Author: Grubb

In talking with our friend Hendrik last night he reminisced about how wonderful it was to visit Venice in 1972. The adventure of a Baby Boomer exploring the world. I thought of Kit Carson whipping by me on his bike, how in an earlier incarnation, retired from mountaineering, he might have had nostalgic moments in…

We were in den Haag. He was sporting a Custer’s Last Stand goatee and dressed like a fur trapper in a fringed leather jacket and floppy wide-brimmed hat. He wheeled by me without so much as a two-fingered salute. Later I imagined if I saw him in a café the conversation would go something like…

After coffee and pastry with Esther this morning, we dropped in  to check out Delft’s Vermeer Center. Years ago (ten?) we went to an exhibit on the history of Delft and there was Vermeer’s “The Little Street” on display. Back then I was thrilled since we were staying at a place a block away from the…

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…

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…

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….

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…

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…

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…

Walking in the rain this morning, a light sprinkle, was pleasant. Not so much traffic.  Less people on the street.  Belle Époque buildings. Market squares. And Handelsbeurs Antwerpen, one of the earliest of the world’s stock exchanges going back to the 16th century. Entrance to Handelsbeurs Antwerpen We ducked inside to take a look. They were setting…

If I’m all agog about Belgian rooftops it’s because Albuquerque’s skyline seems so flat. Looking down at the city from the La Luz Trail it seems like the roofing has been given a crewcut which makes sense considering how much of the city’s economy is dependent on the military. Outside of the high rises downtown…

“No it’s not,” Ella is vehement.  “It’s a march.”  Whatever it was, we ran into it after the bus that was meant to deliver us to some flower festival by the university came to an abrupt stop behind a line of stalled buses. It was May 1st, a Belgian holiday, and over breakfast coffee we had…

Yesterday I figured we’d hit the Hans Memling exhibit at St. John’s Hospital on the way to the train station. So after lunch on the main square we set our Google Maps in the direction of the Janshospitaal Museum and after missing the understated entrance about four times, I realized that we only had a…

Central Bruges is another medieval movie set surrounding a large square in the shadow of a famous thirteenth century belfry tower. I half expected to discover a dead body at the foot of the tower below the balcony.  If you’ve seen Martin McDonagh’s hilarious film “In Bruges” you’ll know what I’m talking about. And for all…