Antwerp By Bike (well, mostly)

(Trip log part 6)

   I couldn’t have been more impressed with an entrance to a city, as I am a railroad fan and have a particular interest in great stations – Antwerp’s is simply spectacular inside and out!

Station headhouse trackside

Headhouse lobby side

   We had received an email days before, explaining that our apartment host was called out of town on business, so his mother was going to meet us to give the tour. It was a fantastic place, and we felt so spoiled having multiple rooms in which to relax, watch TV (the Tour was still going on, after all), cook/store food (stove, oven, prep island, fridge and freezer), dine, sleep, shower or bathe (we found out later bathing was THE option, as the shower only had one temp – way too damn hot!).

   Sue and I admitted later that we didn’t really know what to expect from Antwerp, but after getting to know the wonderful city, we probably could have been happy settling permanently right there in this nice apartment. Just send over our bikes, though we would probably need to thin out our collection a bit.

   There was plenty to see and do within a reasonable stroll from the apartment, and we set out to explore using one of Rick Steves’ travel guide walking tours. Neither Sue nor I are the shopping-type, but one of the most impressive looking malls lay just a couple blocks to the southwest. The Galeria (art nouveau architecture) and Stadfeestzaal (neoclassical) look like they could be a cathedral or museum, but what wonderful spaces in which to spend some money!

   We wandered out to the banks of the Scheldt River and strolled along the elevated walkway past the Het Steen (stone castle) and past the huge canopy of the quay. Parts of this structure are used for parking, others as a dry dock for some boats under repair or simply for storage. There is also a restaurant and an active terminal for the Flandria Cruise line.

   Heading back towards the apartment we crossed through the Grote Markt (great market), which contains – you won’t believe it – the city hall and guild houses.

   Although these are certainly appealing structures, the real attraction of the square is Brabo Fountain, which depicts the legend that gives Antwerp its name. The story is that over 2000 years ago, a Russian giant named Antigoon came to the (then) small settlement along the Scheldt and exacted a toll from all sailors who passed down the river. If half the ship’s cargo was not given, the giant would cut off the crew’s hands and throw them in the river.

   Roman soldier Silvius Brabo refused to pay the toll and challenged Antigoon to a dual. Brabo killed the giant, cut off his head, then chopped off one of his hands and tossed it into the Scheldt. The statue features the hero, ready to launch the hand, standing over the corpse of Antigoon. Water spouts like blood from the body and its severed parts - kind of cool, yet really morbid!

   The hand has become a symbol of the free waterway that has been vital for the city’s survival and eventual growth into Europe’s second largest seaport. In fact, the city name of Antwerpen is derived from Brabo’s act of throwing the hand – handwerpen in Flemish. The hand appeared on city seals as early as the 13th century and is prominently featured around town (more on that later).

   While not technically on the Grote Markt, the 404-foot spire of the Cathedral of Our Lady definitely looms over it to the east. The largest Gothic church in all the Benelux countries, the cathedral was originally intended to have two matching spires, but because of world wars, religious conflicts, fires, and financial difficulties, the plan was never completed.

   And now to vent a bit...Sue and I were very annoyed that several of the major churches in Belgium charged admission to enter – Our Lady being the worst at five euro! I can walk right into St. Peter’s in Rome, the largest and most impressive church in the world, without paying a penny, so just on principal, we refused to go inside these Belgian bilkers. The funny thing was, we referred to this experience in a catch phrase we used for the rest of the trip, saying, “Are you _____ (enter number) euros interested?” when considering some small museum or other attraction.

   I will finish my rant by mentioning that, while out on our bike tour the next day, we just happened to pass Sint-Joriskerk (St. George Church) and decided to take a look inside. Although it was smaller in scale, the Gothic structure was similar to others we had seen on this trip. However, its towering interior wasn’t in the standard white or pale gray stone but marvelous red, green and gold color, including a spectacular vaulted ceiling painted with an ivy/floral design – plus, it was free to enjoy! I strongly encourage you to look at this page, which features a 360-degree floor-to-ceiling panorama.

   A sign near the front doors of the Cathedral of Our Lady notified the public of a one-hour bell concert every Monday evening at 8:00. We returned the next night to hear its 49-bell carillon play classical music by Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, and the like, but also a couple more eclectic selections like Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

   An elderly couple provided a bit of extra entertainment by attempting to chase away a couple of buskers so that the guitar playing and singing wouldn’t interfere with their enjoyment of the bells. The man nearly came to blows with one of these street musicians, as he stubbornly refused to leave. Luckily, the guitarist stayed at a far corner of the square, and his playing was pretty much drowned out by the volume of the bells.

   Velo Antwerpen is the city’s excellent bike share program, for which you pay a four-euro registration fee for the day. There is a payment scale of additional time-based fees for rides lasting over a half an hour before returning a bike to any of the ubiquitous docking stations in the city. Earlier in her trip Sue had devised a strategy to pay only the initial registration for the use of Paris’ similar Velib bikes, while getting in a full day of cycling. She would set her watch to go off after twenty minutes of riding, then would be on the lookout for the next bike station along her route before the half hour ended. She would then swap out bikes and start off again for another 30 minutes’ worth of pedaling.

   The next morning we walked over to the Galeria, which was the site of the closest docking station to our apartment, and punched our personal code numbers into the keypad to unlock our bikes. These were definitely of the utility bike style, and Sue warned me to completely check its functions before setting off. A default of a couple minutes was built into the checkout system, so that you could return a bike to the docking station and get a replacement in case there was a flat tire, bad shifting, etc. The drawback was the five minute wait you had to endure before checking out a new bike, but considering it only happened twice during the dozens of exchanges we made that day, that’s not so bad.

   Our first destination was the Museum aan de Stroom (museum by the river) or “MAS” to the locals, to climb to the top for a free panoramic view 200 feet above the city.

   The MAS is located in Antwerp’s old port, now an attractive marina district. The museum’s interesting Jenga-like facade is made of Indian red sandstone and wonderful curved glass that makes for interesting views from the interior’s corner spaces. If you look closely at the second photo below, you may notice silver dots all over the exterior wall panels. Those are actually metal castings of Antwerp’s symbolic hand!

   We rode south along the Scheldt, did a quick bike exchange, then entered the small building leading to the St. Anna Tunnel for pedestrians and cyclists. Instead of the elevator, we opted to take the two long flights of old wooden escalators down 100 feet to the tunnel floor, which extends nearly 1900 feet to the other side of the river.

Click image above to view video

   On the opposite end, we rode into the large elevator bay and back to ground level so that we could take a picture of Antwerp from across the river.

   We headed back through the tunnel to continue our ride, heading south and then counterclockwise on the bike path along the R10 local road, which lies just inside the Ring highway. We did another bike exchange near the modern courthouse (photo below) building, which lies at the southwest point of the ring, and headed toward the Berchem station in the southeast.

   After yet another bicycle swap at Berchem, we followed the railroad north along the viaduct that carried the elevated tracks back to Central Station.

   We arrived back at the apartment in time to watch the day’s Tour de France coverage, and I was craving some cycling at a bit higher speed. After dinner I walked out a few blocks south to a bike docking station near the Stadspark. I headed north, eventually following the path of the tram tracks leading away from Central Station. I had borrowed Sue’s watch to time my bike exchanges, so I turned west when I reached the Park Spoor Noord, a huge recreational park built on the grounds of a former railroad yard, and found a bike dock there.

   I had to endure a five-minute “bike dud delay” because of some wonky brakes, then I headed along the edge of the park, which led directly to the marina district. I crossed a bridge over the inlet near the MAS and returned using pretty much the same route Sue and I did earlier, only without the tunnel crossing and at a little faster pace.

   Antwerp had made quite an impression with its excellent bike share program and fantastic system of curb-separated bike lanes. The Netherlands has a bike culture with an even better reputation, so I felt that I had a lot to look forward to in the days to come. Stay tuned...