Antwerp Antwerpen Things to do, The Market and The Zoo!
What could be more fun on a Saturday with our wonderful guide, Andre and his lovely wife Lilly than to go for a walk around the city to the outdoor market and then to the zoo!
That is exactly what we did after doing some shopping with Andre so we would have dinner ready when we got back from our day.
The market we went to is the weekend market and they sell everything from food to clothes to jewelry to old stuff. Could have spent the entire day there just listening to the vendors hawking their goods, to watching the people and the wonderful smells and colorful displays. Stopped at a Vietnamese stand and bought lompeia which is eggrolls. They were in a thin rice paper wrapper and delicious. I bought some of the sweet chili sauce they put on it when they served them. We finished off this treat with white chocolate covered strawberries.
Left the weekend market behind and strolled into the train station. Watched people for awhile and of course I tried to spot the pickpockets that supposedly work this station. Not sure if I saw one or not. From there we decided to go over to the zoo. The Antwerpen zoo is one of the oldest in Europe--D'Anvers. It orginally built in 1843 and some of the buildings are still in use. There is one that is stylized Egyptian that was built in 1856. After seeing animals in the wild in Africa it was sad to see them caged. I guess I must realize that does protect them somewhat. We saw two jaguars; one with spots like you would expect and the other was black but when he was up close you could see the spots underneath! Saw a Siberian tiger and more of the usual suspects.
It was funny watching some of the children; their delight, fear, excitement as they saw the animals! We also saw an animal we had never seen before--an okapi. It is native to the Congo. They are very hard to catch because they are quite skittish and their legs are very delicate and easily broken. To catch them they build a shallow pit, the animal falls in, they build a ramp to the animal can get out --after they have build a tunnel of leaves and branches for the animal to get out and feed and move toward the trailer they have set up at the end of the tunnel. This zoo has evidently been quite successful in breeding them because there were several of them. They look like a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. They have stripes on the hindquarters and legs and a face like a giraffe complete with that amazing tongue!
We also walked over to one of the buildings that housed old pictures of the zoo. We saw pictures of Gust Simon--the original gorilla of the zoo that was the basis for the Monkey Business idea. When Andre's mother was pregnant with Andre she spent a lot of time at the monkey cage at the zoo. Her father told her she shouldn't do this because child would look like a monkey. Didn't turn out that way, but a friend of Andre's gave him a stuffed gorilla, then they made drawing of monkey, then business card and viola---Monkey Business!!!
Stopped at outside cafe on way back and had ANOTHER Belguim waffle--this time a Siberian(spelling). It comes with ice cream in the middle and Grand Marnier poured over the top and lit. Robert and I split but was still way to rich! All in all, it was a great way to see the city and experience some places that not all tourist probably go.
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