Een Weekend in Antwerpen en Brugge (A Weekend in Antwerp and Bruges)

Despite the fact that Belgium borders northern France and is only a short train ride away from Paris, I'd only visited the country once on a one-day trip to Brussels. So I spent the first weekend in June visiting Antwerp and Bruges, taking a day in each city. A few coworkers here, as well as a former high school classmate now living in Brussels, recommended Ghent as another interesting travel destination, but Bruges was higher on my priority list and Antwerp looked like it would offer something different from the old towns of Bruges and Ghent. I also lucked out on this trip as the forecast was for scattered showers, but it was sunny, although a bit humid, for most of the weekend (there was often too much glare to take good photos).

Day 1 - Antwerp

I arrived in Antwerp by train at the central station, which is a spacious yet elegantly designed building (although not quite the attraction that travel websites make it out to be). Since I arrived in the late morning, I only had about two thirds of a day to look around, although this was enough given the close proximity of most of the sites. I went straight to the old town, centered by the Cathedral of Our Lady with the Grote Markt to the west. The Stadhuis in Grote Markt contained a small museum on the history of Antwerp which made for a convenient 20 minute visit. There was also a large scavenger hunt competition going on in Antwerp that day, so there were a lot of people running around the area performing various tasks (one guy had to cycle around the statue of Silvius Brabo a countless number of times; I think he may still be there).

In Grote Markt (Great Market Square), facing west is a view of Antwerp Stadhuis (City Hall) with the statue of Silvius Brabo in front.

In Grote Markt, facing east is a view of the square's many guildhalls.

The main cathedral in Antwerp has a Gothic exterior and reminded me a lot of the cathedrals of northern France, although Antwerp's cathedral appears to be much taller. The interior was set up as an art museum, although it was still functional for accommodating mass.

The Cathedral of Our Lady contains several paintings and sculptures, arranged in a way that makes it look as much like an art museum as a cathedral. Pictured is The Descent From The Cross, by Peter Paul Rubens.

West of the old town is Steen Castle, a very small fortress with a medieval exterior. Despite the castle's small appearance, the interior was spacious and I thought it was severely under-utilized by only containing a café and small history exhibit. This building could easily host a moderately-sized museum and would probably get a lot of visitors given its proximity to the old town.

On the east bank of the Scheldt river is Hetsteen (Steen Castle). The interior was small and contained a café and a small exhibit on the history of Antwerp.

The rest of the river bank appeared to be more industrial than cultural, so I headed south to the Plantin-Moretus Museum, only to find that it's under renovation and closed until October (doh!). Instead, I went to the Rubenshuis, the former house and studio of Peter Paul Rubens. The house doubles as an art museum, and also has a small garden that provides a tranquil sanctuary from the bustling shopping area surrounding the building.

The Rubenshuis is the former home and studio of Peter Paul Rubens. Pictured is the living room, with a self portrait by Rubens on the right. Most of the artworks in the living quarters are paintings by Rubens' contemporaries, although there is a large room at the end of the house with several works by Rubens.

There was still enough daylight left for me to walk south and visit the Stadtpark and the Antwerp Botanic Garden. There are two larger parks on the outskirts of the city (Mittelheim and Rivierenhof) but they were too far to comfortably reach on foot.

Stadspark is a large city park located southeast of the old town. The park was crowded on the north end near the city center, but it was much quieter on the south end. Pictured is the large pond that twists around the southern and eastern parts of the park.

The Antwerp Botanic Garden is small but compact and contains a large collection of trees and shrubs, although the tropical greenhouse was closed by the time I got there. Pictured is the small koi pond at the center of the garden.

I spent the evening in the northern part of the city, where there are a series of scenic marinas connected by canals. The other item that I'll mention is that the city had a very lively and upbeat atmosphere. It felt like there were a lot of local travelers from the Netherlands or elsewhere in Belgium that were visiting for the day, either taking part in that scavenger hunt contest (or some other local festivity) or shopping in the city's various commercial areas (although the diamond district wasn't as crowded as the main shopping streets).

Day 2 - Bruges

Bruges is a small city but it's grown in popularity with tourists ever since the movie In Bruges was released. However, Bruges didn't look like what I (vaguely) remember from the movie. It looked greener and more spacious, and while visiting in the summer and focusing on the two main squares in the center and the park areas along the river may have given me a different view, even the narrower streets of the old town didn't resemble the film.

The train station is in the southeast section of the city, so when heading towards the old town, I passed through Sint-Janshospitaalpark as well as by the Site Oud Sint-Jan and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw church (but did not go inside) before reaching the Markt.

The Markt (Market Square) in Bruges. In the center is a statue of Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck, and on the right is the Provinciaal Hof (Provincial Court). The Belfort (Belfry of Bruges) would be seen if facing in the opposite direction.

I spent a good part of the morning just wandering around the old town. The city is scenic, with a variety of Gothic style buildings that are still functional (many as restaurants and souvenir shops) along with a canal twisting through the city center.

While there is a small river that encircles most of Bruges, the more scenic waterfront is in the old town along the Gronerei Canal.

Since the Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed (Basilica of the Holy Blood) was holding mass and too crowded for sightseeing, I took a quick walk to the east side to check out the windmills as well as two of the city gates. (Bruges used to be a walled city and nine of its gates still remain.)

On the east side of Bruges, there are four windmills on the riverbank. Pictured is the Koeleweimolen, a functional grain-grinding windmill built in the 18th century. This photo was taken at the base of the hill where another windmill, the Sint-Janshuismolen, stands at the top. Both of these windmills are open to the public and contain a small information exhibit.

I wandered back to the old town in the afternoon and visited the town hall as well as Brugse Vrije. Both were small sites that only had three and two rooms, respectively, on display. I also climbed up the Belfort tower to get a comprehensive view of the city, but due to its compact layout, few canals and plain rooftops, Bruges wasn't much to look at from above.

The Gothic Chamber of the Stadhuis (Town Hall). I'm assuming that's the mayor's chair in which I'm sitting.

A shot of Burg Square with the tower of the Belfort in the background. To the left but outside of this shot is the Stadhuis as well as a basilica (Basiliek van het Heilig Bloed) with a beautifully designed interior.

I had time to check out one museum and instead of another art museum or more history exhibits, I decided to go with the chocolate museum, Choco-Story. Hey, what could be more educational than learning about chocolate and eating it at the same time?

Choco-Story is a moderately sized museum that outlines the history of chocolate, going back to its use by the Aztecs all the way up to its popularization in Europe in the 20th century, as well as how it's manufactured in a modern setting. The tour ends with a demonstration of how chocolates are cast in various shapes with different fillings. The best part: there were free samples provided at the beginning and end.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the south part of the city, passing by another city gate (Gentpoort) and then through Minnewater Park. Somehow I ended up in the Begijnhof, which is a small garden complex that is now used as a convent for nuns. It also contained a small museum, which showed what the typical Flemish household looked like in the 1700's.

A photo of Lac D'Amour in Minnewater Park.

So that was Antwerp and Bruges in a quick weekend. I felt like I could have benefited from an extra half day in Bruges, but I still got a good feel for each city. Both cities are more picturesque than the photos that I've posted here, but the bright sun made photography difficult and there were some places where I just couldn't find the right angle. Antwerp is a modern and very commercial city with an energetic atmosphere, while Bruges is a scenic, laidback town (although a bit touristy).

As you may have also noticed, my trip descriptions are getting shorter and more mundane with each post. Part of this may be from traveling so much that everything is starting to look like a repeat of what I've seen before, but more of this has to do with writing fatigue. For future posts, I might write a short paragraph on each city and leave it to the photos to tell the story. I've got a trip to eastern Europe next weekend, so I'll try to post a summary in two weeks.