Tag Archives: Antwerp

Beautiful Antwerp

October 15, 2023Belgium, TravelAntwerp, Cathedral of Our Lady, Grote Markt, Het Steen, Lange Wapper, Nello and Patrache, River Scheldtkarenfranza

Oct 12 – Today we visited the Grote Markt, to look at more beautiful buildings. This is the main square.

This fountain depicts a hero who cut off the hand of an ogre

Inside the cathedral is a modern sculpture by Jan Fabre called “The Man Who Bears the Cross”. Unlike depictions of others weighed down by, or dragging a cross, this modern, bespectacled man is taking up and balancing the cross on one hand. How does he do it? Food for thought.

The sculpture in the middle of the street outside the cathedral depicts Nello and Patrache from A Dog of Flanders. An orphaned boy and abandoned dog befriend one another, until, homeless, they die together of hypothermia in the cathedral. This ain’t no Disney movie. Here they lie under a blanket of cobblestones.

Antwerp is a port city, built along the river Scheldt

There is a rebuilt fort here, Het Steen, used as a tourist information office

This is Lange Wapper, a giant who was born in a cabbage patch. He bullied the townsfolk, but could be thwarted if shown an image of the Virgin Mary.

How often have you seen a crucifix double as a light pole?

Oct 13 – Today we planned to stroll out our door right over to the train station and jump on the first train to Bruges. Easy peasy, except….

There was a bomb scare at 7am, the station was evacuated, and no trains were running! It was the top story on the news!

The helpful station attendant could not tell us when the next train would be leaving, or when there would be a seat available due to all the stranded passengers. I asked if there was a bus to Bruges, and she looked up the bus schedule on her phone. There was a bus leaving in 20 minutes!

She programmed my phone to show us the bus station and told us to hurry, as we were supposed to pre-purchase tickets online. We high tailed it down the street and saw the bus marked Brugge, with a queue of passengers loading their luggage beneath. I accosted the driver and asked if we could buy tickets for this bus. He said yes, but only for cash. Did Jim have cash? Yes he did! We got the last two seats! How much excitement can two old folks stand?

The Royal Antwerp Fine Arts Museum

October 14, 2023Belgium, TravelAntwerp, KMSKA - Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerpkarenfranza

Oct 11 – This morning we walked to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, also known as KMSKA – Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen. A mouthful.

The audio guide gave us the option of hearing about every single piece of art, which looked like it might take a few years, or following their selection of the 25 top artworks. We chose to find the top 25, sort of a treasure hunt, but we also meandered around to look at whatever called to us.

The rooms weren’t arranged by artist, but by theme. There was a room of Light, of Suffering, of Evil, of Impotence, etc. it was an interesting and different way to think about the art.

There’s a Salvador Dali here: Girl Skipping Rope. Why is it in the room of Evil?

Of course, my favorite was the room of Madonnas with their various odd-looking babies:

This is of St. Luke painting Mary and Jesus – note that the models have halos, but in Luke’s portrait they don’t

We went to lunch at a nearby café, and had a spicy tomato soup and some bitterballen – fried balls of marinated shredded beef served with mayonnaise that are a specialty in this area. They were delicious!

We returned to look at some modern works. Many of the paintings selected for the audio tour were ones that I never would have stopped long to consider, but I’m glad we did.

This depiction of the artist’s sister eating oysters was controversial in its day for combining a portrait with a still life

This is St George slaying the dragon, but all I can see is the look on the horse’s face

This artist painted many pictures of his wife – here she is ironing

Look at expressions on every single face

A lot to see in one day! Hope you enjoy our ramble.

Antwerp, Belgium

October 12, 2023Belgium, TravelAntwerp, architecture, Central train station, Diamond Districtkarenfranza

Oct 10 – We got on the bus this morning and rode for 23 stops to the town of Hasselt, Belgium. Once there, we hopped on a train that took us right to Antwerp.

I’ve always wanted to visit Belgium, home of the painter Peter Paul Rubens, ten different kinds of waffles, and hundreds of brands of beer. According to the Belgians, French fries were actually invented here, and their fries are better than anywhere in the world. And yes, they are served with mayonnaise, not ketchup.

They have three languages here, with 60% of folks in the north (Flanders) speaking a Flemish kind of Dutch, 40% in the south (Wallonia) speaking a Walloonish kind of French, and less than 1% in the west speaking German. We are in the north. This city is called Antwerpen here, and Anvers in the south.

We got off the train to find we were in the world’s most famous train station. It was pretty cool.