Antwerp: A Day With the Arts

If you missed the first post on Antwerp, you can find an overview of the city and photos from the first day here.

Day two started with practical concerns. First up was the hunt for some sort of insole/insert. Despite the shoes being less than a month old, the padding in them couldn’t hold up to ten miles a day, especially not across cobblestones that create new pressure points with every step. Then there was the necessary evil of doing laundry, which comes up too often when taking a long trip with nothing but a backpack. At least shoe comfort was addressed before walking to the laundromat.

Afterward, the day was filled with a trip to an art museum, too many baked goods, and a night at the local playhouse. Sorting back through the photos, it’s a bit difficult to believe that so much fit into one day.

The Day in Photos

The shopping street was quiet except for the extensive work crews that keep everything as clean as it is in this city.

Success, though it took 1.5 miles and two stores to find these. They went straight into the shoes before returning to the hotel.

The tower of the central train station is visible at the end of the street.

This is the front door of a private residence.

<break for a laundry>

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

Antwerp has been home to The Royal Museum of Fine Arts since 1810, and the current building was completed in 1894. As luck would have it, they had just reopened a few weeks earlier after eleven years of renovations.

Even the bottom of the pool outside the museum is artful.

This dead-end hallway appeared to be rather frivolous until walking down it.

The wall at the end is completely flat. Well played, Artist.

The sign for “Schilders Straat” indicates that this is Painters’ Street. The architects are no slouches here either.

If you look closely, the dog is airborne. It chased its mom’s bike until they both disappeared around the corner.

A Paul Hollywood Food Tour

Fans of The Great British Baking Show will know the name, but many will not have seen his visit to Antwerp (click here to watch on YouTube). Sampling from a few of the featured locations allowed the culinary arts to make their own appearance after sculptors and painters had their turn.

When asked for a half dozen of their best for a broad sampling, the person behind the counter at Philip’s Biscuits pushed this variety bag. It was too much for one person, but given two days and a lot of accompanying coffee, they disappeared. Yes, they were good, but not every variety will be anyone’s favorite.

Actually, the sought-after sign was for…

One of the items Paul Hollywood tried was roggeverdommeke, and there it was in the window waiting. The YouTube video linked above gives the backstory. The bread itself and another takeaway item are depicted further down in the post.

Het Stadspark (literally “The City Park” – they really need to work on their creativity)

The light and shadow at this time of day wrecked any opportunity for a good photo, but this monument to both world wars was worth including nonetheless.

A park bench was the perfect place to finally tear into the treats from Goosens. This is the roggeverdommeke, a lightly-flavored rye with raisins.

The eclair, also from Goosens, had massive height. Is this even choux pastry?

It seemed like this much filling would be heavy, ruining any sense of balance, but it was remarkably light and the whole thing was delightful.

This appeared to be someone’s home right along the sidewalk, but they’re certainly encouraging prying eyes with the cat and bird decals.

What looked to be another park on the map was actually private property belonging to a somewhat exclusive-looking hotel.

Neuhaus chocolates, also featured in Paul’s visit of Antwerp, were actually underwhelming. The chocolate itself was of very fine quality, but the truffle fillings were lackluster.

Bourla Theatre

The toneelhuis (stage house) at Bourla Theater was showing Vijand van het Volk (Enemy of the People), which included an actor, Stijn van Opstal, who was familiar from Netflix’s Tabula Rasa.

The play dates back to 1882, but is surprisingly relevant in today’s political environment. To summarize, a small town is dependent on tourism at its spas, but one of the locals discovers that their water source is poisoned. Instead of directing their attention to the problem at hand, the rest of the townspeople are angry at him for his findings. It’s been 140 years, but we still haven’t learned not to shoot the messenger/scientist.

The theater building was completed in 1834 and has been wonderfully expanded and renovated since. No one else showed up for the four-seat balcony box, so visibility was excellent, including before the show to take too many pictures of the hall.