Antwerp: gush gush gush

O.k. I don't know how I'm going to make this interesting because I am just crazy about Antwerp. After being disappointed with Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Cologne (not that there's anything wrong with them...) I've finally found a place, not too far from home, where you get the feeling interesting things are going on.

Arrival point: Antwerpen Centraal shown in picture above (alright it's in all the guidebooks!). When I first saw it I had a sense of deja vu. I think it was represented exactly in Spirited Away. The cartoonist probably found it so inspiring and couldn't think of possibly imagining a better train station, so just copied it as is. They have just finished building some lower levels to the train station, so now you can actually get this photo, as you're coming up an escalator.

Antwerp is a hidden little pocket of Europe where things are actually able to happen. As in Berlin, people actually have the time and the inclination to do interesting things. But how did such a place happen to develop here, in the middle of western Europe, unlike Berlin which is more or less on the border of east and west? I think at this point we have to give it to the Flems, who seem to have been able to make the most of being at the juncture of English, French and German cultural influences.

The atmosphere of past glory also gives Antwerp it's feel. The fact that the cost of living is way behind that of neighbouring areas means that it has attracted a fair few migrants and also those of the artistic persuasion. Also it's reputation for being 'dodgy' and 'dangerous' has probably helped.

O.k. enough gushing and on to the practicalities.