The city of Antwerpen is very close to Amsterdam. After being on the
train for 1.15 hrs we reached the city famous for its diamond. I was
not aware of Antwerp till recently and it is not on my must-visit countries list. The only reason that we are even in Antwerp is to visit a factory for my dad's business.
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| Was surprised to find Chinatown - just on the right side of the central station |
I was expecting a small cozy (and frankly boring) city but amazed by the city's central train station for its grandeur. The station has 22 platforms which are separated across 3
levels. The place I booked is called
CocoMat and it was about 5 mins walking distance from
central station. We were early and was having a difficult time trying to contact the owners because it was an apartment rental. The building has a furniture stores downstairs which does not open until 10am, and we were told to wait till the stores open.
The factory that we are visiting is in the city of St. Niklaas slightly outside of Antwerp city and it was 20 minutes by train. So, we waited until the stores open, left our luggage, walked back to the station and hopped onto the train. After the trip, we came back
to Antwerp with Joe, my dad's business contact, who was kind enough to show us his hometown. Antwerp is not a big city, and there isn't anything major to see. But the city has its own charms, with its laid-back urban feels.
Our first stop was at
Bourla Theater with an impressive cafe area. Even if you are not a theater fan, just stop by at the cafe for a drink and admire the impressive architecture. For some reason, I was reminded of that ballroom from the Beauty and the Beast.
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| Virgin Mary is Antwerp's Patron Saint and she's ubiquitous in the city, built into every corner of the buildings |
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| Some cute building in the old town. |
We walked down the fashion district, admiring all the designer stores. I came across this brand store called Delavux. It is a luxury handbag company like Gucci and LV, and seemed to be huge in Belgium. But I was surprised that they are not that well known in the States like other European brands such as Mulberry. After window shopping in the fashion district, Joe took us to the historic site of Antwerp to see the most famous Lady of Cathedral church, city hall and grote market area. We even visited the Antwerp university compound.
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| Lady of Cathedral Church |
Being in Belgium, I had to try the famous Belgium waffle and it definitely lived up to its
name.
After 2 hours walking tour, we were pretty thrilled to be back at our hotel apartment. And we were pleasantly surprised to find our spacious two bedroom apartment
on the 5th floor of Coco-Mat residence. The concept of Coco-Mat is the
first I have experienced so far in my travel. The company is Greece
based furniture company with the showroom downstairs and rentals upstairs. They put their products
in the apartment so that guests can sample their products and order
them. It's apparently a franchising company and has places all around
Europe and some in US.
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| Coco-Mat's Living Area with the view of Antwerp |
Coco-Mat is located very centrally with central station on one
end and old town on the other. You can walk to the old town within
20-25 mins or you can take underground subway which is right under the
apartment. Train ride from our apartment to the old town is one stop away and 3 minutes long. Of course we didn't know that in our earlier walking tour as we were going around the city. But the old city is really only 3 minutes train ride away.
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| Antwerp's train map |
Next to our hotel is a movie theater. Since we have nothing to do and TV wasn't interesting., me and my brother decided to go and watch Godzilla. I wanted to get the feeling of movie theater outside US. Overall, the theater is pretty similar to US. Tickets are a bit pricey as they are in euros on all. However, we were able to get student discounts. 3 movie tickets came out 26 euro.
Overall, I liked Antwerp. Personally I feel like staying for 2 nights is more than enough. A day of walking tour will cover all the attractions. Oh, and I definitely Coco-Mat residences to anyone who is traveling to Antwerp.
Recommended/Tips:
1. Walking or biking tours - bikes are available for renting and they are the best way to get around town if you cannot walk. The other alternatives is underground subways.
2. Belgium Waffles - must eat!
3. Going into a diamond stores and haggle - I think I can understand why they call Antwerp - Diamond capital. They just put all the loose diamonds on display. And they priced those pretty high. If you are interested in buying, please haggle a lot. And most diamond stores seemed to be owned by Jewish people as is true in New York.
4. Bourla Theater - I wish I would have more time to spend here and enjoy their brunch.
5. There are a lot of cute bakeries in the fashion district. Would have loved to try those.
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