{"id":4786,"date":"2025-09-28T17:58:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T16:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4786"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:51:54","slug":"week-37-epip-conference-in-antwerp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=4786","title":{"rendered":"Week 37: EPIP conference in Antwerp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main event in the second week of September was the annual conference of the European Policy for IP Association, hosted at the University of Antwerp this year. I was really looking forward to spending a few days in Belgium’s second city. I lived in Brussels, 50 km away, for 5 years, but during that time I rarely visited Antwerp and never spent a night there. So now I had time to enjoy the city, and I did–very much. I present the photos more or less chronologically.<\/p>\n

37_1<\/strong>
\nI flew to Brussels Wednesday afternoon. As always, I stopped to photograph Tintin’s moon rocket in the arrival hall at Brussels airport, a sight I always enjoy:
\n\"R001931\"<\/p>\n

37_2<\/strong>
\nI took a train from Brussels airport to Antwerp. The Antwerp Central Station is a very impressive place:
\n\"R001934\"<\/p>\n

37_3<\/strong>
\nI took a taxi to my hotel, in the heart of the old city, right next to the cathedral. After going through the usual routine of hanging my clothes etc., I went for a midnight walk. This is Grote Markt, Antwerp’s answer to Brussels’s Grand’ Place:
\n\"R001936\"<\/p>\n

37_4<\/strong>
\nIn front of the cathedral I was struck by this statue of a dog and a boy. I later learned that is was Nello and Patrasche, a famous Antwerp story<\/a> of friendship and hardship (with an unhappy ending):
\n\"DSF1933\"<\/p>\n

37_5<\/strong>
\n\"DSF1934\"<\/p>\n

37_6<\/strong>
\nMuch to my delight, I found a nice watering hole less than 100 meters from my hotel, called Paters Vaatje. It became my spot for a nightcap during the remainder of my stay:
\n\"DSF1943\"<\/p>\n

37_7<\/strong>
\nOn Thursday morning I had to be at the conference around 10 a.m., so I had time for a nice morning walk. First, I found a place to have breakfast (at my hotel, breakfast cost 20 Euro, an amount I simply refuse to pay). As a bonus, there was a nice art installation in front of the caf\u00c3\u00a9, called Two Dogs and Two Cats:
\n\"DSF1958\"<\/p>\n

37_8<\/strong>
\nRenovation in the old city:
\n\"DSF1963\"<\/p>\n

37_9<\/strong>
\nI walked down to the river, passing by Het Steen, the oldest building in Antwerp, a fortress built in the early 13th century:
\n\"DSF1966\"<\/p>\n

37_10<\/strong>
\nNext to Het Steen stands this statue of Lange Wapper, a local legend:
\n\"DSF1971\"<\/p>\n

37_11<\/strong>
\nThe Lange Wapper legend, explained:
\n\"DSF1972\"<\/p>\n

37_12<\/strong>
\nAntwerp has a lot of street art, including poems on the wall along the riverside road:
\n\"DSF1970\"<\/p>\n

37_13<\/strong>
\nWhen I lived in Belgium in the late 1990s, Antwerp had the reputation as a hotbed of right-wing, Flemish nationalism. Today the picture seems quite different, perhaps a reaction to the ill winds blowing across the Atlantic:
\n\"DSF1975\"<\/p>\n

37_14<\/strong>
\nI walked back to Grote Markt to see it in daylight. It was just as magnificent as the night before:
\n\"DSF1977\"<\/p>\n

37_15<\/strong>
\n\"DSF1980\"<\/p>\n

37_16<\/strong>
\nI passed some colourful bars, although not exactly the ambience I look for:
\n\"DSF1985\"<\/p>\n

37_17<\/strong>
\n\"DSF1986\"<\/p>\n

37_18<\/strong>
\nThis restaurant, next to the cathedral, is called The Eleventh Commandment:
\n\"DSF1987\"<\/p>\n

37_19<\/strong>
\nExplanation of that Commandment:
\n\"DSF1988\"<\/p>\n

37_20<\/strong>
\nThen it was time go back to the hotel, change into proper attire and walk to the university where the conference was taking place. On the way, I passed an impressive mural referring to Kaas (“cheese”) by comic book artist Dick Matena, about an Antwerp office worker who decides to open a cheese business instead:
\n\"R001937\"<\/p>\n

37_21<\/strong>
\nIn the main hall of the university building where the conference was taking place, there was a column of books–I loved it:
\n\"R001949\"<\/p>\n

37_22<\/strong>
\nI was going to take a selfie in front of the book column, but someone offered to make one with my proper camera:
\n\"R001944\"<\/p>\n

37_23<\/strong>
\nAs always, I looked for interesting details in the urban landscape, like these religiously enhanced utility boxes:
\n\"R001953\"<\/p>\n

37_24<\/strong>
\nI had some free time during Thursday afternoon, so I decided to visit the cathedral:
\n\"DSF1989\"<\/p>\n

37_25<\/strong>
\nIt was truly magnificent:
\n\"DSF1990\"<\/p>\n

37_26<\/strong>
\nAs I usually do when I visit such places, I lit a candle in the memory of my mother:
\n\"DSF1996\"<\/p>\n

37_27<\/strong>
\nOn the way back to the university for the afternoon session, I passed a bar called Katmosfeer. As the name indicates, it was a combination of a cat shelter and a bar, utterly wonderful. You could pet as many cats as wished to be petted by you while enjoying a beer:
\n\"DSF2029\"<\/p>\n

37_28<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2027\"<\/p>\n

37_29<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2033\"<\/p>\n

37_30<\/strong>
\nOn Thursday evening there was a gala dinner at the conference. But it was also the evening when the main art museum of Antwerp was open late, until 10 p.m. I decided that art was more important than food and skipped the dinner. Next to the museum I came across another bar with a cat theme. The name Chatleroi was a play on the name of the Belgian town Charleroi (“chat” is “cat” in French):
\n\"DSF2042\"<\/p>\n

37_31<\/strong>
\nThere were no cats inside but it was a very nice place nonetheless:
\n\"DSF2046\"<\/p>\n

37_32<\/strong>
\nOn Friday I did not have to be at the conference until noon, so I decided to spend the morning sightseeing on the waterfront. But first I went for a walk in the neighbourhood of the hotel, enjoying the view of the cathedral at dawn:
\n\"DSF2131\"<\/p>\n

37_33<\/strong>
\nI took the tram to the harbour area and went to the observation deck of the Museum an de Stroom (MAS), from where there is a nice view of the harbour:
\n\"DSF2165\"<\/p>\n

37_34<\/strong>
\nI then walked around a bit. This is the view of the harbour with the Havenhuis, the administration building, designed by the famous architect Zaha Hadid:
\n\"DSF2155\"<\/p>\n

37_35<\/strong>
\nThere is a lot of new construction on the waterfront, mostly apartments:
\n\"DSF2157\"<\/p>\n

37_36<\/strong>
\nIt still looks a bit sterile, but there is evidence of normal life:
\n\"DSF2159\"<\/p>\n

37_37<\/strong>
\nI took the tram back to the city centre and discovered that Antwerp has a Chinatown:
\n\"DSF2174\"<\/p>\n

37_38<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2177\"<\/p>\n

37_39<\/strong>
\n\"DSF2176\"<\/p>\n

37_40<\/strong>
\nBack at the university in the afternoon. This is a big room where people could hang out between sessions:
\n\"R001961\"<\/p>\n

37_41<\/strong>
\nOne of the roundtables, featuring my colleague Vladia and my counterpart at the European Patent Office, Yann:
\n\"R001972\"<\/p>\n

37_42<\/strong>
\nThe Middle East troubles are everywhere:
\n\"R001974\"<\/p>\n

37_43<\/strong>
\nAfter the end of the conference, I stopped by Katmosfeer again:
\n\"R001981\"<\/p>\n

37_44<\/strong>
\n\"R001983\"<\/p>\n

37_45<\/strong>
\n\"R001980\"<\/p>\n

37_46<\/strong>
\n\"R001982\"<\/p>\n

37_47<\/strong>
\n\"R001984\"<\/p>\n

37_48<\/strong>
\n\"R001991\"<\/p>\n

37_49<\/strong>
\n\"R001992\"<\/p>\n

37_50<\/strong>
\nSaturday morning I had to get up very early to catch a 6 a.m. train to Brussels airport. Antwerp Central Station was beautiful:
\n\"R001994\"<\/p>\n

37_51<\/strong>
\nI found it interesting that the local Coca Cola company felt the need to advertise the jobs they are creating in Belgium. Clearly, the consumer boycott prompted by Trump’s anti-European policies is having an effect:
\n\"R001993\"<\/p>\n

37_52<\/strong>
\nI made a couple of other images at the train station:
\n\"R001995\"<\/p>\n

37_53<\/strong>
\n\"R001996\"<\/p>\n

And then I got on the train, went to Brussels airport and flew home to Alicante. A proper Antwerp gallery can be seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The main event in the second week of September was the annual conference of the European Policy for IP Association, hosted at the University of Antwerp this year. I was really looking forward to spending a few days in Belgium’s second city. I lived in Brussels, 50 km away, for 5 years, but during that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4543,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4786"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4797,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4786\/revisions\/4797"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}