Belgium Travel Review (Part 3 and 4 of 4)

Belgium

Travel Review

I’m off inter railing, (updates will be even more uneven for the next month) so I’m adding the last two parts of my review simultaneously. Enjoy.

ANTWERP

My Hostel, the indecipherably named Hostel Op Sinjoorke, was three kilometres from the city centre, so I decided to have a few beers before heading there. There's a nice quiet pub right beside the Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedraal (Antwerp Cathedral) which serves Hoegaarden for 2 euro a glass. One too many beers and a loss of direction later I arrived at 11:20PM to find that my hostel had closed at 11. Much banging and shouting led to a frenzied conversation with the owner in which I made my case for not wanting to sleep rough. She put up a spirited fight but, probably sensing that the headline “Tourist Dies While Sleeping Outside Hostel” would not do business any favours, eventually relented and granted me access.

Antwerp is a city of few sights, and it was Monday, so most of them were closed. The Cathedral was open though, and contains two massive organs (Ooer missus) and four gigantic paintings by Rubens. The paintings, mostly triptychs, are worth the price of admission, and are supplemented by some detailed displays explaining the Rubens style.

The view across the river Schelde is nice, but was hampered on the day by the horizontal rain knifing my retinas. The highlight of Antwerp for me was the Hendrik Conscienceplein (above), which I came upon quite by accident on the night of my arrival. The ornate church which occupies one side was partly designed by Rubens.

The free map which I picked up at my hostel, and which lays unfolded in front of me now, gives details on a total of 106 sights in and around Antwerp, most of which is padding. Of the attractions which were closed, only the Rubens House would have commanded my attention. And although the Hassidic Jews who people the diamond district beside the railway station are an interesting curiosity, they can't really be classed as a sight. Back to Brussels.

BRUSSELS REDUX

I had booked a bicycle tour of Brussels with Brussels Bike Tours for the morning of my return (after a decent but snore laden night in the Bruegel Hostel) which promised to glide through the cities main sights in a cool four hours. Unfortunately, numbers being what they were (just me) and weather being what it was (shit), the guide and proprietor of the tour, Cesar, turned up cheerily at the meeting point only to cancel the tour. As an alternative, I was given a free thirty minute rundown of the main Brussels points of note from the top of a local car park, which was more charming, and appreciated, than it sounds.

So, left to my own devices, I set off on foot with my list of Brussels to do's. After a twenty minute section of my walk, designed by Cesar to take in a varied cross section of the city, I arrived at the Manneken Pis. The Manneken (pronounced piss, not pee as I thought) is an - perhaps the – iconic Brussels landmark, and as I came to the busy corner on which it stands, my Brussels goodwill took another knock. The statue, which looks huge in most tourist paraphernalia, is no more than a foot high in person, and was dressed up like a child's doll. Under whelming, but still deserves five minutes of your time.

Passing the Old City Walls on Villerstraat, I made my way to Place Poelaert-Plein, a convenient location from where to view most of the city. Warned that the Atomium was an inconvenient to reach waste of money, I opted for a few distant photographs. The Palais De Justice, even though currently undergoing restoration, also deserves outside inspection.

Just down the road lies the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum). The museum needs more than the two hours it took me to stroll it's many exhibits. The Audio Guide is definitely worth the extra money if you intend to learn anything about the selected paintings which it covers. A highlight of this and any museum is the above Dali painting, The Temptation of St. Anthony. It’s an intriguing mix between old world Religious iconography and images which wouldn't be out of place on a Megadeath t-shirt.

The European Parliament runs tours at 10AM and 3PM. I arrived just in time for the latter, and after quite lengthy security checking, embarked on the multilingual audio guided tour. The Parliament building is an oddball. It would seem that people are interested enough in the workings of the EU Parliament to warrant running a tour, but at the same time, neither the building or the mechanics of what goes on inside are, in my opinion, interesting enough to justify exploration.

And so I bid farewell to Belgium. A conversation with one coach driver had left me no better informed as to the airport coach departure times, so I arrived early. The final nail in the bus driver/customer service coffin was pounded firmly down when, having closed the doors on two Irish girls who were waiting in line, (who I subsequently spoke to on the plane journey home) I observed as our driver departed while they attempted to open an outside luggage compartment.
Maybe my capacity to like the French speaking half of Belgium was severely dented by attempting conversations with one too many a snotty driver, but the Flemish speaking portion of Belgium are more friendly by far. Granted my conversations were mostly with Brugians who no doubt derive most of their income from tourism, but they win the “not needing a good kick up the hole” award for not treating tourists in the same manner as a doctor treats anal polyps.

Belgium can be split into the Good (Bruges), the Bad (Brussels) and the Ugly (Antwerp). Antwerp left me feeling as though there had to be other sights to see, Brussels as though I wished I hadn’t bothered, and I wished for more time in Bruges. If you’re passing through, the tariff for seeing the country as a whole is four days, and you could do worse than to spend all of those in Bruges. Fackin’ fairytale indeed.

Belgium: 6/10

Bruges: 8/10