Went to Antwerp last Saturday with the parents for a morning trip to Belgium's self-claimed fashion capital. It was less than an hour's drive from the city and the good thing about driving during the weekends is that you don't have to deal with the horrendous traffic jams (
and worse still, the traffic lights!) because everyone is still lazing around in bed until the mid afternoon.
As we drove into the city, for the earlier part I was a bit disappointed with that the city had to show - nothing. There was barely a soul on the streets! It was like a ghost town - I could even feel the silence all the way from inside the car.After a while, I did manage to see a few handful of people walking about the streets - they turned out to be the local Jews making their way to their local synagogue. I was quite curious by their traditional attire -the men's attire (since I hardly saw women walking about). To be more specific I was interested in their hat: a big, furry circular thing above their heads. I've never seen anything quite like it, even when I was living back in the US.It looked sort of like those big, Russian furry hats except these were shorter and wider. Almost all the men I saw were wearing it. Sadly I don't have a photo to show you guys what I'm taking about.. I didn't dare offend them.It took us a while to drive around to look for any interesting place to explore but finally we were dropped off at Antwerp's popular shopping district. One whole road blocked from public transport (
except cyclists), flanked by stores left, right, front and back.
Antwerp's shopping scene is definitely much better than Brussels! And it's easier to shop here too (
in my opinion anyways) because the locals here are Flemish and are able to communicate in English. Just in case you're wondering: Belgium is divided into two communities (the French and Flemish, and there are tons of political tension between them) so as you travel you will find that some region speaks french and others speak flemish.
One thing I liked about Antwerp: the city's urban scenery was far more pleasant (bonus points due to the lovely weather that day). Here I found that they kept their traditional architectural buildings but wisely used them to house stores of the latest, biggest fashion names locally and internationally.It wasn't until later that afternoon, when the streets started filling with people, that I was reminded of Oxford Street in England back during my boarding school days. Except, here you'll see just as many dogs as there are people cycling with baby carriages in tow - and there are a LOT of that!Here's some photos of Antwerp that I wanted to share with you guys:
A vast hall, housing tons of shops - essentially this antique building has been converted into a modern day shopping mall. It was
MAJESTIC! The ground hall was breath-taking and beautiful: gold carvings crawling up the ceiling. Beautiful natural light flooding into the hall from it's huge glass ceiling.
There was a cafe in the middle for folks to enjoy their breakfast while they soak the sun and the splendour of the hall. The best part of it all: the Grand
Champagne Bar located on top of a towering champagne glass at the top end corner of the hall. To get there, you need to cross over a bridge.
Another thing I wanted to share with you guys:
The Chocolate Line StoreIt's one of Belgium's famous chocolate stores, called the
Chocolate Line . It's housed in a refurbished architectural landmark and kept most of it's Victorian (
-ish... i think so anyways) interior design: painted walls, wall cornices, carvings, the works. Located inside the store is the company's workshop where you can actually see a live demonstration of chocolate making.
One thing I noticed about the place was that when I first stepped into the store, the aroma of chocolate and cocoa was strong: immensely seductive, rich and intoxicating. Visually, the place was just screaming "
decadent splendour" as it's interior designs were traditional, antique, dark in colour and rich in style. It had a European classic architectural design, lavished cornices and big almost low chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. The walls were painted dark but had classic European paintings done on the walls... Oddly enough, I suppose you can see it as being a reflection of it's chocolates. Sort of like saying:
See how our ambiances are dark, divine and rich? Yeah well, this is just like our chocolate when you have your first bite!
I walked to the back to check out the workshop and it was the complete opposite of it's front store: instead of dark and rich, you see white, clean and simple walls: white walls and clear pane glass. Behind the pane glass you see Chocolatiers at work, creating huge big chocolate eggs in various chocolate flavours... Oh! I just can't wait to be a chocolatier!! :)
Sadly I didn't get to spend the whole day exploring Antwerp because the boys wanted to head back and catch the afternoon football game after lunch (
boo!) so I plan on coming back here again and explore more. It appears that there is more life in Antwerp than Brussels.
More proof that there is still more Belgium exploration to do as three weeks is not enough to complete it!
