Antwerp Adventure: a weekend in photos

For a birthday / bank holiday treat recently I headed off to the Belgian city of Antwerp. Apart from some top tips from Twitter friends, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised at this stylish, friendly and laid-back city. I hope you enjoy exploring Antwerp with me now via some of my snaps …

Central Station Antwerp

Train station meetings do not always live up to their Brief Encounter romantic expectations, however after arriving at Antwerp station from the Eurostar, I had a perfect rendezvous with my loved one. After being apart for a week, he appeared at the top of the steps in the magnificent Central Station. We missed our chance to run in slow motion into each other’s arms, but it was memorable nonetheless.  This nineteenth century fin de siecle station alone almost makes a visit to this Belgian city worthwhile. 

Markets 

Markets tend to give a good flavour of a city’s character, and Antwerp has its fair share. We made it to Vrijdagmarkt, where locals were auctioning their goods at low prices, and we felt more like spectators than participants.

Chocolate has to be sampled in Belgium, so we had a post-market hot chocolate stop…

Antwerp vintage shopping

Still in Vrijdagmarkt, there’s a a rather cool vintage clothes store called My Ohm, and home to a good selection at reasonable prices. I tried on a gorgeous evening dress from the 1970s, which fitted perfectly. The owner’s sales technique was direct, “just get it.” And I did … well it was my birthday.

Another store that we came across was Jutka and Riska, which was a combination of new and vintage fashion.

Antwerp fashion 

Antwerp is a fashion trendsetting city, and to capitalise on this growing reputation, you can go on a fashion tour. (Please let me know if you’ve been on it… ). I’m more of a vintage gal but if you prefer designer stores, Antwerp has it covered too. In the 1980s, the world took note of the Antwerp Six (Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee). Dries Van Noten‘s store is housed in the beautiful building below.

Couture in Colour: Silk and Prints from the Abraham Archive is the current exhibition at the Fashion Museum – Momu in Antwerp. And it was lucky for us, as I really enjoyed seeing sumptuous fabrics and couture dresses up close by Dior, Yves San Laurent and Balenciaga. I’ll save any more for a blog coming soon…

Retro in the streets

I just couldn’t resist snapping  this glamorous shop dummy which brought to mind Ken Russell’s The Boyfriend somehow, and although the male dummies below should have been incongruous, they looked right at home in the street.

My boyfriend sniffed out quite a few vinyl record stores including Chelsea (pictured below).

Whether jazz music is your thing or not, I’d recommend heading to the De Muze. Like all good jazz bars, it’s almost standing-room only on a Saturday night, but after a little wait we climbed the windy stairs to secure a table on the top floor, and there was no entrance fee. Sorry I’ve no pics, but visit their website for aural treat…

Museums: Culture Darling MAS here…

Although it’s me who works in marketing, my boyfriend took the opportunity for some free publicity for this blog. Perhaps he should have chalked “Culture Darling MAS here”, which covered some products in the MAS gift shop, shorthand for the Museum Aan de Stroom.

The MAS Museum is part of a recent riverside redevelopment in the Eilandje or “little island” area of Antwerp. The building comprises boxes in brick-red sandstone piled neatly on top of one another like children’s play things with curved glass in between. Over six floors, the museum tells the story of Antwerp past and present, but as this is a port city its story incorporates the local and the global.  There are four permanent exhibits – Metropolis, Power, Life and Death and Antwerp as a Port city drawing on the museum’s collection of 470,000 objects. As this collection is so vast, the majority remains in storage. However, they made a feature of this by revealing their processes in a “visible storage” exhibit so that we could see how the objects are looked after by the team. This type of innovative curation continued throughout giving the museum a slightly off-centre appeal.

 

The Winnie the Poohs are piled high as part of the exhibition about Antwerp as a port city, representing the trade in  illegal goods.

The impact of Napoleonic rule of Antwerp from 1794 to 1814, when the city gained influence as an important military post was the focus of another exhibit. Many objects, featuring the French ruler, were displayed, such as pocket watches and the pipe featured below.

‘Home Call’ was a interesting exhibit about globalisation, juxtaposing life for the Kasana in Northern Ghana with the lives of migrants in Antwerp, the second largest immigrant group in the city after Moroccans. Home Call means death in Ghana, a return to the ancestors, and whilst children used to announce the death in the streets, now posters are distributed. The home call posters were fascinating, displayed on lightboxes above our heads, which was fitting as there is a belief that the dead remain in the roof of their house. You can read more about this exhibition from the curator, Ann Cassiman.

Artist George Nuku combines traditional Polynesian sculpture with modern materials, such as polystyrene and plexiglass. Here he explains about the origins of the Haka dance.

At the bottom of the MAS museum, Time Circus have transformed a disused crane into an urban garden, and we could see someone tilling the crops whilst making our way up to the top of the building.

Bitter Zoet  – land of honey at lunchtime

When your museum-treading, fashionable feet are worn out, head to Bitter Zoet, a lovely cafe in the t’Zuid area of Antwerp. Its quirky, retro style is matched with a friendly, laid-back vibe. I think I may have had the most delicious baguette ever via the introduction of honey as a spread.

Boerentoren – the original European skyscraper

Just around the corner from our apartment was Boerentoren or the KBC building, one of the tallest in Antwerp. This art deco building by Jan Van Hoenacker, is often thought to be the first skyscraper in Europe.

Also up high were these religious icons on the buildings throughout the city.

In contrast, there were signs protest throughout the city…

On our last day in Antwerp, we headed to the Photography Museum (FoMu), which is well-worth a visit for any lovers of the medium, and again we were lucky that their current exhibitions were fascinating; from dressing like a wild beast to the power of the camera, this museum deserves a blog post of its own…

Have you ever been to Antwerp? I’d love to go back soon, so please share your tips and thoughts on the places I’ve shared.