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Antwerp.
Belgium is not the Netherlands
But it’s not that different. They speak Dutch (in parts). They have Albert Heijn grocery stores. They accept Euro and ride bicycles. But immediately as you step off the train, you are faced with the fact that Belgium is not the Netherlands. The magnificent and ornate Antwerp Central station belies nothing of the Dutch practicality that I found in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, it is pure spectacle. And it was only a taste of what I would find throughout Antwerp.
That said, just two weeks into my trip and I’m already having trouble remembering where I am. It doesn’t help that the language is the same. Except that it means that the handful of phrases that I’ve memorized, and mostly been too shy to even utter, are still good here. Alstublieft (please), dank u wel (thanks, very much), goedemiddag (good afternoon). Maybe one of these phrases will leave my lips at more than a whisper (they won’t). English is still so commonly understood and spoken, that it’s hard to break the habit of just defaulting to it. But no one seems terribly put out by it. Save for that one old woman on the street, who seemed to think that it was my fault that a random newspaper was lying twenty feet away from where I was sitting at a cafe table. Or at least I think that’s what she was saying. Ik spreek geen Nederlands (I can’t speak Dutch).
Shine Bright Like a Diamond
Antwerp is famous as a diamond capital of the world. The central train station releases you directly into Diamant, the diamond district. The streets are adorned with glittering storefronts, with rings, necklaces and anything else that a jeweler sees fit to bedazzle. To say the shiny displays held little interest for me would be downplaying my feelings considerably. Though, I did find it amusing when I came back a couple of days later to photograph the train station and I needed to remember that I had locked my bike in front of Diamond World, rather than Diamond Planet, the shop two storefronts over.
I, again, picked a hostel that was a good hike away from the center of town. This one was pretty swank as far a hostels go. It featured a very comfortable co-working space, a fully outfitted kitchen and a sixth floor rooftop patio with bar service. All in all, it made for an enjoyable stay.
Antwerp, my entry point into Belgium, has a rich and varied history that I learned almost nothing about. Opting instead for a self-guided wander through the streets, seeing what I could see and comparing it to what I’d recently seen.
At the street level, Antwerp is noticeably different from the Dutch cities. The buildings are an eclectic mix of styles and ages. You still have the narrow town and row-houses, three or four stories tall, some looking a little worse for the wear. Narrow, alley-like streets lined with dozens of these buildings on each block. But, where the Dutch buildings are likely to be of a cohesive style, Antwerp’s can be incredibly different from building to building. Simple, modern buildings with clean lines, sit shoulder to shoulder with hundred and fifty year old neoclassical inspired motifs complete with fluted columns and intricate bas reliefs, which themselves abut on art nouveau beauties with dynamic flowing lines and giant, round portals for windows. Every street is a cacophony of forms.
The Belgians do not share the Dutch disdain for public statuary. You can find large sculptural displays scattered through the streets of Antwerp. They adorn many squares and rounds, celebrating the achievements of various historical figures. Though not without the inherent risks of literally raising specific human beings on pedestals. See the story of a statue of Leopold II, removed from the streets of Ekeren, Antwerp in 2020. Increased criticism of his bloody and brutal colonial regime in the Congo Free State during the late 1800s and early 1900s led to repeated vandalism. Activists doused the statue in red paint, symbolizing the blood on the hands of the second Belgian monarch.
Image unrelated to story about Leopold II My wander eventually brought me to the historic center of Antwerp, with the obvious crown jewel in the form of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of Our Lady). This enormous gothic cathedral looms over everything in the vicinity. Its massive, over-exaggerated scale giving you the sense of being nothing but an ant for the giant beings that would inhabit this massive structure.
Just around the corner is the Stadhuis Antwerpen (Antwerp City Hall), bedecked in flags from nations around the world. The square in front holds the famous Brabofontein (Brabo’s fountain). This strange statue depicts a nude figure, holding a severed hand (from which, water spouts out into the fountain, though the fountain wasn’t on I during my visit) poised to hurl it as far as he can. The subject of the fountain refers to a 15th century legend of Silvius Brabo and the giant Druoon Antigoon, and is based on the folk etymology for the city of Antwerp’s name. From Wikipedia, “Antwerpen is a composition of the Dutch words “(h)ant” (hand) and “werpen” (throw or launch).”
Chatty Belgians
The following day, I rented a bike from the hostel and found my way to a large nature reserve to the north of the city, Oude Landen (Old Lands). I found a beautiful, wooded park with a thick underbrush. Immediately, bird song emerged from the trees and encouraged me further along the path. Acorns fell freely from the oaks that surrounded, perhaps marking where the little songbirds were flitting from branch to branch, or maybe just because it was their time. I don’t really know how acorns work.
I spent a good half-hour tracking some chiffchaffs (tiny brown birds, about the size of a finch) through the bushes, trying to get a clear picture. Without luck. However, in my endeavors I came across a number of other hikers in the park. With exception, each one of them made a friendly approach and asked what I was doing. When I responded by saying I only spoke English, each one casually switched over from Dutch and asked their question again. They all seemed delighted with my pursuits and made some small conversation, one even asked to see what I had manage to capture. The Belgian nature seems to be rather curious and pleasant, a welcome change from the city streets where everyone does their best to politely ignore everyone else.
Eventually, I managed to find a couple of lookouts busy with activity of the little songbirds that had been teasing me with hints and glimmers for the past half-hour. I would then spend another hour and half, waiting for them to make their brief appearances so I could snap some photos. It’s amazing how quickly the time slipped away. As I had entered the forest, I could hear some bells chiming out for noon, and I stirred from my final shooting position, I heard the same bells chiming out twice.
Seeing the Sights
I made my move, knowing that I still had another number of sights that I want to shoot before my day was done. Before the day was up, I made my way to Zaha Hadidplein, containing the Port Authority Building, a fantastic hybrid of a modern glass outgrowth sat atop of a traditional Hanseatic style office building. I made a quick pass by MAS (MAS – Museum aan de Stroom) which highlights Antwerp and its connection to the wider world. The building itself is a brilliant red sandstone, cut across by glass panels as though a river flowing across the building. Finally, I rode through the busy and cluttered streets of the historic district and Diamant, on my way to shoot the aforementioned train station.
All in all, Antwerp did not rank too highly in the list of cities I’ve visited so far. Something about it left me feeling cold, despite the warm and friendly interactions I had with the people of city. There are definitely some beautiful sights to see, but it just wasn’t the place for me.
Bird Corner
Antwerp is a smallish and dense city, full of narrow alleys and busy streets, but not many parks large enough to support more than the normal city birds. At the outskirts, in Oude Landen, I did manage to track down some songbirds, but otherwise it wasn’t a great hit, birdwise.
Where Next?
I’ve just left Ghent after a few days there, and I’m currently in Brussels. I have a few days here before I leave Belgium behind and move into France!
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Rotterdam.
Finding a Groove
Rotterdam is where it started to feel like things were coming together. From Amsterdam and The Hague, I learned that travel days were tough for me, even when things went perfectly. And so it was best not to extend myself too far. The ROOM Hostel in Rotterdam is tucked away from the city center, laying nearer to the banks of the not so busy port. This area was a stark contrast to my lodgings in The Hague, with big open skies, baroque buildings and nearby museums and parks. And on the day I arrived, I gave myself permission to see almost none of it.
I sat inside and and enjoyed a comfortable and chill common room, did my laundry and wrote up my post for The Hague. These blog posts are surprisingly time consuming. Both the writing and choosing and editing the photos to accompany them. But, the focused work is gratifying in itself, as well as giving my feet a chance to recover from the stresses the week have put on them.
I’m particularly enjoying tweaking my photos. For the first time in my life, I’ve invested in proper editing software and I find it properly gratifying being able to control exactly how the colors look, how the shot is framed and the narrative that the image conveys. I’m still learning, so hopefully my edits aren’t too heavy-handed, just accentuating what I’d already captured in camera.
Getting Into Rotterdam
It was a gloomy Sunday morning when I set out to explore Rotterdam. I rented a bike from the hostel and spent 5 hours riding 40 kilometers through the city. I found a city that felt distinct from the cousins that I’d already visited. Even though The Hague is only about 20 kilometers from Rotterdam (both cities would fit within the borders of Calgary with plenty of room to spare), the character of each city is unique.
Calgary’s size compared to The Hague and Rotterdam Rotterdam was subject to heavy German bombardment during World War 2 which ultimately destroyed its entire historic city center. As a result, it is largely a modern city featuring a number of fascinating and experimental architectural choices. Everywhere you turn in the city, you are likely to find a building that looks nothing like anything you’ve seen before. From apartment blocks to corporate skyscrapers to bridges and underpasses. A vibrant and lively city has emerged from the ruins of what came before.
My gloomy Sunday ride took me from the port through the center of the city and beyond into the suburbs where they verge upon the farmlands that surround. The streets were largely empty, at least compared to what I’d experienced in busy Amsterdam. I think this is probably my preferred way to see a city. Allowed to consume it slowly, without feeling in the way or pressured to move along.
In this case, my leisurely feast brought me into the Hillegersberg area. An affluent and green community with a distinct lakeside feel. Huge houses, by Dutch standards, line the banks of two small lakes before leading into streets filled with upper middle-class, single family homes and finally a large park, Lage Bergse Bos (low mountain forest). Having made it this far, I actually passed outside the city limits of Rotterdam and rode through a couple of the tiny hamlets that line the border. These charming villages gave a small taste of Dutch country life, though I imagine they are more homes for wealthy, retirees than rural tulip farmers.
The following day, I set out and explored the center of Rotterdam on foot. On my bike ride, I had briefly seen the Marksthal, a giant food hall in a donut shaped building, and the Kijk Kubus, a set of 40 experimental cube shaped homes tilted on their edge, and I wanted to get a closer look. Along the way, I came across a variety of other architectural delights. Such as, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, housed in a giant mirrored plant pot, the Stadhuis (city hall), one of the only remaining pre-war buildings in the city center, and the Nieuwe Delftse Poort, an art installation raised in tribute of a medieval gate that once stood on the same spot. I rounded out the day enjoying a coffee on the patio of one of the countless cafes that line the streets of Rotterdam Centrum.
Getting Artsy
One of the questions I’ve been wrestling with, is whether or not I like museums. For the most part, I find myself desperately trying to engage with the works that must be important because someone hung them on the wall for me to look at. And I paid somewhere in the neighbourhood of €20 to look at them, ipso facto, they’re important. But despite their importance, I find that I just don’t connect with the masterpieces of old. I do, however, connect with the weird and the abstract. The modern and the post-modern, the post-post-modern and the post-nihilist-abstract-dada-modern.
To that end, I decided to check out the Kunsthal Rotterdam, a museum of contemporary art just down the road from the hostel. I had hoped to spend Monday morning exploring its small exhibits, so, obviously, I unintentionally purchased a ticket for Tuesday, the day I would be leaving. Turns out the Kunsthal is closed on Monday.
No bother, I would just check out of my hostel, store my bags in a locker and kill the morning at the museum before heading on to Antwerp. And a delightful morning it was, featuring an exhibition on the concept of ‘cute’, its origins in modern culture, its exploitation by capitalists and, most importantly, cat memes. Also on display was a retrospective on the works of Korean artist Haegue Yang, which elicited an emotional response in me, provoked by some very carefully stacked and arranged laundry drying racks. Go figure.
The original cat memes, dating to the late 1800s All in all, a successful outing to the museum and a good way to round out my time in a city that I very much enjoyed.
Bird Corner
By and large, the birds of Rotterdam were those that had become familiar to me through my time in Amsterdam and the Hague, gulls, crows, jackdaws and pigeons. However, I did pick up a couple new sightings, by the way of Mute Swans, a very amenable Greylag Goose and a playful swarm of Barn Swallows.
Where Next?
As I mentioned, I’ve left the Netherlands and I’m now in Antwerp, Belgium. I’ve got another day and a half left here, and then I’m looking to head on the Ghent and Bruges!
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The Hague.
Finishing Up in Amsterdam
After a week in Amsterdam, it was time to move on. I would have liked to stay longer, but as I can only be in the EU for 90 out of every 180 days, it was on to the next place. I wanted to see what the Netherlands was like outside of the more international and touristy capital, and experience modern Dutch life in The Hague. As the administrative center and seat of government for the Netherlands (which is different than the capital, I guess. I don’t really get it either), I was expecting a city dominated by large ornate, government buildings, akin to Canada or the UK’s parliamentary buildings. Which to my surprise, is not what I found.
The Hague felt very modern and urban compared to Amsterdam. Large skyscrapers dominated the skyline as the train pulled into Den Haag Centraal Station. After a brief struggle, figuring out where to catch the metro, a short ride brought me to Grote Market where I would find my next accomodations, The Pink Flamingo Hostel.
The Pink Flamingo sits tucked back off an alley on an otherwise busy plaza, filled with chairs and tables and surrounded by a collection of bars, cafes and street food vendors. At night it came alive, filled with chatter and laughter until the late hours, but for now it was relatively subdued.
As I only had a day and a half to get to know the Hague, I dropped my bags off and headed out to see it.
Unfavorable Impressions
My initial reaction to The Hague was not one of great enthusiasm. Likely for a number of factors, coming off the high of Amsterdam, the deck was stacked against this new city. The hostel’s location also left a lot to be desired. Although the plaza outside the window was charming, the square itself sat at the end of several busy shopping streets, basically an open-air mall. As is to be expected of many city centers, this attracted all sorts of people and offered a more apparent look at the social inequities that pervade city life than had been readily seen in Amsterdam. Finally, it was a travel day. And although the train ride had only been 40 minutes, I know that I always struggle a little more on the days when I don’t yet have my bearings. After all, my first day in Amsterdam had been no picnic either.
I had about 4 hours to kill until I could officially check in at The Pink Flamingo, so I set about wandering aimlessly in my usual way. At the end of the mall, I found The Hague’s central library and had a little poke around. Spread over five floors, the library was everything you expect a library to be. A clean, quiet retreat in the middle of the busy city. It was an excellent atmosphere to help gather myself a little before setting out again. One quirk of note, the books on the shelves throughout the library are incredibly uniform in size and style. I’m used to see a book shelf cluttered with rectangles of all sizes, but here it was like each book fit a mandated standard.
A bit more wandering brought me to Mauritshuis, an art museum with a collection of works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, including the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. I wouldn’t have time to visit during my brief stay, but it was interesting that such a relatively demure building held some very celebrated works.
Just beyond, I found the Haagse Bos, a large wooded park that stretched for several blocks. Again, I couldn’t avoid a comparison to the parks that I had seen in Amsterdam. Though the park was lovely and quiet, it was missing the liveliness of the Vonderpark or Rembrandtpark.
Finally, the appointed check-in time approached and I headed back to the hostel. Ready to call it an early evening, as I was already exhausted from the day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a six bunk room all to myself for at least a few hours, while I recovered and tried to plan my next day. Eventually, I would be joined by a single roommate for the night, Katie, a fifth year med student from Wales enjoying a brief holiday before school started in the fall.
Turning It Around
Friday morning, after the best sleep that I’d had since I started traveling, I made my plan for the day. I wanted to rent a bike and bike out to the beach about 5km from the city center. I decided that the urban environment wasn’t to my taste, so I wanted to see what things were like further out.
Unfortunately, renting a bike didn’t work out. I’d hoped to use an app based rental service, Donkey Republic (like Lime or Bird), that provided cheap hourly rentals. However, things fell apart as I needed to confirm my phone number via a text message, which currently isn’t working for me (probably something related to the eSIM I’m using). Well, no trouble, I have feet (blistered though they are after the last week) and so I set out walking.
With a rough endpoint in mind, I chose a path that would take me through as much greenery as possible. The Hague shares it narrow streets and generous bike lanes with Amsterdam, but it lacks much of the plant-life on the street that makes its cousin so appealing. Instead, the most prominent feature of the streets are its brick buildings, emblematic of Dutch architecture. The land the Netherlands inhabits is an alluvial plain flowing out to the Atlantic, and sits upon an ancient seabed, so it lacks large deposits of stone, instead subsisting mostly of sand and clay. Thus, stone facades are relatively rare throughout Dutch cities and brick is the primary building material. To the point that many streets are paved using brick.
Along my walk, I began to encounter the government buildings that I had initially expected to populate The Hague. These were some of the first standalone houses that I had seen since I arrived in the Netherlands. These large manors contained foreign embassies, consulates, and ambassador’s residences. Wrapped in wrought iron fences and denoted by flags representing their home nations.
These officials buildings soon gave way to the Scheveningse Bosjes, another large wooded park. Here, I would spend an hour chasing tits through the forest underbrush (see Bird Corner for more). Today, the more subdued nature of Hague’s wooded park felt like a nice reprieve from the city. A chance to move away from the traffic along the boulevards and escape amongst the oak, maple and buckthorn trees, wrapped in ivy and singing with small birds.
Further on, I emerged from the woods into a pleasant seaside community featuring an impressive park, complete with a sports center, playground, small farmyard filled with resident animals, calisthenics park, a community garden, and skatepark. From here, it was only another 10 minutes to the sea.
I had the good fortune to come out on the less busy end of the beach. Just down the way, the beachfront was filled with resort hotels, restaurants, bars and beach clubs replete with lounge chairs and day beds. Making my way down to the water over a clean sand beach, I noted an oddity. Where most beaches I’d experienced would have a band of the seaweed above the water line when the high tide had pushed it up on land, this beach featured flowing rivers of shells. Thousands upon thousands of shells, running in bands and waves stretching over a kilometer of beach.
Also present, were a large number of jellyfish slowly be washed ashore. Portuguese Man of War (or so Google told me) carcasses littered the shore. Capable of giving painful stings, even in death, it required a bit of caution to walk along the shallows to make sure I wasn’t unintentionally walking into or stepping on any trailing tentacles.
The beach was crowded all along its extent. It was a beautiful day and it brought out families, tourists and locals alike, to stroll along or swim amongst the floating jellies. Sandcastles decorated the shoreline, some quite large and impressive. One feature a central pit large enough that the child within was only visible above his shoulders.
Finally, having soaked up my share of sun, I set out back to the hostel. It was an hour long walk, slightly faster than my outbound trip, due to a more straight-line route. This route had the advantage of bringing me past one more sight that I’d hoped to see while I was in The Hague, The International Court of Justice, housed in the Vredespaleis (Peace Palace). Here, finally, was the impressive building reminiscent of the parliamentary buildings that I had expected to find.
With that checked off my list, I returned to the hostel for another quiet evening in. Looking over my photos and chatting with Katie and our new roommate, Sam. Sam — based out of Prague, but originally from Hertfordshire — was heading out early in the morning for a camping trip with some Dutch friends in Austria. All in all, it was a much more pleasant hostel experience than what Amsterdam had offered. And I found that despite my initial impressions, I had begun to warm to The Hague, though I continued not be a fan of the city center.
Bird Corner
My time in the Bosjes of The Hague was delightful in terms of the new birds they offered. Different than the city birds that I had already seen in Amsterdam, these feathery friends were happier among the trees and leaves than the rooftops and plazas.
Here I found Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits (relatives of Canada’s Chickadees), Wood Pigeons, Great Crested Grebes, and, one of my personal favorites, the Great Cormorant.
Where Next?
I’m writing from Rotterdam now, waiting for my clothes to finish up in the dryer. I’ll be here for the next three days and then moving on to Antwerp or Brussels.
