Antwerp

I've spent a couple of days in Antwerp now and I am arrogant enough to consider myself an authority on the place ;-) But, for what it is worth, here are few observations on the city.

Antwerp could never be mistaken for a beautiful city. In fact, I am guessing that it has always been a busy port town with a steady flow of foreign ships and merchants. Little has changed. The city itself has some outstanding architecture with gothic churches, majestic old buildings and the House of Rubens itself is really something to see.

Speaking of poor old Rubens. I wonder what he would think 400 years after his death to see how the entrepreneurs have leveraged his fame. There are Ruben's hotels, Ruben cafés, Rubens souveniers, .... you name it. I am not sure if they city produced any other artists/scholars of note, but they sure have get a big bang out of Peter Paul's talent. Beyond that though, Antwerp is really a tired and worn out old city that suffers from congestion and neglect. The graffitti guerrillas have exercised their form of social tagging on any and every stationary structure (and many mobile ones too) around the city. Really doesn't do much for a city's appeal. I am definitely not a fan of graffitti and infact, I hope there is an especially warm spot in hell for people who have so little respect for the world we live in. (I have to be careful, I may twist my ankle getting off the soap box)

There are a number of distinct cultural area within the city itself. There is one section called the Diamond Quarter where there is a strong Jewish community. You see a lot of Hisatic Jews on bicycles, scooters and walking about. Right beside this Quarter is a large Arabic community. They have great open market type of stores with fruit and veg. The women wear both conventional black hijab and very elegant and beautiful ones. Complete with complex lacework and beading. There is also a large population from Africa, no doubt from the Belgian colonial days. It is a really interesting melting of cultures.

The traffic in Antwerp is something to avoid at all costs! The drivers here are brazen and impatient - and that is the good stuff I can say about them. They will drive on the sidewalk if need be, park in impossible locations, and pedestians observe no rules that I can see. The cyclists really have a tough time - and there are LOTS of cyclists. Some sadistic bureaucrat in the city planning area must have determined that cobblestone is cool. When the roads are impassible (I'll post pic when I get a chance) they dig up the road and put the same cobblestone back down! I'm willing to bet it wasn't cool 500 years ago and if the folks back then could have the road options we have nowadays, they would would have the common sense to avoid using something that is impossible to drive safely on. Geez, my teeth hurt from a short drive downtown yesterday. What are they thinking? Mind you, seeing a well endowed lady cycling down the cobblestone the other day was quite distracting in a pleasant kind of way.

The most frustrating part of European cities, I find, is the signage for streets. They hammer them onto walls about 15 feet high and on the corner of the street you just passed. They also will change the spelling or the street and add 'stratte' at the end or will add entirely new words in front of the street. I am grateful to have a small car and an equally miniscule sense of personal pride as I have pulled more U-turns in the past few days than I ever have in my life. Folks on the sidewalk look at me with curious ambivilance so I just shrug my shoulders and have that look on my face ..."..I can't help it, I just stupid..."

I couldn't say anything about Antwerp without making comment on the truck traffic. WOW!!! With over 500 container ports and each ship carring thousands of containers, the truck, train traffic here is unbelievable! I have missed every exit on the Ring1 and Ring2 roads because I either couldn't see the sign or couldn't get across the lanes in time. On the ring roads, the trucks are like an elephants parade - trunk to tail connections heading to and from the massive harbours that the town is built around. Quite a spectacle!

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts on Antwerp....

Ciao for now,
Derek