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Doing a fair amount of travel, I am on all of the SNCF spam mailing lists, which is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, when the Thalys sale starts, you can be ready and pick up return tickets to almost any destination serviced by them for under 40€. Thanks to one of these sales, I found myself with a weekend in Antwerp, a city that to me at the time, aside from being a historically important place, was known primarily for diamond-trading and fashion.

With cheap trains come inconvenient train times: departure from Gare du Nord at 0600, but some two hours later I was in Antwerp, arriving to thick grey clouds and gale force winds which were the remnants of Ulla storm. The main street is a pedestrian causeway running from the station into the centre of town and is a big shopping district, but not much was happening at 0830. I made a beeline for the cathedral, recognised as one of the grandest in Belgium, and I was not disappointed. There were few people around, so I could take a bit of time to appreciate it. To enter it one must pay, however after chatting with the sales clerk, it appeared a much better option was to purchase an Antwerp card, which gives access to most sights of the city for 25€ (during 48 hours). I nipped over to the neighbouring square, Grote Markt, and picked up a card for the weekend. Returning to the cathedral, it was just stunning. The scale is grand and the interior is beautifully decorated, with some really impressive stained-glass windows to boot. My only complaint was that to exit, one must pass through a gift shop.

Looking at all the locations that the card gave access to, I chose the ones that interested me and started out to check them off. The first was the library, which apparently has an amazing ‘old’ section, which is closed on weekends. However after I found this out, the woman working there told me that the nearby St. Carolus Borromeuskerk was worth a look, so I headed there. The place was quite small, but really tastefully decorated with a beautiful alter. Outside I was harassed by people about donating second hand clothing; my lack of Flemish made this conversation pretty rough.

My next destination was the Museum aan de Stroom, which is quite a way north. During my ambling to get there, I inadvertently stumbled into the red light district, which because of the town’s ports, was still very much alive at 0930. Passing through, I arrived at the Museum aan de Stroom, which is a very impressive building. The content was rather hit-or-miss for me, but certainly worth it. The rooftop is accessible and allows for views over the town, but the winds ensured that no one spent more than a few seconds out there. From here I headed back into town along the waterfront to check out the citadel. The place is little more than a thoroughfare, but from the outside it is still a very pretty spectacle.

After a quick bite to eat I went to the Plantin-Moretus Museum which was really nice, containing a detailed history of the printing press and housing the oldest presses in existence. From here I went on a mission to the other end of town to see the FotoMuseum, which was great. There was an excellent piece on Sotchi, documenting the problems of the region and really making a solid display of why having the 2014 winter Olympic Games there is (was) a bad idea. After my visit, it was late and I was tired, so I headed back into town to find my accommodation, snuck out to grab some food and retired for the night.

The following day was only a half day due to an early train ride home, so I did not have so much planned. I visited the The Rubens House, which is a major drawcard for the town, but it was not entirely aligned with my tastes. Across the way was the Paleis op de Meir which was more interesting, but all displays were only in Flemish. Having seen this, I had more or less covered everything that was included with the Antwerp card and had little desire to see more museums, so for the remaining hour or so before my train, I just wandered around town. I also made sure to enjoy some frites (which are so good in that part of the world) and finally went to the station. The station itself is really something, so I was glad I had a bit of time to have a proper look around before my train arrived.

In Paris, customs officers were waiting for the train – this was the first time I had seen them. In their “random sampling of people”, all the seedy people were being pulled aside and searched, of whom I was one. After a conversation with the officer and having to turn my bag inside out, I was let go and it was only some minutes later I realised why there were searches. The train had originally departed from Amsterdam, so the tall guy with long hair and backpack seems like the right person to be transporting pot. To be honest, I think the officer was surprised that I was in fact a researcher (and I had to spend a few minutes explaining what a post-doc was) and not the scumbag he had envisaged.

I had initially debated when organising tickets whether to make a weekend out of the trip, or just take a day-trip, and were I to make the decision again, I would say the day trip was more than enough. Antwerp is pretty but rather small, and since I have no interest in diamonds and no interest in fashion, I feel a day would have left me satisfied. But I suppose the extra time allowed me to eat chips and drink beer, so it is not all bad!

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