The Sydney opera house...in Antwerp?

Continued from the previous post about Antwerp.

some statue in the middle of a roundabout

sunflowers!

the Royal Fine Arts Museum

with a "horizontal waterfall" in front of it
The water was draining out when we arrived

that's where it went

opposite the museum

then the water started flooding out again

and flooding

until it was almost full (then we left, so we didn't see it become full or recede again)

in the middle of another roundabout

the "sharks of justice" (according to the guide) that can be seen from far away (even before we reached this point)
Makes me think of the Sydney opera house, actually.

that's it, the palace of justice

the view from up the steps

the central train station (from the side)

In February 2009, Newsweek gave this station 4th place in their World's Most Beautiful Train Station list. "That must be a mistake, right?" says Use-It! guide. I think I rather agree...it is beautiful ;)

front view

inside

upon arriving in the train station, coming back from Ghent (I'll write about Ghent later on)

a zoom-in view

That's the diamond museum, probably the only museum open on Monday in Antwerp. I'm not a fan of museums, so I wouldn't have gone there if I hadn't been sightseeing with two other people from the hostel (the guy with the blue bag and the girl next to him) As it turned out, there were renovation works going on on a floor of the museum, so entrance was free (they warned us that it would be noisy).

the zoo, next to the diamond museum (and next to the train station as well)

We walked through a park and saw people skateboarding and doing some bicycle stunts

that is the biggest array of shoes on a wire I have ever seen

a black swan!

lots of other birds too

a bridge

a rabbit! (the park is supposed to be "full" of them, but we only saw one)

A second Brabo? Maybe not...

another something I saw

a vertical garden

and I saw this cute teddy bear in a laundry shop close to the hostel (the shop was closed on Monday, so I could take this photo without worrying about the shopowner seeing me :P )

The next day I went to Ghent, alone this time. I departed from the Antwerp Berchem train station, since it was just as easy to get to this station as to the Antwerp Centraal station from the hostel. The train tickets are sold according to zone, not station, which means that my ticket from the Antwerp zone could be used to depart from any Antwerp train station. And there are a few of those! (I know because we passed a few on the way to Ghent)

Antwerp Berchem train station (check out the four coloured bars!)

I will reserve Ghent for another post, so this is where I went after getting back from Ghent.


This is the Meir (or the street leading to it from the central station), Antwerp's shopping street. There are some nice buildings on it, though I don't know what they are.



There were some street performers on the Meir. This guy was the first I saw...he played quite well, I almost thought it was a recording at first. I tried to take a photo from the other side of the road, but there were so many people crossing in front of me that each photo had them blocked by someone. This is after goodness-knows-how-many tries...I think that they had noticed me by that time -_- So much for wanting to be discreet and staying on the other side of the road!

a sort of fountain

I took the train from Antwerp to Brussels to take the plane to Berlin. There was no one in the train, so I took the opportunity to snap some photos (without embarrassing myself :P ).




I was the only one at the bottom of the two-floor train. From time to time, I heard footsteps, but there was no one else coming into the compartment (ghostly, huh? :P ) So I think that everyone was in the top floor...why they prefer that, I have no idea. Suits me though :P

And this is when the train was passing through Brussels.


See the Atomium?

Ghent pics coming up next! And then Berlin. :)

Hand werpen, anyone?

[Short note: Thanks to See Hua for the Irfanview tip (previous post), it worked! So here's the first Antwerp post. If you notice that the photos (in this post and/or some of the future ones) have different quality/size, it's because some were resized with Photo Resize Magic and some with Irfanview. (and some with good ole Paint :P )]

From Bruges I took the train to Antwerp. Upon arrival it was already evening, so I left the sightseeing for the next day.

I would like to mention that I used the Use-It! guide in Belgium. It is NOT a good guide. It is made by locals, yes...but it is for people who come to settle down, to be a local, and not for tourists. As a result, some of the "sights" I checked out were really rather a waste of time. Too bad...I'll post them anyway, with the trivia I got from the guide. (there wasn't any other tourist brochure to use anyway...Use-It! seems to be dominant)

A statue on a corner. There are lots of statues like this all over Antwerp.

the National Bank

drinking water? Unfortunately I had just come out and my water bottle didn't need refilling...so I couldn't test it.

a giant rainshelter (useless exhibit no. 1)
That's where they have an exotic market on Saturday and a traditional market on Sunday. Since the shelter is so high (23 metres), stall owners at the sides aren't happy 'cos they still get rained on.

I don't quite know what this is

Nor this, but I like the reflection from the other side of the road. (that's the building in the previous photo, in case you didn't notice)

Rubenshuis (Rubens' house, where he lived and painted) Closed on Monday, the day I went there...not that I cared :P

the botanical garden

Use-It! says: "Don't forget to check out the slightly hilarious hothouse, with a desert painted on the wall." But I didn't find it hilarious at all. Useless exhibit no. 2.

Bourla, a theatre building

a ship outside windows

This is the farmer's tower (De Boerentoren), called so because the Farmers' Union was the main sponsor. It is the first skyscraper on the European continent, built in 1932.

When I was looking at it, and probably checking my map to see whether it was that tower, a middle-aged man asked me what I was looking for. I guess it really isn't a tourist site...useless exhibit no. 2-and-a-half, because I like it :)

Groenplaats (Green Place)

It was a green church yard where poor people were buried, while rich people were buried in the cathedral. Later a layer of concrete was laid over it all, so the square is no longer green.

The Cathedral of Our Lady, with one unfinished tower.
On the square is a statue of Rubens.

in a corner of the cathedral, as I walked towards the front entrance

the front of the cathedral

the square in front of the cathedral (Hand Schoen Markt)

That's a group of tourists! It started raining a bit when I was there...and then it turned into a huge downpour. Though towards the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out, making it really hot in the end.

inside the cathedral (it is a sort of museum, you have to pay to see the exhibition)

still inside the cathedral

a building I saw

that's what's on the side of the building (you can see it in the previous photo)

Carolus Borromeus Church

There was a lorry parked in front of it; the previous photo cut off the bottom of the church, and this one cut off one side on it. You can still see a bit of the lorry on both photos, though. :(

inside

opposite the church (or is it an extension of the same building?)

Grote Markt, where there is the city hall and Brabo's statue

The name of Antwerp comes from a phrase in Dutch, "hand werpen" which means "throwing away a hand". The story is that Brabo, a local hero cut off a giant's hand and throws it away (because the giant was asking them to pay taxes)

that's Brabo throwing the hand (the giant's hand seems pretty small :P )

a closer view of the city hall

buildings on the side of the square (pretty, aren't they?)

't Steen

It was a fortress, then a prison with dungeons, then a shipping museum (closed in 2008) I don't know what it is now...a tourist attraction? :P

what are the little people worshipping the big one for?

a nice building...across the road if I'm not mistaken

a ship at the back

for history buffs out there

a new museum that will be opened in 2011

brothel street

Villa Tinto, an "attraction" where according to the Use-It! guide, "almost everything is the colour of love, down to the toilet". Useless exhibit no. 3. I really wonder what kind of people make this guide...

St. Paul's church

approaching Grote Markt from a different angle (as the sky clears after the rain) See Brabo on the right?

a shop called Mata Mata & Pili Pili...for you Malaysians :P

Stitch! Er...maybe not.
We also saw an actual dog (I mean a real live one) wearing shoes like that. Or was it some actual dogs?

I think I shall break the Antwerp post here. The sights you have seen are those leading from my hostel to the city centre, to the west and to the north. Later we headed south...and then east (roughly, that is).