Complex Numbers

Gotta Hand It To Them

Antwerp yesterday.

Not a lot of beer, though, but a quick tour of the very interesting historical areas, or at least the highlights thereof.

I didn't really expect to spend any time in Antwerp this trip, so the few hours I did spend there were a pleasant surprise. Well, except for all the goddamned cobblestones.

While I was there, a couple of women biked past me. I heard one of them comment, "I've never come this way before." The other replied, "I know, right? It's the cobblestones."

Okay, okay, some variation of that joke is older than I am, and obviously, it's just a joke.

Back to being semi-serious, an entry from back in July discussed this city: "Let Me Give You a Hand" . I didn't get to see (or drink) anything mentioned there, but my tour guide did relate the "Silvus Brabo defeated a rent-seeking giant and lopped off his hand" mythological origin of the city as if it were fact. This would be akin to a Roman tour guide taking the Romulus and Remus wolf-adoption story seriously.

Still, myths and legends are powerful things, and they lead to very real things like paintings, statues, and cathedrals.

I've deliberately avoided a lot of purely tourist-bait photos in here during this trip, wanting to focus (pun intended) on a more street-level and personal experience. But I thought this shot of the Silvus Brabo with the severed giant's hand fountain/statue in the market square outside the city hall was worth sharing.