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Antwerp page
Antwerp by foot, its insolent and secret treasures Introducing the walk Keyserley-Leysstraat-Meir Meir shopping, slowly loitering to Rubens house Rubens, his life and his house Bird market-Bourla theatre-More shopping Shopping streets to Groenplaats Area
around Antwerp Cathedral
Hoogstraat and Grote
Pieter Potstraat Museum Mayer van den Bergh-Maagdenhuis Strolling to the Carolus Borromeus church Rockoxhuis- Rubens tomb at St.Jacobskerk Cogels-Osylei area, unique in the world (1) Cogels Osy area, unique in the world (2)
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Leave the Rubens house, take left, cross the Schuttershofstraat, a trendy shopping street, much more in the style of Parisian small shops (jewelers, antique, tea-rooms, etc...). Notice a novelty you don't see very often. A shop where you can buy jewels for very interesting prices. Schutterhofstraat 34a tel 2895610 Jewels that are sold by their owners but don't have time to look for buyers. So they rent a box in the display window of "JEWEL IN A BOX" and any customer can come and buy the jewel. If you plan to enter just mention Jack from jack travel brought you here, you will be given an extra reception ;-) Enter the Maria Pijpelinckxstraat, a short street wearing the name of Rubens mother. Don’t look at the monumental but hideous monstrous building on your left: the City Theatre. Take right, the Graanmarkt, vast square with the impressive hotel Bunge, witness of the Belle Epoque. During the week this place is a haven of tranquillity and quietness” but on weekends….huge crowds (mostly from Holland, Germany and France), jostle each other to buy a canary, love bird, duck, chicken ‘all alive) newt to numerous food stalls, junk stalls, old clothes stalls, bargain stalls, in fact a huge market called “Vogelmarkt (Bird market), one of the most famous in the northern countries. It is really a spectacle on Sundays especially when the vendors shout and praise their goods, demonstrate new casseroles, knives, cutters, all kind of new devices for three times nothing.
It is a complete
“depaysement” as they say in French (I cannot find the corresponding English
denomination). All visitors and mostly the Dutch, as I said already, come in
close-up ranks to taste the Antwerp
Classified as a monument
in 1938, it marked the great hours of the Antwerp “Quartier Latin” for
years, being considered in the 19th century as “the most modern of
Europe”. It was entirely restored in 1980-1985; Indeed, the building was in
such a ruined state, that real estate promoters had the good idea to demolish it
and build a parking instead!! Luckily the Antwerp mayor of that time, Bob Cools,
was heavily opposed and he saved the building. Five years later and 1.6 million
dollars cost and here is the wonderful result. Go inside, admire the
architecture, go up to the second-d floor and have a Viennese coffee and cake in
the Viennese café, an incredible beautiful establishment, called “De
Foyer”. Let’s leave the Leopoldstraat behind us with its Botanical Garden, small peaceful garden in the middle of the noisy Antwerp traffic. Its pond, plants and vegetation are really attractive. Very frequented during the weekends due to the affluence during the “Vogelmarkt”. Go instead direction Huidevetterstraat (Tanners street) called like this since this now very flourishing shopping area was one packed with tanneries leading to Meirbrug. A small shopping gallery connects the Huidevettersraat with the Korte Gasthuisstraat, very agreeable pedestrian area, with a lot of specialty shops, furnishings, table decoration, tearooms or delicatessen. The picturesque bakery “Goossens”, famous for its delicious raisin bread called “Roggeverdommeke” in Antwerp slang. The fact that the shop is so small doesn’t take away the savour of its “speculoos” (another Flemish specialty) or the aroma of its sugar bread and exquisite tarts. |
