Category: Barreling thru Belgium

“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…

I neglected to mention, yesterday in Bruges we had, according to the waiter, the most traditional, local dish you can have: Flemish beef stew in beer sauce served with fries and a small salad. Sorry, the only thing I took a picture of was… Today, after all the protest excitement, we were walking along a…

May Day! Here it is like our Labor Day. We knew there would be parades and festivities in the afternoon. We tried to figure out the parade route but weren’t successful. So, we thought, there is some great street art down by the Botanical gardens. Let’s go see that and by the time we get…

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…

If you read my post about our crazy train experience the day we took a little excursion to Mechelen, well,  I’m here to tell you that we’ve had some much smoother journeys since then. From Brussels to Ghent a few days ago and yesterday to and from Bruges, smooth as silk. Was that Smurf in the…

I mentioned in a post a couple days ago that we’d stopped in at the Museum of Fine Arts (. ) in Ghent. I am not one who seeks out old masters. Sure, I can admire the technical prowess and the part played in the evolution of painting – use of perspective and sometimes painstaking…

We spent the day in Bruges. A 30 minute train ride from Ghent. Of course, the tram from our apartment to the train station took another 30 minutes. If you are into medieval towns or if you saw the movie “In Bruges” and now think Bruges is a romantic and exciting place to be, join…

Returning to Europe I realize how much I miss the mansard roof. So much like a building with a hat pulled over its ears. They make me think of student lofts where impecunious poets are seized by nocturnal inspiration. Then there are the sixteenth century stepped gable roofs. The ultimate roof as a facade, stepped…

A lot of our trips involve a necessary pilgrimage on my part. In Japan, the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima; in Belgium, Jan van Eyck’s altarpiece in Ghent at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Prior to coming to Belgium I considered Van der Weyden’s “The Lamentation” at the Prado in Madrid to be the altarpiece to end all…

First thing this morning (10am ), Grubb had tickets for us to visit the famous Ghent altar piece, a triptych called The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Hubert and Jan van Eyke at St. Bavo’s cathedral. Grubb will wax eloquent but I wanted to praise the technology.  Before being allowed to view the painting, we…

I had waterzooi with chicken along with a Gin fizz.  Grubb had some sort of pork tenderloin with potato croquettes.  “Waterzooi” comes from Dutch “water to boil” or “watery mess” Waterzooi is a stew-soup chock full of vegetables. Traditionally potatoes, carrots, leeks and celery. The broth is enriched with a little cream and egg yolks….

Traveling to Ghent by train the pastoral landscape looked like something Bruegel would have painted six hundred years ago. Sheep grazed on grassy meadows with church spires poking above the tree line in the background. The only touch lacking that Bruegel might have brought to the scene were peasants toiling with farm tools on their…

Shadow of the day