Antwerp City Guides
Will-o’-the-Wisp walk
For bookings with a visit date starting Oct. 1, 2025, you will soon be able to visit the Antwerp City Guides website. Their booking platform is under development. Until then, for specific questions, please use their contact form.
Let your imagination run free during an ‘Elsschot walk’. Together with a guide, you will follow the ‘quote route’ through the city, which tells you the story of the novella ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp’ (‘Het Dwaallicht’). Search for the mysterious Maria van Dam together …
Dutch
Available time slots
To see if the desired time slot is available, enter the number of participants under ‘Group size (Group ticket)’, choose the guide language and select the date.
From 01/11/2020 11:00 pm (UTC) until 31/12/2030 10:59 pm (UTC)
Alfons de Ridder, alias Willem Elsschot, was born and raised in Antwerp, but became one of the first writers from the Greater Netherlands.
While walking along the ‘quote route’, you will discover the story of ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp’, a mixture of fantasy and reality. Willem Elsschot himself said that he didn’t have enough imagination to come up with a story out of thin air. All of his works are autobiographically inspired. He used the real events of his life, adapted them and used them in his stories. His personal experiences were the starting point and they were transformed through his writing into his own fictional reality.
‘Will-o’-the-Wisp’ is situated entirely in the old city centre. We will follow the story of the book through Antwerp, read passages and link them to Elsschot’s life.
Practical information:
- Duration: 120 minutes
- Maximum 20 persons per guide
Contact details for visitors
2000 Antwerpen