Shopping

If you want to wander among the real citizens of Antwerp, get up early on a Sunday morning and visit the market place. Here the salesmen, shout and show off their goods. Especially some fruit sellers are really funny to watch.

Recently the Antwerp city built a roof over this huge square. The elements of nature won’t interfere with your shopping needs anymore!

On Saturdays the market place is about delicious food, vegetables, fruits and exotic items for your meals. On Sunday you can find general household items, clothes & food.

Worth a visit, worth getting up early!

If you want to bring something home from Antwerp and you don’t want to go the obvious souvenir shops in the historic centre, try 100 gr design in the Central Station area. It is located in design centre “De Winkelhaak”, a building with a very striking architecture. Next to this store several creative companies have their office in this iconic building.

100 gr Design sells design objects, straight from individual designers and some bigger companies. They also have a collection of gift boxes, like the First Aid Kit which you can give to someone who is sick. Or the Old Box, an ideal gift for your grandparents. And if you’re looking for a different postcard than the same old cards you find everywhere, this is the place.

The collection changes all the time so I’m surprised every time I visit. In the past I bought (amongst others) a wishing candle (you write a wish on it, you wrap it up and you light it), a funny magnetic key holder (which you can hang on your fridge) and a design umbrella. And the good news is: it’s all very affordable.

I like independent bookstores. They almost all have to struggle hard to compete with the large chain stores so I think we should all support them.

‘t Stad Leest (the city reads) is a new independent bookstore in the centre of Antwerp and I loved it from the first step I took inside. It’s housed in a historic building, you first walk through a big entrance hall and then you arrive in large space, more clean, white and modern than you would expect from the outside.

No bookcases here, just large white tables with the books on top. I like the fact that you immediately see the cover of each book, you don’t have to bend your head in strange ways to read the title like in other stores. The range of books they sell here is great: contemporary books next to a selection of the classics.

There’s also a good quantity of English novels and a separate department of children books. For me this bookstore is a winner. The atmosphere is great, because it’s so spacious you never feel it’s too busy and they play nice music. My only problem is finding time to read all the books I buy …

On the Sint-Paulusplaats, halfway between the old city and het Eilandje, in the middle of Antwerp’s red light district, there is a cute little vintage shop called Second Life. Not the 3D virtual world, obviously, but a fantastic second-hand design store. Every time I come here, I’m amazed by the cool objects they sell here: from your grandmother’s cups, plates and cutlery to ashtrays, televisions and mirrors dating back to the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Second Life also has a elaborate collection of wallpaper from the seventies, if you want to give your walls a retro look. I wonder how they come up with all this stuff? A nice selection of second-hand vinyl records tops it off.

Don’t forget to go downstairs to check out the clothes. It’s an impressive collection, for women and for men. Seventies underwear, swimming pants, shirts, suits … it’s all there. On my last visit I got a blue undershirt and a retro polo shirt. Me and my female companion, who found herself a summer dress, were very impressed. Not only because of the beautiful collection but also because of the affordable prices!

We have free but crappy vending machine coffee at our office. And strong, bitter, black tea. Not a good thing… I started bringing my own mug and make the machine produce only hot water to drown my brought teabags in.

Sometimes a girl just needs her coffee… That’s where this shop comes to the rescue. It’s a basic coffee bar (looks pretty fancy though) with no extra’s like maltezer crunch on top of a whipped cream mountain or pieces of Toblerone floating around in your drink. You get a cappuccino. Or a latté. Or an espresso. Plain and simple. But all made with Illy coffee beans! And a cookie . And it’s only a 5 min walk from my office building.

Best thing about this bar? It’s also a shop. They sell Illy beans for making your own coffee, espresso machines, French presses, Bodum mugs and a vintage collection of Illy espresso cups.

During lunchtime this place gets packed, but there’s also a take-away option.