Happy to be Traveling

May Fifth is Independence Day in the Netherlands. In the Middle Ages rooting out Satan was always good for a celebration; now it’s ridding the country of Nazis. We took a Delft canal stroll and by dinner time we were at Doelenplein where there was a soundstage entertaining the crowd drinking and dancing.  It wasn’t…

We landed in Brussels on April 22. Today is May 6. We are halfway through our trip and wishing we’d planned for a longer time.  The map below shows how far we’ve come..said cheekily because if you hopped in your car in Brussels and drove to Delft, it would only be 4ish hours. And if…

The way I see it after viewing a small portion of Rubens prolific output, the authentic Rubens experience would be an outdoor orgy DJ’d by a satyr. In Antwerp at the house where Peter Paul churned out his immense paintings, the “Rubens Experience” is confined to a basement exhibit that purports to “immerse you into…

Smooth sailing, or maybe train-ing from Antwerp to Delft this morning. Our Delft apartment is an old building right on a canal (and there are many such canals here). Good news, the sofas are lovely. I’ll take pictures tomorrow in the morning light. The challenge is the bedrooms are up some very steep stairs while…

Yesterday, once we surfaced from the tunnel under the Scheldt we stopped to puzzle at some interesting signage. After my speculating that the signpost was left over from some Viking raid, we wandered over to a park by the river where Ella struck up a conversation with an Iranian gent.  He’s been in Belgium twenty-seven years….

There was a sudden torrent of rain late in the afternoon yesterday. We had barely a few moments in Ruben’s garden before rushing inside and watching the pelting rain. We used the time wisely…(well the Ruben’s “experience” aside – I’ll let Grubb describe that)…to look online and find some kind of eatery within a quick…

Above: mock sweet orange (left) and greater celandine in Stadspark Above: new growth on yew (left) and spiny snow thistle

We started off on our first trek of the day by exploring the Cogels-Osylei neighborhood. It was a couple miles to the south of where we’re staying. We passed through a park and admired the sweet mock orange blossoms. Went under a decorated overpass. Skirted a lot of construction and ended up on Cogels-Osylei. The…

If nothing else, go for the wooden escalators and killer bikes. That would be Sint-Annatunnel, a pedestrian and bike tunnel, constructed 1931-1933, running under the Scheldt river and connecting Antwerp city center with the Left Bank. From the nondescript entrance, you take two long escalator flights down – both bikes and pedestrians The tunnel is…

Yesterday (Sunday), we visited the M HKA (Museum for Contemporary Art) in Antwerp. If you’ve read our blogs over the years, you know we try to take in some contemporary art wherever we go. There is often a lot we can learn about culture from these exhibitions, although sometimes they are…er…not so intriguing. The M…

During Antwerp’s Golden Age in the 16th century the Scheldt River running through the city was one of the largest ports in the world. Along a street by the docks an inscription on an old, nondescript warehouse dating from the bicycle boom of the late 19th century leapt out at me.  The bicycle boom was…

Yesterday, to take a break from walking in the rain, we stopped at the Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA). On the first floor there were some interesting notions, like the curved half-door. Or the devil dog impaled on a branch. But the main exhibit was on the second floor featuring recent Palestinian art. Victimization…

Here are some photos from today’s ramble.

Is there a better way to spend a wet Sunday than finding a museum with an excellent collection of Old Masters? Yes, Ella, says there are countless ways, few of them ending upstairs avoiding the grasp of a red-walled exhibition. But to be in Antwerp and miss out on, say, Jean Fouquet’s  “Madonna”? Sacrilege! There she…