Adventuring in Antwerp
In Summer 2022 we were trying to decide where to go for a ‘birthday’ mini-break. Having a birthday quite literally slap-bang in the middle of August makes this somewhat tricky as the middle of school holidays = everywhere is expensive. After extensive searching, we settled on going to Belgium. A country that I had precisely zero interest in going to, but John insisted that we should go and maybe I would like it… That trip just over two years ago can be seen as the beginning of my Belgium obsession. I’ve been back to Belgium twice since and will probably go again before the year is out.
Antwerpen Centraal- Definitely one of the most spectacular train stations I’ve ever visited
On the trip I’ve just been on we stayed in Antwerp, however, I also went for a day trip to Utrecht in the Netherlands, which I will post about separately. This was still part of our attempts to avoid flying, so we took the Eurostar to Brussels and the IC train to Antwerp. This is a super easy journey and if there hadn’t been engineering works on the way I think we could have been in Antwerp within 3 hours from leaving London. We spent ages trying to decide where to stay, but in the end went with one of the cheapest options we could find (with a cot included)- a Yays serviced apartment really near Antwerp Centraal. To be honest I would say this isn’t the best area to stay in. It’s fine around the station, but it’s just major European city train station vibes…IYKYK. I already know I’d like to go back to Antwerp and next time I think we’d head to the south of the city. Maybe Zurenborg or Berchem.
We had Alexis with us on this trip and it felt like a BIG shift from taking a mostly immobile 1 year old away (as he was when we went to France in July which I wrote about here) to an always on-the-move 14-month-old just over 6 weeks later. In the intervening time A has mastered crawling and furniture surfing and never stays still… this meant we needed more ways to entertain him and he’s also less happy to just sit in the buggy and watch the world go by. We did not take enough toys on this trip and felt the ramifications! Also, this meant we didn’t get the chance for a proper dinner out on this trip so my food recs this time round are extremely limited.
We got to Antwerp early Afternoon on Thursday and grabbed some lunch (kimchi cheese toastie- always a winner) and went for a bit of a walk/explore of the city to get our bearings. After a while we needed a sit down, so of course this was the perfect opportunity for a beloved kriek. I found on this trip most places served kriek boon but my pref is always either a Liefman’s or Lindeman’s which I think both have more of an intense cherry flavour. After one drink we carried on our wander and grabbed some food to eat back at our room in the evening. I was delighted to discover that Brets (my new favourite crisps) are just as prevalent in Belgium as they are in France. We also managed to get some plant-based kip curry. John did his masters in Maastricht and said that kip curry was one of the things he missed from pre-vegetarian days, so was delighted to get this. I have to say I loved it too… I think this is the first time I’ve tasted a veggie coronation chicken style curry and it be ‘right’. Would be so good in a basic white bread sandwich! Alexis was also delighted by supermarket food options which meant lots of what we call ‘French pot’ (available all over Belgium and France… it’s just a chunky 12+ veggie baby food that comes in a pot. SOOOO much better than the pouches you get in the UK that aren’t recyclable) and tons of bread. Honestly, the amount of bread such a small boy can eat is quite something.
Important holiday snacks
Our second day was mostly museum-focused. John took Alexis to the park so I could explore MoMu in peace. This is a museum I’ve been interested to visit for years. Whilst I was there they were offering reduced entry as it was in between exhibition times. This meant I saw a small exhibit which focused on work by the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. I then went to have a look at the ‘fashion from the MoMu collection’ gallery. This display sheds light on avant-garde Belgian and international fashion, with an alternating presentation from the museum's collection. The selection changes regularly to display as much of the MoMu Collection as possible, from contemporary fashion to historical clothing, textiles and accessories. Whilst individually some of the items on display were fabulous as an overall gallery this space has no real narrative flow and some of the items within each display also lacked connections. My favourite element of the display was a film which focused on the Antwerp Six. However, this left me with lots of questions about the 20th-century Belgian fashion and textile trade that seemed to have been in sharp decline (prior to the arrival of the Antwerp Six there’s almost no garments on display from the 20th century in the gallery). I would have been fascinated to see what represented ‘Belgian’ fashion for example before the arrival on the scene of these new young designers and also what led to the foundation of the fashion course at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1963. It seems particularly interesting that Mary Prijot was chosen to head the course despite having almost no prior experience in fashion before taking the job. Overall I felt like MoMu left me with more questions than answers, and I definitely need to do some digging to find out more in English about the 20th-century Belgian fashion industry. I feel like i’ve slated Momu a bit here. I definitely did still enjoy my time in the museum, I think I just wanted to learn more from the displays!
Some of my favourite pieces on display at MoMu
After MoMu I did a bit of shopping. I didn’t end up buying anything but what I will say is the streets around MoMu are filled with great shops. Lots of independent shops, Belgian labels and also some good vintage shops (particularly if you like 90s/y2k stuff- there’s a chain called ‘think twice’ that there are a few of in Antwerp). However, my special shop mention has to be Studio Play which is primarily a kid’s clothing and toy shop (with a bit more lifestyle stuff too). They have SO many nice kids clothing brands in there and there’s also a little soft play area in the shop.
Studio Play- such a cool shop!
In the afternoon we went to the MAS which is housed in the most incredible building. This is one of only a handful of tall buildings in the city, so you get excellent views from the top. The building is fantastic but the lack of accessibility for something built so recently is pretty disappointing. The top floor with the viewing deck for example is completely inaccessible with a buggy (I just carried A up the stairs in the end). The museum itself has really diverse collections which broadly tell the story of Antwerp’s connection to the wider world. I found some of the galleries really interesting and there were some wonderful objects on display, however by this point in the day Alexis was kicking off so we didn’t perhaps get the chance to fully appreciate the collections.
On the rooftop at MaS
On the third day, I was mostly in Utrecht which I will post about separately, but I did come back late afternoon so we could go for family waffles. I wish I’d got a photo, but we went to Wafelhuis Van Hecke which is a historic place in the city for waffles. On the expensive side, but the waffles were great and Alexis enjoyed it there too (and definitely ate more waffle than a 1-year-old should do…)
Fuelled by sugar. Whoops.
On our final day, we decided to go get coffee and pastries and then head for a big walk around Zurenborg. If you are into Art Nouveau the area is a DREAM. Cogels Osylei is the famous road in the area, but I would actually say some of the other roads have even more spectacular houses. I honestly could have spent hours just wandering the streets. After we sat down for some lunch I tried to do a little bit of research into the area. There’s not a great deal in English I could find, but somewhat shockingly in the 1960s a plan had been made to demolish the houses in the area for various reasons… so we are extremely lucky they are still standing! They are currently building a new tram line down the middle of Cogles Osylei so it’s perhaps not at its best right now, but still, there were some amazing houses to see on the road and the surrounding area.
Just a few of my favourite buildings in Zurenborg
After that, we grabbed our luggage and headed back to Brussels for the Eurostar. This was hands down the worst Eurostar journey I’ve ever had and I think it was a lesson learnt- don’t do the Eurostar on a Sunday!!! Overall though, what can I say about Antwerp? I really, really loved it and will definitely be back. Hopefully, next time I can eat in some of the lovely-looking restaurants there!