwerpen” or hand throwing. The H has disappeared over time but “Antwerpen” stuck. How come we don’t have fascinating legends like this in Australia, it would have made Australian History a much more interesting subject in school. FIRST SNOW We have had snow falling for the past 2 days now, not the heavy wet snow you get mostly, just big, fluffy white flakes falling softly and blanketing the ground. We had planned a day at markets today, but decided to stay in, watch the snow fall, read, light a few candles and watch DVD’s, much nicer than trudging around the outdoor market in the cold.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 7:22:00 AM