One day in Antwerp Itinerary – Free things to do

 Where we stayed in Antwerp?

We took a few pictures from outside the station, made a mental note to come here later and walked towards our shelter – the Antwerp Central Youth Hostel.

The hostel is about 2.5 km from the station and on our way, we passed through some of the under-construction monuments, tramlines, and the oh-so-gorgeous fashion district. Read a review of the hostel here.

There are many hotels, hostels and Airbnb options to choose from, but I’d recommend staying near the central station. 

Our hostel was in a surprisingly peaceful complex near the throbbing fashion district. We loved the hostel. What we cherished the most was the free pocket maps from the UseIt series that were made available on the rack for tourists.

These maps had a host of local tips and some history lesson of the city. Not only did it guide us through our walking tour of the city but it also helped me recollect the tidbits while writing the blog. This is in fact, the only souvenir I could bring from Antwerp (keep reading to know why).

So after taking some time to freshen up, we set off for exploring the city on foot. Here are a few things that are hard to not notice when you walk on the streets of Antwerp. 

 

Our Antwerp Itinerary

Our first stop was at the Central Station from where we walked 2km to our hostel. So by the time we started on our self-guided walking tour, we had already got an orientation of the neighborhood.

Antwerp itinerary | Stadspark – The City Park 

We had a delicious bacon and prawn pizza at a local pizzeria and then we went to the city park, called Stadspark. The remains of a 16th-century Spanish fortress were re-engineered into this beautiful open park in the 19th century, in a classical English landscape style. “On summer days it’s full of skaters, girls in bikinis next to women in veils,” said our pocket local guide. But on a relatively cold, somber day it just looked like a page out of Tom Sawyer or Great Expectations. There was a lovely children’s park where parents were watching the kids play after school-time.

Antwerp Central Station

Often ranked among the world’s 10 most beautiful train stations (even at no.1 by some surveys), this grand monument is a masterpiece and could easily be mistaken for a museum. The large dome with beautifully decorated exteriors is just a teaser of what’s inside.

Look up at the glass dome above and the details on the arches with tainted glasses when you go up the escalators. It indeed looks like a cathedral inside but like many historic monuments it has a dark history. According to our pocket guide, the original building was built under the command of Leopard II with blood money from inhumane rubber harvest in the then colonies of Belgium.

Diamond District of Antwerp – The Jews and the Indians

Did you know? 84% of the world’s rough diamond passes through Antwerp!

Antwerp is the heart of diamond trading for over five centuries. With 220 million-dollars-worth of diamonds traded daily in the diamond district of Antwerp, you’d know why there are so many men in uniform around in the city.

The highly secured Diamond quarter is home to the diamond trading center, a large number of jewelry shops, diamond traders, wholesalers, cutters and guess what, a branch of “Bank of India”!

Orthodox Jews have dominated the closed world of diamond trading in Antwerp for centuries, but Indians are taking over steadily. The rising prominence of the (mostly Jain) Indian community is seen in the cuisine as well, with special mention of vegetarian Indian restaurants on our map.

You’d see a large number of formally-clad Jain Indians and orthodox Jews identified by the head -wears (kippah) and long beard walking on the street.

There are around 20,000 Jews in Antwerp, most of whom are orthodox and these families have inherited the diamond business from their ancestors from as early as the 15th century. The Jewish neighborhood near the diamond district has beautiful old buildings and synagogues.

You’d find most of my pictures of the city roads are sort of photo-bombed by an unusually large number of wires – I first thought these were only for the tramlines, some of them are, but mostly it is the Eruv – a holy wire that symbolically encloses a certain area (a larger home).

Read up a little about this on the internet and found out that Eruv runs almost throughout the central city enclosing the station and diamond district, to allow the orthodox Jews to move around as usual during a religious observation called Shabbat, in which they are forbidden to leave their home.

Antwerp in one day | Meir Market

Brabo’s Fountain – The hero throwing the giant’s hand.

This is the central square of Antwerp is famous not only for a large number of shopping options and cafes but also for the architectural wonders around.

Each building- be it a shopping mall or a bank has a medieval design lending the place its old-world charm. The Brabo’s fountain stands at the center, (recall the story I began with?) depicting the city’s hero.

This is where we also saw the chocolate shops I mentioned and the stunning OLV Cathedral.

It has a 123-meter tall tower, which we could see from various parts of the city on our walking tour. This Gothic masterpiece was completed in an early 16th century and has been robbed several times since then.

From here we followed the direction of Brabo’s hand towards the river Scheldt. Just kidding, we followed the map and walked towards the river. 

The Steen Castle –  My favorite place of one day in Antwerp

Now despite the archaic buildings that we saw in the Grote Markt, Antwerp in itself looks and feels like a modern trade-hub. So, when we got a glance at an old castle while waiting to cross the road, I was delighted.

 

Strategically located at the banks of the river stands Antwerp’s oldest building – The Steen. It was built in the ninth century and was subsequently expanded with a stone wall and gatehouses. This beautiful castle has held its ground for centuries now.

 

It was renovated and further expanded with a neo-gothic wing in 1889-90. The Steen was created as a castle and used as a fortress for centuries. Then it was turned into prison till 1823, after which it was consecutively used as a residence, a sawmill, and a fish warehouse.

 

It was reopened to the public as a museum in 1863. At the gate of Steen stands a striking  Semini statue, which was a symbol of fertility. The statue was maimed by Roman Catholic priests in the 16th century.

Since the castle was closed for restoration activities we spent a great time at the banks of the river taking watching the ships and the windmills. A walk along the Antwerp Harbour is almost a mandatory free thing to do in Antwerp. But we missed something.

The underpass connecting to the left bank of the Scheldt River leads you to the best Panoramic viewpoint of the city. We missed that unknowingly.

Another place you should definitely not skip nearby is the St. Paul’s Church. This beautiful shrine is just 600 m from the Steen Castle. This 16th century Roman Catholic church has a great blend of Gothic and Baroque architecture. 

CC. Wikimedia

We headed back towards the Grote market for buying some chocolates and souvenirs. But alas, all the markets were closed already! Not just the small shops but even the shopping malls! Coming from a developing country where shops remain open easily till 10 pm at least,  this thing stunned us. Also with extended daylight hours, this looked all the more surprising, but that’s how the city works.

 

Once the shops are shut down, the night bars and parties pop up and the city gears up for some party time. We ended the day with our comfort food fried rice and pepper- chicken at a WOK outlet while enjoying the party vibe around. Antwerp is a great place if you love to party all evening.

 

We had to end the day early in the evening because my husband had to watch a Champion’s league match in the hostel.

This was our itinerary which comprised only the free things to do in Antwerp. The things we missed? Well, there are some, as always when you have such a short stall in the city. Here are a few which you can add to your list even if you have only one day in Antwerp. 

• Plantin – Moretus Museum. This is a museum and a UNESCO world heritage site. It is also a 16th-century printing workshop, the only remaining one in the world.

• Antwerp Zoo. If you are visiting with family don’t forget to peek into the AntwerpZoo, which is right behind the Antwerp Central station.

• New Port House of Antwerp. This is another free attraction in Antwerp’s skyline but we missed it.

However it is 7.2 km away from the Steen castle, so it’s better to take a bus or bike to it. We could not include it on our walking tour.

Roadmap for our one-day Antwerp Itinerary

Check out our walking tour plan and click on the map to go to the interactive Google maps.
Check out our Antwerp Photo Album on Facebook. Subscribe for more such stories delivered to your inbox. How did you like our story? Would you like to visit Antwerp? Tell me in the comments and share the post if you liked it.

Here’s another photo you can pin!

Just 1.5 hours from Antwerp (by train) lies the fairytale medieval city of Bruges. I missed it and went to DeHaan instead. You can also check out what to see in Brussels which is less than 1-hour drive from Antwerp. 

Read how we planned our first Europe trip here.

 

Below are the best experiential guided tours which I could find for you.