Antwerpen, Belgien

OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: EKEREN SINT-MARIABURG

Ekeren Sint-Mariaburg is an old residential part in the North of Antwerp. It was founded in the 19th century by bank director Antoon Van de Weyngaert who build the first houses and streets. It was first a resort for the Antwerp bourgeoisie to relax (with an open air swimming pool, horse running court, hotels ans restaurants). Later on it became a residential neighbourhood. Sint-Mariaburg has his own atmosphere: it joyous, friendly and full of good life. Everybody knows eachother in our street. It’s a mixture of families with children and some older peoples who are living here for ages.

CITY OF ANTWERP

Antwerp is after Brussels the second biggest city of Belgium. It lies in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, at the river 'De Schelde' (L'escaut/Scheldt). Antwerp is a vibrant city full of live, culture, art, culinary experiences, fashion, music and a real place of heritage. Our favorite musea are the Rubens House (the house of the famous Antwerp painter), Museum Plantin- Moretus (old printing museum of a very wealthy family during 16th century), and the Middelheimmuseum, an open air sculpture park (nice place for children too!). Aldo nice to visit: The Zoo (animal garden next to central station), our cathedral, which is magnificent, and the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom: go to watch the view on top of the roof of this a new museum )! Look at https://www.visitantwerpen.be for more information. In the summer we have a very cool summer programme in Antwerp which is called ‘Zomer van Antwerpen’: theatre, concerts, performance, circus and pop places to eat: https://www.zva.be/ If you like fashion, Antwerp is famous for it's fashion academy, museum and shops: http://www.fashioninantwerp.be/who-who

BELGIUM AND MORE

Antwerp is close to some beautiful cities to visit: Gent, Brugge (Bruges) and Brussels. In the west of Belgium you can visit the Flanders Fields (war graves of the first World War) and the amazing In Flanders Fields Museum in Ieper (Ypres). If you like nature and hiking, you can go to the French speaking part of Belgium (near Liège, Huy, Namur or Arlon). You can always go by car, but there is a lot of traffic. Better is to take the train. From Antwerp you can go everywhere (even Amsterdam or London is not more than 2 hours by train with Eurostar or Thalyss). You can take the train at the end of our street. The stop is called Sint- Mariaburg. Every hour there is a train that goes to Antwerp (it take 13 minutes to go to Antwerpen Centraal). From there you can go anywhere. In Belgium you should eat once ‘mosselen met friet’ (mussels with french fries), ‘witloof in de oven’ (chicory in the oven) or stoofvlees (beef stew with french fries), Brusselse wafels (waffles)! Check the chocolate pralines too and the famous Belgian beer of course! Trappist is beer brewed by the monks and world famous (try Westmalle, Rochefort or Orval). Cheers!