Belgian break (2) : Antwerp

On the second day of our Belgium break, we further explored the city of Antwerp. The morning was spent on cultural visits.

First, we went to see the Rubens House. The painter Peter Paul Rubens purchased the property in 1610 and lived and worked here until his death in 1640. After centuries of neglect, the house was rescued by the city of Antwerp in 1937 and has been refurbished and refurnished to look as it might have done in his day.

Next, we strolled round to the Rockox House. This used to be owned by Nicholas Rockox (1560-1640), a friend and patron of Rubens who was the city mayor for nine years. Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts has been closed for several years for a major refurbishment and a collection of some of the best works – dubbed “The Golden Cabinet” – is currently on display at the Rockox House, so we were able to admire an impressive set of Flemish paintings from the 14th-17th centuries.

The remainder of the day was more informal.

In the afternoon, at Vee’s suggestion (she loves animals), we visited the city zoo. It is quite extensive with a large aquarium section plus lions, tigers, giraffes, buffalo, and much more. We were in time to see the feeding of carrots and cabbages to the young elephants Kanvar and Ming Jung. Then, in the early evening, we went to the cinema to see the latest Woody Allen movie, a romantic comedy starring Colin Firth and Emma Stone, “Magic In The Moonlight” which has not yet opened in the UK. It was shown in the original version with both French and Dutch subtitles.

After a couple of days in Belgium, a few oddities have become apparent. It seems that no restaurant makes available free tap water so one has to pay for bottled water. And in a cafe and a shopping centre and even in the cinema, we have had to pay to use the toilets. Then our hotel charges us for Wi-Fi …

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014 at 9:01 pm and is filed under My life & thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Comment

  • Alexei
    September 7th, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    Roger,

    Lovely review. Flemish people are famous for their entrepreneurial talents 🙂 Still, it’s my top-3 most favourite part of Europe.

    Kind regards,
    Alexei