I’m standing in a chilly, dimly-lit brick-vaulted passageway. A frothy brown sludge is lapping at my ankles. John is a couple of feet away with his nose wrinkled, wearing an expression somewhere between bemused and horrified. A kid’s high-pitched voice suddenly cuts through the silence, yelling ‘Stinken!’
He might be shouting in Dutch, but the message is perfectly clear. We are, after all, in a sewer.
It wasn’t where I imagined myself when I dressed this morning. I might have reconsidered my sandals if I had. Barely an hour ago, we were studying a map in Antwerp’s main square, Grote Markt, when John mentioned an underground city tour he’d read about. We went to investigate.
Now here we are, dressed in green protective overalls and wellington boots, in a tunnel glowing an eerie blue. We’re in De Ruien, the old sewers of Antwerp, about to embark on what is without doubt one of the most unusual tours we’ve been on.
It’s dark but I’m grateful for the low lighting: my XL boiler suit drapes in a billowing fold to my knees, creating a minty-coloured profile reminiscent of Jabba the Hut.
Fortunately for us, the city’s sewage travels today through pipes lining the tunnels, rather than between our feet. The unnerving slick washing over our boots is just a churn of street run-off and dirty water from the homes above.
Still, a sewer tunnel isn’t quick to give up the ghost. Hundreds of years of waste and slop will leave a whiffy legacy. The kid wasn’t kidding, it’s ‘stinken’ down here, but tolerable in a damp and stagnant kind of way.
Our first leg of the adventure involves a short boat ride through the deeper water of the tunnel. There’s something bizarrely Wonka-esque about the scene: twelve green and blue-bedecked adults and kids being punted down a dark waterway. I think of Augustus Gloop: no one would dare fall in this river.
It’s deliberately slow going once we disembark. The pungent air is taking some getting used to and we’re overly cautious as we pick our way along the edge of a shallow, slimy stream running through the middle of the tunnel. Slipping is just not an option.
Now and then, our guide stops to point his flashlight at a signpost on the wall. It’s a cue for us to turn on the tablets hanging around our necks and plug in our earphones for an entertaining, audiovisual storytelling of Antwerp’s past, its personalities, and the buildings and streets above. The Dutch word ‘stinken’ is used often.
Antwerp’s tunnels started life back in the Middle Ages as an expanding network of natural and man-made open waterways that fortified the city, provided water and linked it with the vital Scheldt River.
Over time, industry and human waste polluted the canals, turning them into putrid, reeking open sewers. One tale has it that Napoleon, who effectively established Antwerp as the great trading port it is today, was so offended by the terrible stench of the city that he ordered the canals covered immediately.
In reality, work to conceal the waterways had already started in the 16th century, at the urging of the overwhelmed locals. People living by the canals started building them in. It was a slow and haphazard process that would end up taking more than three centuries. The bitty approach, usually dictated by wealth, is evident today in the diverse styles and building materials used throughout the tunnels.
The result however, is an architectural time capsule of building foundations, vaults, locks, bridges and passages.
It’s also home to the usual subterranean fauna, and some rare, damp-happy spiders. I’m under no illusions about potential wildlife encounters. All we glimpse of De Ruien’s rodent denizens however, are their strangely compelling droppings. Conditions in the tunnels are ripe for a wispy, white rat-poo-loving fungus. I admire from a distance with my camera’s zoom.
At one point, we pause by the foundations of St Carolus Borromeuskerk, a 17th century church whose ceiling was once adorned with paintings designed by Rubens, until a fire destroyed them just under one hundred years later. Our guide points out a sly church exit built in the tunnel wall. Its purpose is unknown but theories range from sensible escape route during troubled times to covert means of travelling to the city’s red light district. Both plausible.
As we traverse our last stretch of tunnel to an old underground chapel, we’re accompanied through our earphones by the triumphal tunes of De Schelde (The River Scheldt), an orchestral piece by 19th century Flemish composer Peter Benoit. It’s a surreal and fitting apogee to our wander through Antwerp’s watery underbelly.
Back on the surface, we reflect on our experience with a friend over a Belgian beer back in Grote Markt. As quirky goes, this city tour is right up there, but we’ve also walked away with a boiler suit full of fascinating facts and intriguing insights into Antwerp’s past. It’s definitely left an impression. I’m just hoping for our friend’s sake it’s not of the ‘stinken’ kind.
Good to know
Getting there and around
Antwerp is a Flemish city in northern Belgium. It has its own airport but it’s also less than an hour by train and car from the international hub of Brussels.
There’s plenty to do in Antwerp above the ground too. We made solid use of the excellent Velo bike network to get all over town in a cheap and fun way. Find out more about the city and Velo at the Visit Antwerp website.
The De Ruien Underground Tour
De Ruien – Antwerp Underground tours depart from the Ruihuis on Suikerrui, just two minutes’ walk from Grote Markt. 90-minute interactive tablet tours (with a choice of English, Dutch, French and German commentary) run at 11am, 1pm and 3pm daily from Tuesday to Sunday. While we were walk-ups, it is recommended that you book ahead to guarantee a place – you can book online.
If you’re short on time, walk-up tickets are available at the box office for the boat tour only, a 15-minute taster of the Ruien. If you can though, go for the full tour. Visit the De Ruien website.
Our tip: Wear socks and long pants for the tour – it’s chilly in the tunnels and in those wellies. You’ll be given a small backpack to put your shoes and personal items in (the tour finishes in a different part of the city), so best not to carry too much.
What’s the most unusual city tour you’ve been on? We’re always on the look out for quirky and we’d love to hear your experience below.