At a stone’s throw of the big market you can find the delightful peace of the ‘Conscienceplein’. It is a small square with a big baroque church (check the Carolus Borromeus article by Niko) that on one side overrules the square, but on the other side you don’t notice the church and you see only the cute square with the white stripes on the ground and the strange fountain and the tree.

For me the ‘Conscienceplein’ is the square I spent the first years of my life. I fell in the fountain under the statue there when I was three and almost drowned. I made my first snowman there. As a kid I ran over the stripes like they were bridges over a cliff.

Now I love especially the quietness and friendliness of the place – it is an oasis in the middle of the city center.

The fairy-like tree puts you in the shadow when it’s hot and gives you shelter when it rains, and the ‘writer on his chair’ (Hendrik Conscience) is always watching over you. And under the square is the biggest and oldest library in town.

This triangle-shaped park is my favorite spot to go jogging. The park is really old, and thus has great big trees. There’s also a pond, and yes, since a couple of years there’s also water in it again! All sorts of water birds hang around there, and, my favorite part about the park: there are small (pet) rabbits hopping all around! Sometimes they disappear for a while (I prefer to stay ignorant how that happens), but, they always come back! Can you imagine how fun it is jogging while bunnies hop along? In the middle of the city!

But the park’s not only one of my favorite spots, lots of people come here for relaxing, playing football, skateboarding, picnicking, walking… Well, I guess all the fun things you can do in a park ☺. Something that is no longer, but we’re all hoping for to come back, is that there used to be a really cool night club in the park called ‘Café Capital’. Last summer, it burned down (twice!), you can still see the ruins, it’s pretty sad.

The most beautiful point in the park is a pretty white bridge high over the water. Make sure to take a picture there with your loved one(s). The bridge also always reminds me of a great film that was shot here about the Jewish community, called ‘Left Luggage’. It’s a must-see (both park and movie!).

The river Scheldt is very important for Antwerp, you can read all about that here. Since 2008 locals and visitors have a new spot to fully enjoy the river: the new pontoon at Steenplein. You can find this new city square next to the medieval castle ‘t Steen.

Pontoon was built to allow people to hop-on and hop-off the sightseeing boats on the river but most people use this space to just sit and relax. The pontoon follows the tides, if you spend a few hours here you can feel the pontoon descend and/or ascend. You will also hear it because the whole thing creaks while moving.

Although the actual port has moved much further to the north, you will still be amazed by the quantity and size of ships that pass here. And on summer afternoons there are also yachts, jetski’s and sailing boats to be admired. Be careful though, you don’t want to fall in  the water here. This part of the river is considered to be extremely dangerous.

You’d better get some fries from the frituur on Steenplein, go down to the pontoon, find a good, safe seat and enjoy.

Want to be thrown back in time? Then walk through the Vlaeykensgang, a tiny alley in the middle of the historic centre. The entrance is no wider than an average door so be sure not to walk past by it.

Install yourself on a bench here and let your imagination do the rest. This is what Antwerp used to look like in the time of Rubens and Van Dyck. Those days, in the middle ages, there were many more of these alleys. But almost all of them were destroyed over time. Except for this one: Vlaeykensgang is now completely restored.

Very strange: you’re in the heart of the city and still you hear nothing but complete silence here. That’s why this is an ideal place for listening to the carillons of the Cathedral. If I want to surprise my foreign guests, I take them here. They are all amazed, every time.