Kontich, of all places!
September 12, 2021
But that was only appearance. Fifteen minutes later, the first cycling tourists gather to leave for Sunday's hellish ride. With shaved and oiled legs, they are ready to reel off a lot of kilometres. Respect!
By the way, speaking of cycling. The 2021 World Cup will pass through the centre of Kontich this year. Both juniors, women and men will cycle through the streets of Kontich at breakneck speed.
The appropriate street decorations are therefore already up and the necessary traffic signals are at hand. In short, we are ready for it! A lot of residents are also looking forward to it.
Even the garden gnome in one of the side streets seems already impatiently waiting for the passing pack.
From Gemeenteplein, I walk into Molenstraat and see that life is slowly picking up there too. Café ‘De Zwaluw’ has put out its terrace and by the looks of it, expects some people. In fact, the first customers have already arrived and are fervently discussing all kinds of topics.
It is Sunday so the hot bakeries are running at full speed. Many a Kontichen resident patiently slides in to buy ‘pistolekes’. Nothing wrong with that at all, of course. Because such a perfectly baked roll can taste damn good. My mouth starts watering and my stomach starts growling.
So time to go home, but not before I too have bought some goodies from the bakery.
I have been living in Kontich for several years now. How come a born and bred Leuvener, after living there for more than 45 years as well, ended up in this Antwerp municipality? Well that's simple, I followed love and officially registered as a resident in 2014.
With blush on my cheeks, I must admit that I have actually never really gone for a walk in Kontich city centre. Stimulated by Jeffrey's webinar ‘Project-based working’ and spurred on by the municipal slogan ‘Kontich lives!’, I decide to change that. Armed with my camera, I jump on my bike one Sunday morning and saunter to the Gemeenteplein, i.e. the city centre.
On arrival (5 minutes later) I am forced to conclude that it is not really buzzing with life there....
Want to go on a culinary world tour in Kontich? That's possible. A Greek, Thai, Chinese and Italian restaurant are within a stone's throw of each other.
In addition, there are of course a number of brasseries where hunger can be satisfied.
A two-hour walk around the centre of my town obviously did not produce earth-shattering images. But was this mini-project fun to do? Most definitely. Do you learn something from it? Absolutely.
Even though storytelling was not instilled in me, I have acquired a taste for it. There will definitely be short and long projects to come!