We went to Antwerp on a fantastic offer shown in the Independent.
We spent three nights in a four star hotel and travelled there on Eurostar
I love Eurostar and the holiday spirit starts its magic as soon as you board.
We had read an article by the designer Ann Demeulmeester and we followed her suggestions around her home city.

Although out of season and very cold we found the people very welcoming and we could have stayed for a week at least and not been bored.

We followed Ms Demulmeisters suggestion of visiting the Middelheim Park which is full of sculptures, contemporary and classic by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, my favourites were a set of two figures suspended from trees in the newer area developed in 1993.

We visited Anna Demulmeisters beautiful shop converted from an old seamans school and then went across the road to the Royal museum of fine Arts.

The Kloosterstraat was full of eccentric vintage clothes and furniture shops and we stopped halfway up at Chez Freds for a warming cup of hot chocolate. The central area around the Cathedral is beautiful and full of many restaurants and designer shops.

The iconic shop of Dries van Noten is a short walk from here housed in a lovely Art Nouveau building

The Fashion Museum “MoMu” was inspirational and housed a fabulous exhibition about paper clothes which was cleverly displayed and next door was a wonderful art/design bookshop“Copyright’ full of an eclectic mix of surface design graphics and reference.