"Diamond on the Schelde" Antwerp by mrclay2000

Antwerp is popular today as the diamond capital of Europe. Just by leaving the train station and looking across the street, you'd think that the city sold nothing besides diamonds. There are even diamond stores inside the train station. Then again, once you begin to explore this city, you find a cosmopolitan flair and shopping mecca that seems to me only rivaled in Belgium by Brussels. You also get a sense of the historical and medieval in this provincial capital that in Belgium is rivaled only by Brugge, Ghent and Brussels. On the other hand there are none of those canals the worldwide visitor finds so charming in other cities of the Low Countries, and the Schelde is too mighty to be considered a romantic walk, but there is indeed a strong and varied representation of all that is beautiful in Belgium in this sometimes (perhaps too often) overlooked crossroads.

If you're traveling by train in Europe especially among those countries touching Belgium, chances are you'll go through Antwerp at least as part of your connections. If your schedule permits time only to find the next train platform, you're missing an architectural gem in the train station alone. Block by block if you have the time, you'll continue to find an enormous array of shops, a castle, medieval buildings that are sometimes hidden by more modern structures, sculptures and fountains, and a city center every bit as charming and grand as any comparable square in Europe.

• Pros:Full of charm, history, grandeur, art, architecture and ease
• Cons:The romantic might find a diamond ring but little to bestir his heart
• In a nutshell:An overlooked crossroads with most of the splendors of Belgium