This weekend I went to Antwerp for a quick weekend getaway with a few friends and unfortunately to clean out my family’s apartment here. So obviously I still wanted to enjoy Antwerp one more time to the fullest 🙂 Here’s what I have been up to:
I took a plane from Munich to Brussels and wanted to take a train from there to Antwerp. Normally it only takes you around 35 minutes but that train got cancelled so it took me around 1 hour and 20 minutes in the end… At least then I was greeted by sunny and nice weather which I hadn’t seen for a while now since Munich had some terrible rain these last weeks. I decided to walk o the apartment and stop by a few of my favorite spots along the way. First thing I mostly do when coming to Antwerp is to get a few sweets. This city has some amazing pastries, pralines and bakeries!! I especially like the „Antwerpse Handjes“ at Philip’s Biscuits, the pralines at Neuhaus and the Macaroons at Laduree and Pierre Marcolini. The area where most of these stores are located is called „De wilde Zee“ and is a cute neighbor hood with small, beautiful houses that’s definitely worth taking a walk to 🙂
From there I continued to the apartment close to the MAS museum. The MAS museum is a huge building which portrays several permanent and temporary exhibitions (at the moment there is a spectacular and super interesting exhibition about Buddhism for example). Also it features a roof top with great views over the city which you can visit for free 😉
Next morning my girls came to visit and we started by a little sightseeing tour of the MAS rooftop, de wilde zee, the “Schuttershofstraat” (a street with all the major luxury brands) and continued to the market at the “Vogelenmarkt”. Every saturday there is a market with lots of stalls where you can buy fresh produce but also a few stalls cooking fresh lunch items. I had some middle eastern snacks while the girls chose for an omelet with veggies 🙂
Having filled our savory cravings we wanted to sample some sweets and stopped by Laduree and Maison Pierre Marcolini to try to find out which Macaroons are our favorites! We decided that the Coconut Lime Macaroon from Laduree and the The Citron Macaroon from Marcolini were our favorites.
Having done so much sightseeing we went for a little shopping excursion along the Meir street. It’s the main shopping street in Antwerp. About half-way along the Meir there is a beautiful building called the Stadfestzaal. It features extravagant golden interior and is definitely worth a stop 🙂 We walked all the way to the central train station. This is truly a marvelous building and you should go here if you’re in Antwerp. Especially the entrance hall looks more like a palace then a train station! Close to the central station there is also a “China Town”. It’s a nice place to get some specialties like for example hand pulled noodles in soup!
For dinner we decided to head to the “Mercado” it’s a streetfood market located in a former post office. It offers a great selection of dishes and is definitely a great place for all foodies. (I will be posting a more elaborate article about the Mercado in my “Eat” Category soon)
After having great tacos and Moroccan food as well as some vegan cake we headed to “Dogma”. This is a great bar located close to the grote markt. It offers such special cocktails in a cozy atmosphere. I decided to have a drink called “The Fortune of the Mandarin Girl” and was delivered a super yummy drink with a fortune cookie and a little cat 😀 Haha such a funny idea. At the neighbor table another drink was served with smoked herbs and a lot of fog coming out of the glasses!
Next morning, we had breakfast at a place close to the apartment called “Roest”. It’s a very sweet lunch spot which offers breakfast every Sunday. They have a selection of around 6 different breakfast items which are so yummy and healthy. I had a smoothie bowl called Red Velvet crunch for example which was made out of organic yoghurt, banana, red beet, almond milk, strawberries, organic oats and cocoa.
Afterwards, the girls had to head home and I decided to go back to town to check out the Bansky exhibition that is currently open for visitors. I really like the controversial art by Bansky and enjoyed seeing so many of his originals. Also the exhibition was set up to show his story and growth as an artist with great explanation which was really nice 🙂
Other great places:
- Restaurant Invincible: http://invincible.be
- Restaurant Brouwersvliet 23: http://www.brouwersvliet23.be
- Restaurants and Beach Club (only during summer): http://www.bocadero.be/en/
- Street food events and brunch: http://felixpakhuis.nu
- Chocolate shop and live viewing of chocolate making: http://www.thechocolateline.be/nl/
- Beautiful interior shop: http://www.flamant.com/flamant/
eat travel smile 