a day in Antwerp

Recently, I met up with Annie of MontgomeryFest for a delightful day in Antwerp! We had (apparently lofty) ambitions of going to one single craft store, with the requisite cafe time thrown in, but also decided to just “swing by” the Antwerp Zoo.

It’s located right next to the Antwerpen Centraal station (like, really, just next to it. Although we did spend a long time looking for it because we’re the girls who didn’t realize we couldn’t take the same train, coming from Ghent and Brussels, to meet in Antwerp).

Turns out, one can’t simply “swing by” the zoo. It’s pretty necessary to spend a whole day there, I’d say, to get the most out of it. Next time I go, I’ll be sure to plan better so I get more quality time with the big cats (who were all sleeping by the time Annie and I passed by their area in the middle of the afternoon).

Umm… we didn’t make it to the store we went all the way to Antwerp to visit. Too busy trading lenses and taking lots and lots of pictures of penguins.

Darwin is especially fascinated by birds at the moment, so I think he would love the zoo. If I go back with him, I predict that we’ll probably spend the entire day at the bird exhibit, or even just sitting on a bench watching a plain old duck. “Bbbbbbihr,” Darwin will say.

Highlights of the zoo for me were the seals and all the tulips in full bloom.

The strangest exhibit was the giant habitat filled with dozens of raccoons. I guess they’re interesting to non-North Americans.

Eventually we moved on, even though the zoo was a lot of fun.

We finished off our day with lots of quality girl-talk and awesome sandwiches at Tartine, about a 15 minute walk from the zoo, or a way more convenient 5-minute tram ride.

Not bad, Antwerp, not bad. I do look forward to going again to get a better sense of the city though. Are there any must-visits for a future trip that you can recommend?