September 15th Antwerp 3 of 3

So this post will be mostly pictures. I loved the cross hanging in the church.

Off to the sides of these grand Euro churches are often areas to pray, sometimes a tribute to a certain Saint, or other biblical person.

It was a great sunny day, showing off the stained glass windowsThis triptych was very old, I am guessing as old as the church itself, mid 1400’s or thereabouts. Another corner for prayer…and glass..Another shot down the center of the church from behind the cross.

Each of those on the right and the left are ornate wood seats, clergy or choir would sit here. Amazing gothic era woodwork.Another Reubens masterpiece

A wider angle of the main hall of the church and the organ pipes.These crazy wood carved pulpits are so cool. All over Belgium and the Netherlands churches, many of these are still in use for the daily sermon.Here is a closer picture of the front of the elevated pulpit.So that's it for Antwerp. We unfortunately showed up on a day that the Peter Paul Reubens house was closed, and the other church I wanted to visit had recently had a terrible fire and was under reconstruction. So we called it an end to our Belgium trip and went home to Amsterdam.

I would highly recommend visiting Belgium, especially Bruges and Antwerp. Brussels is nice, but just not my favorite, and so hilly for my poor legs (it really is completely flat in Holland!!!)…ahahahahah

-Colin

September 15th Antwerp 2 of 3

So we went for a walk through Antwerp to hit the sites…We stopped in at the Saint James Church. It just happened to be that they were hosting an art display, primarily of the works of Peter Paul Reubens. An amazing church, temporarily decorated with equally amazing art.So I wont spend much time describing the pictures..the photos don't do the actual art any justice anyway. Its impossible to see the scale or size of the paintings themselves. The detail and the color, on top of the age is just mind blowing. The paintings on this page with the red banners behind them are the temporary art, the ones without the banner are permanent. I probably took pictures of half of the paintings, but only am sharing a subset here.Some of the paintings are probably 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. They are painted to be viewed from a specific height. This one for example is probably 8-10 feet off the ground and the perspective of the viewer was taken into account by the painter. So if the painting was at eye level, it may not look correct, or as intended.So I am not sure if other places the style was as popular, but in Belgium the triptych paintings are amazing. Triptych as the name implies is three paintings. Often these panels on each side can close to enclose the main painting in the middle. They often have the ‘back’ side of the panel painted as well. Some of my favorite triptychs in the world are done by Reubens, several of them permanent in this church.You really should go visit Belgium!This probably wouldn't fit in our Seattle house…gonna have to upgrade…The paintings often are of biblical scenes..with the heavens opening up above, and the sinners cowering below…Religion in Europe often has a much more serious and often bloody twist. This is captured well by the artists of the 1500-1800s as displayed across Belgium.The naked and gnarled bodies weren't meant to tantalize, but to scare the masses, to put a memorable and controlling image of hell in the minds of those who set eyes on it.But often they depict scenes from the Bible that are never painted in your mind as grand or glorious and spectacular as Reubens created.And Saviya taking a break under a massive painting..but here you just see part of the church structure behind her on the bench.

-Colin

September 15th Antwerp 1 of 3

So we left Bruges, and took an hour long train ride to to Antwerp. This station is amazing, probably 6 levels of trains topped off with this early 20th century reception hall.

The grand stairway, towards the ticket office was so nice…wish I had taken a few in black and white, felt like something out of another era.

Looking up from the entry way near the ticket office, this grand atrium.Walking down the main street from the train station to our hotel. I love the guilding across Belgium, but these buildings with their dark black against the bright gold are stunning. This art deco addition to a much older structure. The Goddess Electra gonna toss you a lightning bolt…This was on a corner a few blocks from our hotel. I wish I knew how to find the history of such decorations, especially when not really attached to some obvious hotel/museum/palace etc.This is one of my favorite shots in a while. Antwerp isnt the most intriguing city to visit to many European visitors, but I love it. I came here in 2001 or 2002 with my friend Brett to see YES in concert. We also checked out the museum and home of Peter Paul Reubens, the famous painter. Reubens like to paint his women large and shapely, thus the term, ‘Rubenesque’. Here is a statue in the main square of Reubens himself, with the gorgeous cathedral behind him.Another great shot of Saviya ‘on the ball’ in Antwerp. She used this shot for her magazine as well.

Here again is the main square, with its ladder front guilded buildings…And the carriage drawn by massive horses.We took a walk down the waterfront along the river. I had hoped to return to this building below. Its a 1000 year old castle that has been repurposed as a maritime museum. Unfortunately it was under renovation and we could not enter. But so nice! And one piece of information that I found interesting and funny at all once.  Look at the picture below. There is a carved stone about 3 feet over the middle of the archway. This stone was the oldest thing in Antwerp. It was rescued from another structure that had been destroyed. This structure was from the first or second century and was a carving of a god of fertility. Pretty cool!

-Colin

Sept 15 Off to F&$%@#G Bruges! Part 5 of 5

So here are the videos from Bruges. I will let them speak for themselves. The next posts will be of Antwerp!

Ok that f’in Bruges! -Colin

Sept 15 Off to F&$%@#G Bruges! Part 4 of 5

More pictures from the canalboat trip.The homes along the canals were really nice. I love the step look on the facade of these Flemish buildings. We see this in some of the Netherlands, but is very dominant in Belgium.Its no wonder somebody chose this unheard of town to film a movie in, its stuck in a wonderful place in time. So in the movie, the two characters are supposed to be ‘chilling out’. This is the hotel that they stayed at in the film. We were to broke to afford it this trip, but a really neat looking place. I love this picture, with Church of our Lady in the background, and a statue in the foreground, snapped from our canalboat.We took a walk south of our hotel and came across this interesting round tower..but not really sure what it was…very interesting though… The Belfry looking glorious at night in the lit up square. Look out below!We took a walk for some shopping…bought the worlds worst Camembert and Apple quiche that neither of us could stomach a single bite! I did buy a wonderful Belgian salami that I wish I had purchased several more of…next time..I always encourage Saviya to try new foods and even if we hate it, it was an experience. Well in this case, you win some you loose some, that quiche was unimaginably terrible.Here is the Belfry from inside its square. This building is known as the Halletoren, meaning tower halls. We didn't bother hiking to the top of the Belfry or going in the buildings, just not enough time allowed on this trip (plus the climb up the tower in Cologne’s Dom was still fresh in our minds).

A bit more of the Belfy’s internal square.

So now is a good time to talk Belgian biere! In every city in Belgium the have these shops called ‘Beeratorium’, ‘Beier Palais’ or some variant on the concept that all they sell is beer, and they are the best. The shop behind me I visited several times (a day) on my Bruges trip. It must have had 200+ beers in bottle and most of those they also had the matching beer glass. With no open container law in most of Europe, you can dopily walk around enjoying the sites with a nice cold brew. This particular brand tasted like aluminum can….want my best choice.So if there was a reality show following me around this weekend, it would have basically looked like this.

And in a tribute to an earlier post about the uber manly beer that my buddy chose to drink out of more than 2000 beer choices….Pink Killer! Go John….You go Girl!Come on, I know at least of few of you would like to try this! (I’m lookin’ at you Todd)

My favorite beer in Bruges was one from a local brewery. Brugse Zot is like saying ‘local idiot from Bruges’. I found it quite enjoyable…wishing it wasn't 7 euro here in Amsterdam. A clear winner out of the many sampled Belgian beers I sampled that trip.

-Colin