I posted these shots to show how deceiving an image can be. Left: a small part of Antwerp beach, a great green and inviting place during a week Antwerp is enjoying unseasonably warm 28°C (82°F) temperatures. An Olympic open-air pool, a fashionable marina, along with countless open air terraces offering a great river view: sounds like the perfect location to escape the busy city. We all love this place.
Turning my camera 180° shows a stunning view hardly any site likes to mention: there’s no escaping five oil refineries across the river, as Antwerp is home to a massive concentration of petrochemical industries, second only to the huge petrochemical cluster in Houston, Texas. Add four nuclear power plants and you simply must love Antwerp city beach. Oh, care for a river swim? Please don’t, it may kill you
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.
Saint Ann’s Beach, Playa Santa Ana is a wonderful pleace. The fauna (the public), the setting. Su surreal, so Magritte, so Belgian!
It reminds me of Springfield in The Simpsons: a city where you have everything: a lake, a sea, mountains, desert, nuclear plant…
Comment by Benjamin — May 9, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
It’s indeed as surreal as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte Benjamin.
I had visors from overseas who were stunned by this Antwerp leftbank setting, especially after passing the 1930’s Waasland tunnel and observing the unusual crowd.
You won’t find many cities with a beach where flocks of topless 70 yo women enjoy the sun, along with noisy 16 yo migrants while bored cops drive by countless “do not swim” signs. It’s totally weird
Comment by Peter - blog author — May 9, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
it’s all perspective isn’t it?
[Blog author comment: "It sure is Van. Most people are perfectly happy ignoring the harbor/petrochemical sprawl (ending at the Dutch border, 30 km/20 miles north) and just enjoy their look-but-don't-swim city beach on this summer-like day with the temperature in Antwerp reaching 85°F. Kind of frustrating that the Olympic open-air pool stays closed until May 17. By then it may be raining again."]
Comment by furiousball — May 9, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
* shudders * Can you imagine what the fish must look like??!
Comment by Claudia — May 10, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
I wouldn’t eat them Claudia…
Anyway, this river connects directly to the North Sea/Atlantic and is not really polluted anymore, ever since very stringent rules were introduced in the 80s.
But it remains a major shipping route, with treacherous currents, making swimming extremely dangerous.
) - basically really frustrating when all open-air pools are ‘waiting for the summer’, a summer that failed to arrive last year …
And the open-air pools? Still closed during a 90°F week (Belgium is currently the hottest place in Europe, weather wise
Comment by Peter - blog author — May 10, 2008 @ 6:46 pm