Antwerp, the city of diamonds (Belgium) – 2023 travel journal
After the Netherlands, JB is still hoping to hear about our apartment in Nice so we decide to stay in Europe for a few more months. Not knowing where to go, I suggest Belgium, which I’d crossed in express mode with my friend M. and her son just before Covid. We choose Antwerp as our base because I loved (1) the fact that most diamonds pass through Antwerp (2) its printing museum.
JB books us a nice Airbnb a 10-minute bike ride from the cathedral, and it’s only when we get there that we discover this Airbnb is inside a retirement home. We eye the dining hall longingly and ask if we can join the retirees for a meal. They say “no,” so we’ll have to make do with the kitchenette inside the apartment. However, we can request housekeeping, like our retired neighbors. Well, at least we know what’s in store for us when we’re old and if we’re lucky enough to have money.
We grab bikes (Vélib-style) to head into the city center when we can’t be bothered to cook. In Antwerp, public transport is top-notch, with trams, buses, metro, trains… it’s just really pricey. We’re in the Flemish part, and it feels like Switzerland—everyone speaks 10 languages fluently, it’s super organized, very clean, a bit more expensive, but the food is not as good as in the French side of Belgium. I can’t quite remember what language we spoke with the waiters, but I think it was mostly English.
Plantin Museum
I’ll never, ever get tired of the Plantin printing museum, which I’ve visited 3 times in total, I think. They have a beautiful collection of lead type, as well as machines, copper plates for etching… I wrote an article singing the praises of this museum, probably my favorite in the world! Free thinking dominates this part of the world, and you see traces of it everywhere in the city, especially in the collection of books printed here.
The Cathedral
Between my visit in 2020 and the one in 2023, the cathedral’s entry fees doubled, so I decide to hang around the cathedral’s surroundings instead of going inside.
In front of the cathedral, there’s a cute little sculpture.
And around it, beautiful houses that remind us of Bruges, but less pretty.
All over the city, you’ll find lovely buildings—you need to get on a bike to admire them all, slowly.
There’s a square I absolutely love, and I go there often because I find it peaceful; you discover a large square after wandering through the alleys. In front, a Jesuit church (Saint Charles Borromeo Church), on the right, a magnificent library (Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience) housing 1.5 million volumes—which you’re not allowed to browse.
The Jewish Quarter
The central station is stunning, though a bit sketchy.
But right next to it is the Jewish quarter. The Jewish quarter in Antwerp means DIAMONDS!!! Bling bling !!
Most diamonds pass through Antwerp because there’s an incredible concentration of diamond dealers . They’re cut, sorted, measured, certified here… and then resold all over the world. Antwerp is gradually losing its monopoly, as India, with its skilled and cheap labor, cuts a huge number of diamonds. It must be said that the diamond trade is manipulated by De Beers. There’s an astronomical quantity of diamonds following the discovery of mines in Africa, but they control supply, so they set whatever prices they want. That’s why you can try to resell your diamond—they’ll buy it back for a pittance, not like gold. De Beers pours lots of money into advertising and movies, and now Americans believe you have to propose with at least a one-carat diamond or it doesn’t count. You can watch the documentary on Netflix to learn more (Nothing Lasts Forever) or read the excellent book Stoned by Aja Raden. Beware, in the documentary, they say it’s impossible to distinguish natural diamonds from lab-grown ones, but that’s false.
I made the mistake of visiting the Jewish quarter on a Friday, and then again on a Saturday. But they don’t have the same notion of the weekend as we do, so the area is closed, nothing happens. We had to come back during the week to see a ton of jewelry, a ton of diamonds, you don’t even know where to look. During our stay in Antwerp, we watched a Netflix series (Rough Diamonds) about a Jewish family from the diamond district in Antwerp and we’re thrilled to go there and say, “ahhh that building, we saw it in the series!”.
Admittedly, the series is just a bunch of stereotypes about Jewish diamond dealers, but I noticed a little detail, for example, that women all have to wear wigs, except when they’re with close ones (I don’t know which branch of Judaism that applies to, don’t ask me!). I looked more carefully on the street and indeed, it’s true! You can still tell they’re wigs because there’s something not quite natural about them, I don’t know, the movement doesn’t seem natural, but you have to look very closely. And the men all wear their hats with two curls on each side, and the little boys too, just like in the movies!
Other than that, I didn’t find any beautiful synagogues like in Serbia, and I didn’t buy any diamonds either, because I find them extremely expensive compared to the ones I get in Vietnam (which come from India).
Based in Antwerp, we’ll take the train to do a mini road trip around Belgium.
