Bonjour mes amis, ça va?
Which ones of you have been to, or are from, Antwerp? You are the ones that will have to fact check and challenge the ideas I have about this city. Because I have a few. Not fully fleshed out ones yet, I don't have the relevant experience, but I have early impressions for sure.
I would've called them 'first impressions’—but that would be lying. I've been to Antwerp maybe two, three(?) times in my life before. But on all those occasions I was there with either my parents because I was too young to go alone, or people that just wanted to go shopping. In neither of those cases I was able to exert the agency required to properly experience a place the way I'd like to.
This last trip was different. I'm 32 now and I know a little better what I want from a place. But the real kicker was, funnily enough, again a reliance on a third party to determine the itinerary. The difference? This third party shares a similar travel philosophy to mine but also is a local from Antwerp. A local that exchanged Antwerp for the Netherlands a few years ago, sure, but also one still deeply embedded in his life there. Whom else is better suited to help you speedrun a place like we did? We only had a weekend after all.
Rich and carefree
Antwerp is Belgium's second largest metropolitan area, after Brussels, and is known as the fashion capital of Belgium, the diamond capital of the world, and home to the Port of Antwerp; Europe's second-largest seaport, after Rotterdam. It's the most populous municipality of Belgium but it's also home to the relatively small number of just over 565.000 people. All these numbers are not necessarily super impressive, but the combination of these is what makes for a fascinating city.
Antwerp is rich. In culture, history, and diversity. It presented itself to me with a forward moving energy that was as welcoming as it was exciting. An adventure luring behind every corner. The Dutch and the Belgians are not too different but the way we do things is dissimilar enough to be interesting to me. As a rigidly structured Dutchman, I find the French-inspired joie de vivre of the Belgian people both inspiring as well as humorous. The way they do things sometimes seems impractical to me, but as a result, things can be a lot more fun than you'd typically see in the Netherlands.
City design
The city's design is a melting pot of old and new architecture, that seems to completely disregard preserving a certain atmosphere and doesn't always blend together. A beautiful old church might clash with a modern bridge, considered by some to be ugly and to 'ruin' the historic character. I would personally disagree and would argue it brings character, but definitely in a way that seems unconcerned about preserving historical looks. I think that’s inherently a fun way to approach city design and it’s those things that make me laugh: why the heck is this square nothing but tiles and concrete benches? Right alongside that beautiful old train station... Oh well, it’s not my place to judge. I simply make note of what I see, document it, and shrug off whatever impact it may have.
That’s not to say I can’t appreciate it when things are done well. Antwerp is relatively small, for the type of city it is. This means Antwerp is extremely walkable. It’s so small, even, that I’d argue you could walk everywhere. The infrastructure to do so is excellent (sidewalks everywhere! Connecting sidewalks, even!), the neighborhoods mostly interesting enough, and the distances small enough to make walking a viable option. It’s the holy trinity of walkability, and it’s all right there.
Biking
That being said, there’s another thing Antwerp has done very, very, well. And that is its public bicycle system. While not unique to the city, and not something I haven’t seen before, the way the system works has been an absolute delight. You simply get a pass (we got one through our local friend), punch in your code at one of the docking stations, and pick the bike that lights up. These docking stations can be found everywhere. There are so many in fact, that you are never further than 500 meters away from one. If you're ever tired of walking, you simply grab a bike, head in the general direction you want to go, and dock it close to where you want to continue on foot.
Nice and green
Combine the above with a commitment to becoming a greener city (hello Zuidpark), sick landmarks to visit (looking at you, MAS and Cathedral of our Lady) and embracing gentrification to the point that even the previously shady areas are now super nice to walk around while still maintaining that little ‘attitude’ you’re looking for (Eilandje, anyone?) and Antwerp has turned out to be an absolutely pleasant surprise for me.
In hindsight, it’s weird I never properly visited like this before. The city is closer to where I live than Maastricht, and getting there only takes an hour and a half by car. Even the train is convenient, as Antwerp's central station is right in the middle of the city. Why haven’t I been before...? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m certainly going back.
M
Hey, did you just look at all those images? Still here? Thank you! Here’s a little quick preview I want to give you. Something I’ve been working on in silence for a little while. Something I think makes sense to share alongside this weekend adventure. I am working on an Efficient Travel Photography Toolkit called Packless.
In the past few years I’ve curated, tried, updated, and tested many ways to pack your bags and tools as efficiently as possible. I managed to trim down my luggage to a point that it basically fits inside a regular sized backpack with a small personal item, no matter how long the trip is. I take pride in this practice because it allows me to think about, and plan ahead my gear a lot (which I like!) but completely let go of those worries when I’m out in the world exploring. Which is where an uncluttered mind matters most. Your goal can be to go fast, slow, far, or just around the corner: my packing philosophy accounts for anything.
I realize my strategies don’t work for everybody, but they work excellently for me. I want to share those learnings with people that can also see benefits from them (and perhaps stir up some conversation with the ones that think this is silly. 👀) I’m only just getting started—there’s an extensive Index with the topics I envision writing about that took a while to put together, but the writing itself is still taking shape. This entire thing will take shape over the upcoming months.
So, no big campaign around my first toolkit at this time. Just a quick little preview on what’s to come. For now, I recommend you give module 2.1.3 How to pack light for one weekend a read. It’s the perfect companion to this newsletter story.
