While the ride to Antwerp was raining, the landscape was very green and pretty and I noticed it looking more and more like the US north of Maryland, east of Illinois. Upon arriving in the city and having been in yuck Lux that morning, I was very relieved to see that it looked like a normal, cool, fun city.
It's known as one of the most fashionable euro cities with a lot of designers coming out of it in the past 10 yrs. Lots of great neighborhoods, shops, etc. Aside from stores closing every day at 6pm and nothing open on Sundays, it has lots of promise as a place to live, though Paris and Barcelona haven't been bumped outta there rank!
City park..
Getting into old town.
Cathedral of our Lady. Known for having only 1 of it's spires completed. Built 1521.
Took this special for Andi - clearly a great cafe/pub if they love disco balls this much.
Bridge to nowhere but a view of the river and then to look back at views of the city. Random.
View across the river. Odd to me that it's not built up. I'll look into why and get back to you. Must be some random urban planning issue. (potential investment opportunity?)
Proof I was there!
Het Steen (kings stone), previously called Antwerp Castle before Charles V made lots of renovations. Used to control the river and later as a prision.
Maritime Museum along the river.
Cool art gallery w/ all American cartoon characters as the main subject - but rarely any faces.
Grote Market. Antwerps main market w/ the Brabo statue. Brabo, a legendary roman solider, apparently freed Antwerp by severing the hand of the giant Antigoon and throwing it into the river.
After walking around for a few hours, I ate at an Italian restaurant, where, as I don't speak Dutch (belgium speaks french in the south and flemish in the north, which is basically dutch. it's like american english vs british english) I used the Italian I've been learning via my coworkers, Bobo, and spending 10 days in Italy. It was wierd to speak Italian in Belgium. Then again, it's weird to learn Italian in Germany to begin with. Bravo!
Het Steen (kings stone), previously called Antwerp Castle before Charles V made lots of renovations. Used to control the river and later as a prision.
Maritime Museum along the river.
Cool art gallery w/ all American cartoon characters as the main subject - but rarely any faces.
Grote Market. Antwerps main market w/ the Brabo statue. Brabo, a legendary roman solider, apparently freed Antwerp by severing the hand of the giant Antigoon and throwing it into the river.
After walking around for a few hours, I ate at an Italian restaurant, where, as I don't speak Dutch (belgium speaks french in the south and flemish in the north, which is basically dutch. it's like american english vs british english) I used the Italian I've been learning via my coworkers, Bobo, and spending 10 days in Italy. It was wierd to speak Italian in Belgium. Then again, it's weird to learn Italian in Germany to begin with. Bravo!Day 2 was spent getting the 411 from the local sales rep - most of these pics I can't share as they're internal info, so only a few from this day...
Playground in the middle of a neighborhood.
One of the coolest footwear shops & shop owners in Antwerp. If you're there check it out :)
Back on my own again in the evening.
Botany park in Antwerp. Everything's labeled and there's an indoor section as well.
Second night there I ate at the Kookabura. It was a cool resturant that was playing the Amelie soundtrack as I walked in. Here is the view into Grote Market.
One of the coolest footwear shops & shop owners in Antwerp. If you're there check it out :)
Back on my own again in the evening.Botany park in Antwerp. Everything's labeled and there's an indoor section as well.
Second night there I ate at the Kookabura. It was a cool resturant that was playing the Amelie soundtrack as I walked in. Here is the view into Grote Market.
Cool example of totally modern next to the symbolic Antwerp archiecture of the stair roof.
See, even Madonna is getting in on my trend setting multi-bracelet look. hmmm. (LV window display)
Headwear from a Dior show.
See, even Madonna is getting in on my trend setting multi-bracelet look. hmmm. (LV window display)
On Wednesday am I went to the ModeNatie home of the MoMu fashion museum, Flanders Fashion Institute, and A Magazine hq.
The current exhibt is a display on paper use in fashion, with the key item being the Paper Dress. Everything in the below is made of paper from the type of paper used in teh 60's dresses, the paper from USPS flat pack evelopes (the waxy kind), and the paper used in operating room dressing. Time frame spans from ancient Japanese use of paper in apparel/accessories/footwear, with major focus in the 60/70's, and up to modern day.
Here are cool examples of childrenswear. My favorite is the elephant.
Headwear from a Dior show.
1960's/70's political paper wear.
Giraffe hat, yes please.
Dior newspaper fashions.
In the lower levels of the museum they display current FFI seniors work. They have to do an 8 piece set following a historical ethnical costume research for the year. Here are some examples.
Super cool hat store.
In the lower levels of the museum they display current FFI seniors work. They have to do an 8 piece set following a historical ethnical costume research for the year. Here are some examples.
Super cool hat store.
Entering back into Old Town.
Brabo statue again. Here you can see him throwing the severed hand.
I love that the street vacums are called Glutton. So clever.
The best weather of the trip occured on my ride home. I drove through the Netherlands on the way back. The landscape was amazing and I hope to get to explore that country soon. Can't check the Netherlands off my country list though, only drove through it!
And it's ECO! One of many wind farms I saw. Also passed a few solar panel farms in Germany. America - get on board!
And it's ECO! One of many wind farms I saw. Also passed a few solar panel farms in Germany. America - get on board!
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