Perhaps Antwerp city is like one of those people you fall in love with sometimes, that love where you fall in love so very quietly that you don't realise until one day you look up and see how it is.
There's a little of that feeling today, as I sit here in my favourite city cafe, near the wooden and glass doors that create the front wall and open out to sidewalk tables in summer. Closed today, they cocoon us in the soft warmth that is inside the Via Via Reis Cafe, with our cappuchinos and their excellent music making it difficult to stand up and wander away.
I was escaping the chaos of our school holiday home, the one that seems full of small people with their circus-like noises and mess. Reading on the tram from the suburbs, walking through Italian-designed Conscienceplein to arrive here - a cappuchino, free wifi, my table with a view and voila ... there was this idea that somehow, while not paying attention perhaps, I had fallen in love with this flat Belgian city I call home.
Thanks to Peter, I have seen a lot of Antwerp lately! You people are so lucky, all those little statues all over your buildings and squares...
ReplyDeletethat's an awesome feeling, loving your home - i love where i live as well.
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd spent more time in Antwerp when we lived in Brussels. I liked what I saw very much, but I think I only saw a very small part of the city. How lucky you are to feel this way.
ReplyDelete:), did you know, those little religious statues on the buildings were often used to indicate to the Spanish, during the Inquisition, that those who lived in the house were Catholic ... I think, writes the foreigner.
ReplyDeleteMmmm, it's possibly a moment, Van. :) I have them sometimes and they usually have a lot to do with passing through Conscienceplein and the old centre of the town. The pollution issues disappear and it's just really rather beautiful.
It was a good day, RD. I love Brussels though and can see lots of merit in living there. I love the old centre of the city, around Grote Markt with all the narrow cobblestone streets and old buildings.