Since it was such a last minute trip, I had some trouble finding a place to stay. All of the reasonably priced places recommended by trip advisor were already booked. We ended up in the docklands area north of the city at a gallery / guest house (www.waterfront-art.be).
The docklands area is in the process of gentrification so a number of trendy bars and restaurants have sprung up in the area. I was glad that we decided to stay in that up and coming area because we would have completely missed that part of town otherwise. However, our accommodation wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. The room was really cold and had an awful moldy smell to it which kept both of us from sleeping very well. For 115 euros a night, you expect to not have a moldy room.
We arrived late on Friday night around 10:00 and walked around the area looking for a spot to have a drink. A lot of the bars were packed and smoky but we finally found one that was a little lower key so Jim could get his Belgian beer fix and I could sit down in a smoke free environment.
The next morning after breakfast we set out to see the town in the bright sunshine. The weather had called for rain but we were lucky that the rain held off until we started our drive home that evening. Everything always looks so much better in the sunshine.
We walked toward the old part of the city and found some very cute streets along the way. In one square we found a large church which had a wedding going on and a statue across the way holding a can of Jupiler (a cheap Belgian beer). Maybe some liquid courage for the bride or groom?
Our first stop was the Grote Markt (main town square). The town hall is the largest building surrounding the plaza and people were gathering in front of it for civil service wedding ceremonies. At the center of the square is a large fountain which is unusual in that it doesn’t have a basin for the water. The water from the fountain simply seeps down through the cobblestones into the reservoir below.
Antwerp’s main cathedral (Cathedral of Our Lady) is just down the street from the main square. The cathedral houses a lot of paintings from Antwerp’s native son, Peter Paul Rubens. The cathedral had a special exhibit at the moment with 15 additional alter paintings commissioned by the various guilds of Antwerp. Each guild was responsible for commissioning paintings to adorn their alter. The closer to the main alter a guild was, the higher their standing in society. Generally the subject matter of the painting was related to the guild. So for example, the fish mongers had a biblical scene representing the Miraculous Draught of Fishes and the wine taverners had a party scene - The Wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine.
After the Cathedral we stopped for a quick simple lunch of sandwiches and tea at a spot that looked to be full of locals. It was reasonably good but more importantly, cheap. We planned to have a nice dinner before heading back to Bonn that evening so we were looking for something pretty basic for lunch.
Our next destination was the diamond museum to see how diamonds were cut. We headed that way via the main shopping street Meir. The Meir has all of the big name European shops that you can find in any big European city so wasn’t too thrilling. Apparently for more unique shops one needs to head south of the Cathedral to Nationalestraat and Kammenstraat. Since neither one of us were really in a shopping mood, we skipped the good shopping district and just walked along the Meir to the Diamond Museum.
Along the way we stopped for some tasty ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s so the pregnant lady could get her ice cream fix.
We also found the diamond shop he visited the last time he was there to buy an engagement ring. I suggested in jest that a good way to erase that bad memory would be to buy me some jewelry from the same place and that husbands are supposed to buy their wives a present for giving birth. However, after looking at the prices, we both decided that buying diamonds right before having a baby probably wasn’t the most financially savvy thing to do.
We found the Diamond museum but unfortunately they didn’t have live diamond cutters on the weekend so we were a little disappointed. We decided to visit the museum anyway. It is always fun to see the jewels and learn about the history of things. The exhibit was overall pretty disappointing. The jewels were actually replicas of the originals and a lot of the hands on parts about the way diamonds are made didn’t work. I wouldn’t recommend the museum to anyone visiting Antwerp. During the week you can see live diamond cutters at Diamond Land which is a huge diamond showroom. I would suggest that over the Diamond Museum.
On Saturdays, there is a huge market in Theaterplein which is supposed to be very interesting but it was already pretty late in the afternoon so we decided we’d try to see that on our next visit to Antwerp.
Jim wanted to find a chocolate shop he had been to 8 years ago on Carnotstraat. After walking about 5 minutes on Carnotstraat which is a very dirty street and in a seedy part of town, I was ready to give up the search but Jim was not. If you’ve read this blog before, I’m sure you can figure out how this ends.
After abandoning our search for the chocolate shop, we started to head back to the docklands area for dinner. I wanted to take the shortest possible route as my feet were killing me so it wasn’t a particularly scenic walk. At one point we actually ended up in the red light district which was just south of where we were staying. We had walked by the street in the morning and didn’t even notice it. However, I’m pretty sure no one was working at 10am on a Saturday morning so there wouldn’t have been anything to see.
I had read about Lux on the internet when I was researching food and drink options in the Harbor area. We decided to have dinner there and made a reservation for an hour later. Jim said he wanted to drop off some stuff at the car before dinner so we made our way there. In reality, he wanted to check on the car to make sure it was ok. We had been side swiped while parked the night before which Jim surprisingly took in stride.
On the walk over, Jim mistakenly made a comment that he thought I was walking so slowly on purpose. Of course, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that I was 37 weeks pregnant and had been on my feet for the last 7 hours walking all over Antwerp in a pair of boots which were cutting off my circulation. Jim realized his fatal error and spent the next hour apologizing to a very angry pregnant woman.
Thankfully, our dinner at Lux (www.luxantwerp.com) was so wonderful that I forgot all about being mad at him. We had a wonderful meal with great service in a really pleasant setting. I would definitely come back to Antwerp just to visit this restaurant. It was a great way to end our day in Antwerp.
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