While in lovely Antwerp, we stopped for a bite to eat at a restaurant in Grote Markt. Here’s our review and a bonus story.
We took a half-day tour of Antwerp, in Belgium, we booked on Viator, which left from Brussels. You can read about it in Antwerp: Attractions. The tour guide left us in the large square free to roam. There was plenty to see. While wandering you stopped for a bite to eat at Bella Patio.
Bella Patio
Bella Patio is a very nice place to enjoy a drink or a meal in Grote Markt. It’s quite close to Cathedral of Our Lady, which is probably the most famous church in Antwerp.
Bella Patio is a very nice restaurant with plenty of things to choose from. The food was well prepared and tasty. The service was great. And the view onto Grote Markt was fun. We think you’d enjoy it.
While we were sitting at Bella Patio, an interesting thing happened. A fire truck pulled up in what appeared to be some problem with the nearby church, the Cathedral of Our Lady, which we had visited earlier.
Firefighters performing rehearsal of life saving transfer
We saw the firefighters rigging up a long pulley system to the top of the church, which was under construction, to the middle of the square. We asked our server what was going on. She had no idea.
After a while we watched a stretcher being lowered ever so slowly from the top of the church to the square. There were TV cameras and plenty of passersby wanting to know who the injured person was and if he or she was going to be alright. As firefighters lowered the stretcher into our view, saw that the occupant in the stretcher was another firefighter. They were training to rescue someone from that height!
It was fun to watch, and no one was hurt. I’m not sure that every day at Bella Patio is that exciting, but it’s location on the square means there’s always something to watch.