Belgium + The Netherlands: Days 5 & 6 -- Antwerp

Although Bruges may be the holder of my favorite vacation day, Antwerp was definitely my favorite city in Belgium. I think this blog post I'd scoped ahead of our trip totally nailed it: "I see this as a city which sits culturally somewhere between Paris & Scandinavia and it has a hipster scene which feels less about display and all the more alluring for it." I absolutely loved it and wish we'd had more time there than anywhere else on our trip.

We made some adjustments to this city visit on the fly based on our first few days in Belgium. Our transfer ride to Bruges was so easy that I decided to book another from Bruges to Antwerp. I found a ride in just a few minutes with Daytrip, which is kind of like a European Uber for longer rides and even sightseeing trips. It was incredibly easy and reliable and I totally recommend it if you find yourself if need of a ride like this!

After getting stuck at a barge coming through bridge on the outside of the city, we were quickly on our way and at the door of our Antwerp B&B. I happened upon Boulevard Leopold randomly while looking for a larger hotel suite that could accommodate a family and decided it was so quirky and opposite of where we'd normally stay that we had to do it. And it was amazing! Boulevard Leopold is a 19th century house in the middle of the still functioning Jewish quarter in Antwerp. We were able to nab the Master Suite and had a whole apartment for ourselves.

I generally loathe how B&Bs make you feel forced to make nice with random people, but Martin who owns and runs Leopold could not have struck a better balance between being helpful and accommodating and then disappearing. There were a few other guests while we were there, including some models in for a photoshoot (the B&B has lots of photoshoots, including one in our apartment shortly after we left). Kane could not make heads or tails out of the scantily-clad leggy ladies and when I prompted him about it after, he said he thought they'd come to breakfast in their pajamas!

But we actually arrived mid-day in Antwerp and Martin directed us to nearby PAKT, a former industrial site turned a sustainable, creative hub surrounded by rooftop gardens. It's in the middle of what appears to be a block of warehouses, so it took us a minute to find it, but it was super cool! We grabbed a quick outdoor pizza lunch at Standard and then grabbed moon pops for the kids from Racine. We explored PAKT a bit more and popped into a crossfit gym to inquire about a drop-in workout (although we ended up not needing to go!). Emboldened by our bike ride in Bruges, we decided to rent Velo bikes right outside of PAKT (everyone needs their own account, so it took a bit to get it set up on our phones, but then we had no problem).

 

I'd planned several museums for the following day, so we decided to stick to the outdoors and rode in search of the Art Nouveau and Victorian architecture districts. The kids liked the architecture but they were much more into just riding bikes. After navigating a few streets with both Joel and I screaming and sweating, I finally safely landed us at Koning Albertpark close to our B&B.

Do you divy up duties while traveling? I am primarily the planner and the navigator -- I have the sense of direction. Joel handles all the day-to-day interactions with local people -- he has a penchant for communicating in other languages I do not understand at all.

We headed back to Boulevard Leopold for a little rest. Our tour in Bruges reminded us how big of an asset a tour guide can be -- especially when traveling with kids. I try not to overbook us ahead of time so that we can be flexible, but I'd also booked us a private tour of Antwerp while we were in Bruges. I thought the kids would love the Legends of Antwerp tour I'd found and I was right. We met our tour guide at Grote Markt (and were immediately glad we'd stayed out of the touristy area all day).

Our wonderful guide Anna took us on a 2-hour walk throughout the city, telling the kids legends as we went, including the symbolic significance of hands to the city and the sad story of Nello & Patrasche (pic at top of post). It was a great way to get our hands around the city layout. We'd worked up quite the appetite after all the bike riding and walking and I was very glad I'd made a reservation at Fiskebar in the south of the city away from all the touristy stuff. Fiskebar was touted as the best seafood in the city and we sat among locals and ate the most bizarre (to us) seafood tower I'd ever had. The kids were troopers and tried all kinds of shellfish we'd never had -- cockles, snails, clams, and other  bivalves. And they were rewarded with insanely delicious creme brûlée.

We woke up the next day in time for Martin's delicious breakfast and Kane school me on how to properly eat soft-boiled eggs and soldiers (he watches a lot of Gordon Ramsey's cooking shows so I'm glad he's picked up something else beyond curse words). Then we headed out to our first museum of the day: MAS. Located in the city's revitalizing Old Dockyards neighborhood, this beautiful modern tower (designed to look like stacked shipping containers and secured with over 3,000 metal hands "holding" the tower together) had a variety of cool exhibits showcasing Antwerp and Belgium's history of trade and cultural exchange.

Most of the exhibits were really interactive and almost each one had some specific activity that appealed to the kids. We could have spent much more time here than we did, but we had an additional museum planned for the day. So we spent a few hours on the exhibits and then made sure to take in the view from the top.

The Red Star Line Museum portrays the "other end" of Ellis Island, which we'd taken the kids to a few years earlier. The Museum has a scavenger hunt activity for kids that lets them follow along the harrowing journey of a young girl as she tries to get to America. It was remarkably well done and a really timely visit given the current state of immigration in the United States and the President's abhorrent treatment of those seeking shelter in our country.

We walked to nearby Brood & Co. for lunch and, softened by a lunchtime brew, we acquiesced to the kids' begging to rent bikes again. We grabbed Velo bikes and I took a minute to find an actual bike path to our destination -- we were heading to the train station to change our train tickets to later the next morning -- we wanted more time in Antwerp!

Everyone did much better on bikes this time and we made it there in no time. You can really see why bikes are the way to get around the city. We switched our tickets, located where we had to be the next morning, and then set out to check out the diamond district. The kids had a fabulous time window shopping and picking out all manner of ridiculous jewelry for me.

But I knew that Antwerp was also a fashion hub (hello Antwerp Six!) and I wanted to do some real shopping. It turned out that we mostly shopped for Cami and Joel -- the city's unique sense of style was just so Cam. She cleaned up at Space and Bellerose. Joel loved Denham and we spent a lot of time there chatting with the nicest guy who gave me suggestions for a stationary store (I had the hardest time finding someone who knew what I was talking about, but he was like, "you mean a hipster stationary store?" He got it) and wrote down a bunch of recommendations for dinner away from the tourist hordes (turns out, we had the right neighborhood with Fiskebar). After a quick visit to Stationary Stad Leest (a pop up of a local bookstore) and quirky Flying Tiger (a chain, but still cute), we headed to eat at recommended Dansing Chocola, which was delicious. We did the long but now familiar walk back to Leopold for a great close to our stay in Antwerp!

Other things on my list!

Activities + Sights:

- Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp 

- Antwerp Zoo

- Free ferry to the other bank 

- Printing Museum

- Rubens House 

- Other shopping 

- De Konick brewery 

Food + Bars:

- The Jane

- Black Smoke

- Chez Fred

- Staff's Kantine

- Shilling