Golden AgeAntwerp.

The oldest zoo in Belgium (founded 1843) occupies a city block directly adjacent to the station — the Egyptian temple (1856) housing the giraffes is visible from the station square. The zoo is unexpectedly good: 950 animal species, the Egyptian-style giraffe house, a Moorish villa for the primates, and an Art Nouveau concert hall used for events. An unusual combination of Victorian imperial architecture and a functional modern zoo in the centre of a major European city.

The Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) — a 60-metre tower of stacked red sandstone boxes on the Eilandje (Little Island) docklands, opened 2011. The exterior spiral walkway winds around all ten floors and leads to a free rooftop with the finest panoramic view of Antwerp: the port, the Scheldt, the cathedral spire and the city behind it. The museum inside covers Antwerp's history as a port city and global trading centre. The rooftop is completely free, always open (during museum hours) and almost always uncrowded.

A river beach directly across the Scheldt from the city — accessible in 5 minutes by the Waterbus ferry from Steenplein for €0.50. Sint-Annastrand is where Antwerp residents sunbathe, swim (in the Scheldt, which has been cleaned to Blue Flag standard) and eat frietjes in summer. The view back across the river to the Antwerp skyline — cathedral spire, MAS tower, guild houses — is the finest city panorama available, and you're sitting on a beach eating chips to enjoy it.

The streets around Pelikaanstraat behind Centraal Station form one of the most intact historic Jewish neighbourhoods in Europe — the overlap between the diamond quarter and the Hasidic community is literal and geographic. Diamond merchants in black coats and hats negotiate on the street. Kosher bakeries, Jewish bookshops and Hasidic synagogues sit alongside diamond exchange offices. The community traces its presence in Antwerp to Portuguese Jewish refugees expelled from Portugal in 1496 and from Spain in 1492.

Ghent is 25 minutes by train — a complete medieval city with the Ghent Altarpiece by Van Eyck (most stolen artwork in history), the Gravensteen castle, three medieval towers and a student population that keeps the bar culture genuinely alive. Less touristy than Bruges, more architecture than Brussels, and the Van Eyck alone justifies the trip. Combine with Bruges on the same day if ambitious (Ghent–Bruges 30 min by train).

Mechelen was the capital of the Habsburg Netherlands under Margaret of Austria (1507–1530) — briefly the political centre of the entire northern European empire. The cathedral (Sint-Romboutskathedraal) has a 97-metre tower with the finest carillon in the world (the school for carillon performance is here). The Grote Markt, the Palace of Margaret of Austria, and the beguinage are largely tourist-free. The In Flanders Fields type museums document Mechelen's WWII Dossin barracks deportation history — a transit camp that sent 25,000 Jews to Auschwitz.