Antwerpen Anders...Anvers autrement - September 2006

The Belgica club of the European Patent Office in The Hague organized a day trip to Antwerp in Belgium on September 30th. The day was sunny and all conditions were gathered to make this day a fruitful one, from a cultural and gastronomical point of view.
We started our tour at the train station of Berchem (those of you travelling from the Netherlands to Paris with the TGV know this station very well) with english-, french- or flemish-speaking guides (tours can be booked here ), and began walking through the Zurenborg neighborhood.
During the reign of Leopold II, wealthy Antwerpers favoured domestic architectural styles displaying their prosperity. In the Zurenborg district, around Cogels-Osylei, the houses show how individualistic they were. Said houses display a variety of styles: neo-renaissance and neo-flemish traditional houses stand among neo-romanesque and neo-florentine ones, which a dash of Art-Nouveau. The imposing exteriors made quite an impression on me. You are far from imagining that such houses can be found in Antwerp.
We stopped for lunch at the brewery Huisbrouwerij 't Pakhuis , located in the town quarter of "Het Zuid". This quarter boasts with fashion designers, offers museums and galleries as well as many cafes and restaurants.
After lunch, we boarded a boat for an hour-long trip which took us upstream along renovated neighborhoods of the Schelde river, through the old town.
The city tour then continued and led us into the Eilandje-St. Jansplein district. There, during the past 25 years, warehouses and industrial buildings have been restored and converted to luxurious and spacious living accomodations.
After walking so much, we enjoyed a well-deserved dinner at the Zuiderterras restaurant , overlooking the Schelde river. Antwerp definitely has much more to offer than just chocolate and diamonds...

You can see the pictures of this day here .